Hello,

my questions do not directly relate to Gnutella, but maybe I can find assistance here. It would be very nice if a knowledgeable person could confirm or correct my assumptions.

Is this correct:
During the bootstrap process, the Gnutella client has to receive his first list of IP addresses to send his first ping to. This is done by contacting an UDP hostcache, or a CWebCache. The difference between the two mainly is the way of transferring the list to the client - internally both manage a list of active peers. The transfer of this list between WebCache and peer are done http-like, about hostcache I could not find detailled information(?).

Question: How is this list managed? Whenever a new peer sends a request, the cache can save the sender's IP address. But is the list kept up-to-date? That is, how are peers removed from the list? Pinging all of them periodically is not an option, neither is a static TTL (like storage in a ring buffer).

Regards,
Alex