Re: Senator Diane Feinstein Wants to know about the Benefits of P2P

[Jared Mauch <jared () puck nether net>]

        I think the clear case is this:

        To get effective patch distribution, there needs to be some form
of 'Local distribution'.

        I live in an area where there really are no high speed
connection choices that are available for the consumer (aside from
satellite). [no cable, no dsl, only dial-up].

        Now, imagine a case where a machine (laptop or otherwise)
that gets connected to a high speed link periodically can distribute
[via home lan, or wlan] to other neighbors computers these patches
that they surely will not download via dial-up.  Microsoft recently frowned
on using p2p for this activity (imho, for a semi-good reason, if they
make a minor change to the patch set which then breaks
less peoples computers, it's in their interest to do so, and without
really telling people there was a change, just the checksum and other
technical details may change).

        This way people get the latest updates.. but for Joe average user
in my vicinity, it's not really possible to obtain these large patches
without being forced to download them for hours and hours over 26.4k
dial-up..

        This plus the ability for the patches to be shared (possibly
automatically) to other users via a home/wireless lan to reduce
having to download 3-4 copies if you have 3-4 machines at home
would be ideal.  No need to download hundreds of megs that are dupes.

        Basically: p2p as a caching media, i go to the local
hotspot, download the patch and make it available to others that
are 'local' to me so they don't have to go through a painful process
of downloading it themselves at low speeds, or bother with the 
ordering process on the website.

        - jared

On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 02:43:49PM -0400, Jeff Wheeler wrote:
> My two cents:
> When Windows XP SP2 was released the only way to get it (for those of 
> us not part of MSDN at least) was via P2P.  The same has been true for 
> countless other large but important software releases on various 
> platforms (particularly ones like Linux that aren't backed by huge 
> corporations with tons of bandwidth to host these sorts of files).
>
> Point is?  P2P is extremely valuable for the timely and cost-effective 
> delivery of critical updates to the masses.
>
> --
> Jeff Wheeler
> Postmaster, Network Admin
> US Institute of Peace
>
>
> On Aug 30, 2004, at 2:27 PM, Henry Linneweh wrote:
>
> > So I would like some professional expert opinion to
> > give her on this issue since it will effect the
> > copyright inducement bill. Real benefits for
> > production and professional usage of this technology.
> >
> > -Henry

-- 
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from jared () puck nether net
clue++;      | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.