I was just wondering how the LW crew feels about partial file sharing? I feel that it is important for the growth of the network. Vinnie had many good points about security but I am sure they can be solved.

I am also curious about how the team feels about moving towards a more secure network with encryption, file caching, ect?

I am for encryption, but most users would not understand that encrypting data means more overhead for your PC, which means that it could go slower.

As for file caching ... great idea, but how? 70% of the users on Gnutella are stinkin' freeloaders who do not even share files. Now you are going to have most of the servents wanting to use other people's file caches, but not cache for anyone else. All this will do is make centralized bottlenecks in the network ... unless you force everyone (or at least all the ultrapeers) to cache.

I would suggest that some percent of all transfers are cached. The files would be stored encrypted on users harddrives. Clients would REQUIRE that each users dedicates at least 100mb for the file caching (users may increase this). When users download they would not know if they are downloading from a cached source or someone sharing.

This would solve sooooo many problems, increase the network resources, protect the network from attacks, ect.

Yes, but wouldn't that be the best part about partial file transfering, its like having a file cache. Freeloaders who download popular files would also be uploading the portion they have to others. It would be impossible to freeload. The only problem with this setup is that files could be shared when nobody has the complete file(only problem with edonkey). A solution would be to reward people who share rare complete files. The ultrapeers could keep track of highly demanded files that are not complete on the network. A user could request this list and if possible add any of the files to their shares. In return the user would get higher priority in download queues or for the best sharers a reserved upload slot.

There are very good reasons not to force people to share even partial files without encryption, file caching ect. Many users of gnutella have been targeted for sharing copy-righted material.