An Overview of Gnutella

A recent review of software loaded on a personal computer revealed a hitherto unknown (at least, by me) software program called 'Toadnode.' Nestling serenely among the standard Microsoft programs was an unknown entity. What the heck is Toadnode; what does it do? My first step was to go to my favorite internet search engine - Altavista at http://www.altavista.com. By my keying in Toadnode the search engine returned the home address as http://www.toadnode.com. When I reached the home page I learned that Toadnode was a peer to peer file-sharing program compatible with Gnutella. Since I was unfamiliar with Gnutella I decided to base my certification research document on the Gnutella protocol. This document addresses the following issues: the origins of Gnutella what it is and how it works some Gnutella-compatible software and some possible security concerns.