file sharing

a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media. File sharing can be implemented in a variety of storage and distribution models. Current common models are the centralized server-based approach and the distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

Webhosting is also used for file-sharing; it is similar to the server-based approach, but uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and related technologies for file transfer. In small communities popular files can be distributed very quickly and efficiently without extra software in addition to the ubiquitous web browsers. Web hosters are independent of each other; therefore contents are not distributed further. Another term for this is one-click hosting.

To understand peer-to-peer file sharing and what was indeed the very first implementation of peer-to-peer file sharing, you need to go back before the popularized form of the Internet as we know it. First use of Peer-to-peer file sharing was on a network similar to the Internet known as WWIVnet. WWIVnet was like FidoNet but it used a distributed model of nodes where traffic was re-routed based on the shortest distance between nodes. It worked very much like the Internet but without a constant always on connection. The Internet existed prior to WWIVnet, but it was only available to academic institutions, governments and large corporations. FidoNet was a hierarchical (server/client) based network thus not peer-to-peer. WWIVnet was the first widely available distributed network model that you could bring to your home. That all being said, it did not have the capability to share files built in. It was not until the introduction of Linker34 by Jayson Cowan did we see the first P2P application over a distributed end user network.[2] Requests for file lists and specific files where handled by the peer much in the same way as second generation peer-to-peer file sharing and no central server was used for this process.