Peer Assisted Networking / P2P in apps

[JD]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

My point is that the real problem is ISPs who are charging extortionate prices for bandwidth. Yes, P2P eating up your bandwidth sucks, but we're not going to get rid of that and chances are we'll start seeing even more of it as time goes on.

Fully agree with you there.

Internet used to always be unlimited when high-speed initially came out in Canada. Then slowly they added these ugly caps in as the ISPs (Bell/Rogers/etc which are all major media providers) noticed that they were in turn loosing profit to the Internet due to people getting more content online rather than on TV. Instant message/Skype eliminates the need for long-distance phone service as another example. And now with services like Netflix coming to Canada, it puts even more pressure on TV-providers who also typically provide our Internet. So they only way they can keep their profit, is to charge you ridiculous amounts for Internet.

Luckily, for the time being, you can typically find another ISP that is a wholesaler and offers unlimited, or at least a much higher cap. This may (and likely will) change once Bell gets it's way with the CRTC and UBB.

[sswilson]

But again... you're solving the wrong problem. Until such time as ISPs are offering unlimited bandwidth, using P2P as a distribution method should not be the primary focus of companies. There already exists (as in my examples of Nvidia / ATI drivers) tech which works wonderfully when done right, and that's what companies should be doing instead of using something they know doesn't work well for a good portion of the population and then pointing at the ISPs for not changing the rules to suit them.

I'm more concerned about the fact that it's not normally well advertised that it's in use, or at the very least isn't explained well. I personally don't have a single P2P client running in my household, and don't appreciate it when software apps try to sneak one in through the back door to save themselves a few bucks.

[JD]

I don't think direct download (that's all ATI/NVIDIA really are I believe) is the most ideal technology since I'm sure it's rather costly on their end to keep enough servers and bandwidth online at all times to handle the load. It's not like their uplink to the Internet is free either.

There needs to be a hybrid-system, one which has some dedicated servers constantly dishing up the files, so things don't get too slow, but also support it with P2P from all the clients who've downloaded the file to boost the speed and reduce the load on the servers. And some kind of limit, like upload the downloaded file at a ratio of 0.5 (half of what you downloaded) and 1.0 being the maximum. Of course, make all this information easily viewable too. Shouldn't be any harder to see than your download progress.

I feel P2P needs to be embraced by ISPs, governments and other legal outfits. It can be a very useful technology in helping with the ever growing bandwidth needs. Better yet if everyone in the same city (maybe subdivisions rather) was segregated into a "LAN" of sorts for this P2P technology. Then ISPs wouldn't have to send as much information out onto the Internet. It would save them money, and provide customers with technically faster access to popular items.

[DCCV44.2223]

Originally Posted by sswilson

WTH is up with that??? If I haven't visited a particular website, why would it be storing any information on my PC at all?

Global setting == default setting for any new sites.

I just disable everything on the Flash setting manager, wish someone would come up with a "single click" applet. Found one that would flush flash cookies but haven't seen anything that'll neuter the rest.

As for P2P, it's in theory a more efficient way for distributing stuff but not with ISPs capping bandwidth and throttling P2P throughput. Rogers *lowered* its cap to 15GB for new $36/month subscribers a couple months ago. I remember when I first signed up with Rogers@Home (~1999), for the price it was better than anything my gaming friends could get in US/Europe and I ended up doing a lot of hosting. But in the 10 years since my connection hasn't improved much and they now all have cheaper and better connections.

Michael Geist - OECD Report Finds Canadian Broadband Slow, Expensive