Historical Perspective
Tim Berners-Lee's vision for the World Wide Web was close to a P2P network in that it assumed each user of the web would be an active editor and contributor, creating and linking content to form an interlinked "web" of links. This contrasts to the current broadcasting-like structure of the web.
Some networks and channels such as Napster, OpenNAP and IRC serving channels use a client–server structure for some tasks (e.g., searching) and a P2P structure for others. Networks such as gnutella or Freenet use a P2P structure for nearly all tasks, with the exception of finding peers to connect to when first setting up.
P2P architecture embodies one of the key technical concepts of the Internet, described in the first Internet Request for Comments, RFC 1, "Host Software" dated April 7, 1969. More recently, the concept has achieved recognition in the general public in the context of the absence of central indexing servers in architectures used for exchanging multimedia files.
Read more about this topic: Peer-to-peer
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