With lack of annonymous sharing capabilities in its current incarnation, is there any hope of the gnutella protocol evolving toward a more anonymous protocol? It would be a sad thing to see gnut fall prey to the same jackals that have slain the mighty Napster...

As far as I know the Gnutella protocol will not be able to do that. They will most likely have to build a new protocol. But then I don't really know that much about the protocal.

HydroPhonic do you know if I am right about Gnutella not being able to evolve?

very much that Gnutella cannot evolve. It's capabilities are only for searching... the regular Internet is used to download...

Gnutella would have to make such a radical change as to no longer be compatible with the current incarnation... that means it will become a new protocol (and therefore, no longer be Gnutella).

There are two new protocols in the works (and surely more to follow!)
www.projectelf.com
www.freenetproject.org

Although I wouldn't advise moving immediately to one of these, they're certainly important to watch...

My website
members.aol.com/VbHydroPhonic/index.html
will have much info on it... (under construction... "Future of Gnutella section's up tho )

HydroPhonic, Gnutella is more than for 'just searching' and I have dozens of cd's crammed with files to prove it. I cannot speak for the longevity of gnutella, but right now, it works great for me.

All Gnutella does is search. Once the results have been found and the sharer's IP address has been acquired, your servent then:
1) Establishes a direct TCP/IP connection withh the sharer.
2) Sends (directly to sharer) an HTTP request that looks like:
GET /get/<File Index>/<File Name>/HTTP/1.0\r\n
Connection: Keep-Alive\r\n
Range: bytes=0-\r\n
User-Agent: Gnutella\r\n
\r\n

Note that this request does not go through the Gnutella network. Note also that the resulting file transfer is direct to you through the regular internet, not through Gnutella. Gnutella is just a means to find a filename you want and an IP address who has it.

(Firewalled servents are a little different, but the file transfer still happens on the regular internet without passing through anyone else's computer)

Thanks for the explanation HydroPhonic it makes a lot more sence to me know. Thanks for you web page address too.

That sounds pretty good.

The Gnutella protocol is a SEARCH protocol. This is whole purpose. The filetransfers are all done with http puts and gets.

You can download a pdf of the Gnutella Protocol at the clip 2 site.
http://www.clip2.com/GnutellaProtocol04.pdf

File transfers do NOT take place on the gnutella net....ever

An excellent document; I have a copy already... The only other thing I could want from it (besides for it to write itself into a client ) would be an explanation of BearShare's proprietary packets/ descriptor trailers. What the hell is proprietary doing on an Open network?!?

lol

Good question. Someone sniff one of those packets from a bearshare and lets have a look.....

Know any good no-NT sniffers.......???? does RedHat 7.1 come with a sniffer??

If anyone cracks one of the Bearshare packets please post the results right here....Please