Gnutella Protocl Question

[tenzing]

Hi everyone,

Please refer to the following picture from LimeWire
http://www.limewire.com/img/gnutella.gif

Let's call the outermost left center ultrapeer Node A and the outermost top right ultrapeer Node B.

Suppose a query is run from a leaf node connected to Node A searching for a string called "example.txt". Now, "example.txt" is found on a leaf node connected to Node B.
Do Node A and Node B, negotiate a direct connection between the two leaf nodes if the desired file is to be downloaded? Does Node B even know about the existence of Node A, or is Node A only capable of pooling information about adjacent Ultrapeers?

[Sephiroth]

No leaf transfers are still direct just like they were before. The only time downloads are done through the network is pushes which arent that great and only for downloading from firewalled hosts.

[tenzing]

Thanks for the reply Sephiroth,

Just two things that still aren't clear to me.

Does Node A have any knowledge about the existence of Node B?
Do ultrapeers collect information about the extent of the network and create a virtual map?

Thanks in advance,

Tenzing


edit: spelling

[Sephiroth]

You might want to try looking at some of the documentation of it. I dont think they do.

Heres a link to the specs.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_gdf/files/Proposals/Ultrapeer/Ultrapeers_1.0_clean.html

you might have to register and join the gdf to look at it which should be no problem in the files section there are links to all the other technical documentation. Its also where developer discussion takes place so if you have any questions that the documentation doesnt answer about the specs then it should be ok for you to go ahead and ask and someone should give you a reply.

Other places to look for protocol information is limewires link page

http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/tech_papers

and the RFC gnutella has a draft of the protocol which looks like a good overview document on everything which you can view that here

http://rfc-gnutella.sourceforge.net/draft.txt

[tenzing]

Thanks a lot for the links, I'll take a look.

Tenzing

[evilmegaman]

argh if only I remembered the link because there is a gnutella mapping project out there but I forgot where it is I will look for it.