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For other uses, see Fast Track (disambiguation). NOTE: This does not refer to the type of case used under English Law of the same name

FastTrack is a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol, used by the Kazaa (and variants, Grokster and iMesh) file sharing programs. For other uses of the term see Peer-to-peer (disambiguation For peer-to-peer networks used for file sharing see File sharing In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection Communication, and Data transfer between two computing Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as " KaZaA " but now usually written " Kazaa " is a Peer-to-peer File sharing application Grokster Ltd was a privately owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies that created the Grokster P2P file-sharing client in 2001 that utilized iMesh is a File sharing and Online social network, available to download in 9 languages and uses a proprietary centralized P2P protocol operating on ports See Shared resource for the conventional meaning of file sharing File sharing refers to the providing and receiving of digital files over a The file sharing application Morpheus originally used this network, but was later banished from it because of licensing disputes. Morpheus was a File sharing and searching peer to peer client for Microsoft Windows, developed and distributed by the company StreamCast, that

In 2003, FastTrack was the most popular file sharing network, being mainly used for the exchange of music mp3 files. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression Popular features of FastTrack are the ability to resume interrupted downloads and to simultaneously download segments of one file from multiple peers. Also, the search for a certain keyword is optimal: if the search is not stopped or timed out, FastTrack finds a source for the search if one exists.

The network had approximately 2. 4 million concurrent users in 2003. It is estimated that the total number of users was greater than that of Napster at its peak. Napster was an online music file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning while he was attending Northeastern University in Boston and operating

While the FastTrack protocol is used in file-sharing software it is also used in other entities that share the same name, such as FastTrack and the Netscape FastTrack Server. Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company

Contents

History

The FastTrack protocol and Kazaa are the brainchild of Niklas Zennström from Sweden, Janus Friis from Denmark and Estonian programmers headed by Jaan Tallinn, the same team that later created Skype. Niklas Zennström (born 1966) is a Swedish entrepreneur He first gained fame as the co-founder of the KaZaA Peer-to-peer File sharing Janus Friis (born 1976 is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the File-sharing application KaZaA, and the Peer-to-peer telephony Jaan Tallinn is an Estonian programmer participated in development of Skype and KaZaa. Skype (skaɪp is Software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. It was introduced in March 2001 by their Dutch company Consumer Empowerment. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands It appeared during the end of the first generation of P2P networks – Napster shut down in July of that year. Napster was an online music file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning while he was attending Northeastern University in Boston and operating

Currently, three FastTrack-based networks exist, using mutually incompatible versions of the protocol. The most popular clients on each are Kazaa (and its variations), Grokster, and iMesh. References to "the FastTrack network" usually apply only to Kazaa's.

For more information about the various lawsuits surrounding Kazaa and Sharman Networks, see Kazaa. Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as " KaZaA " but now usually written " Kazaa " is a Peer-to-peer File sharing application

Technology

FastTrack is a so-called second generation P2P protocol. It uses supernodes to improve scalability. In Peer-to-peer networking a supernode is any node that also serves as one of that network's relayers and Proxy servers handling data flow and connections

To allow downloading from multiple sources, FastTrack employs the UUHash hashing algorithm. UUHash is a hash algorithm employed by clients on the FastTrack network While UUHash allows very large files to be checksummed in a short time, even on slow computers, it also allows for massive corruption of a file to go unnoticed. Many people, as well as the RIAA, have exploited this vulnerability to spread corrupt and fake files on the network.

Clients

The FastTrack protocol uses encryption and was not documented by its creators, and the first clients were all closed source software. However, initialization data for the encryption algorithms is sent in the clear and no public key encryption is used, so reverse engineering was made comparatively easy. Public-key cryptography, also known as asymmetric cryptography, is a form of Cryptography in which the key used to encrypt a message differs from the key In 2003, open source programmers succeeded in reverse-engineering the portion of the protocol dealing with client-supernode communication, but the supernode-supernode communication protocol remains largely unknown. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge

The following programs are or have been FastTrack clients:

External links

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