July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

[IP] Face-Recognition Passports
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/06/15/face.passport/index.html Face recognition passports expected by December Yet hurdles could still delay technology >From Mike M. Ahlers CNN Washington Bureau WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The first U.S. passport to feature facial-recognition technology should be produced by December, but the technology won't be widely distributed until late 2005, a State Department official told Congress on Tuesday. Maura Harty, assistant secretary for consular affairs, said the State Department plans to test the high-tech passports by issuing them first to U.S. officials and diplomats. But citing technological hurdles, she repeated a request that Congress postpone a looming deadline requiring 27 close U.S. allies to have similar passports in place by fall. "Given the time that it has taken to resolve these technical, complex issues ... few of the visa waiver countries, if any, will meet the deadline," she said. "It is not a question of ill will. It is very much a question of difficult science." On Monday, the House of Representatives voted to give visa-waiver countries a one-year extension on the deadline. But Harty and Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson testified at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that it will take two years to perfect the technology. "We have been told by almost all the countries that they cannot get it done within a year," Harty said. Hutchinson said, "We believe that all countries can be compliant on November 30, 2006, and it should be a hard-and-fast deadline. It's important, I believe, for us to get this process right the first time." Members of Congress, meanwhile, questioned the use of facial recognition technology in the passports, saying fingerprints would be a better identifier. The International Civil Aviation Organization chose facial recognition as the international standard for passports. "Every policeman in America can access the fugitive, anybody, and put their fingerprints in the system and on a short notice determine whether or not a warrant is out for their arrest. You can't do that with a face," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican of Alabama. Hutchinson said the United States believes that fingerprints "should be a significant part" of the system, but "we don't have a consensus in the international community to do that at this time." The computer chip embedded in the new passports will have the capacity to include fingerprint information, he said. Hutchinson acknowledged the shortcomings of the facial recognition technology. He said it is "sufficient" at making one-on-one matches but cannot adequately match a face on a card to large databases of faces. "We're hopeful that the technology improves as time goes on," he said. Another problem is that the computer chips are not as durable as they need to be, he said. "The chips have a life span currently of three to five years, and as you know in many instances the passports are issued for six to 10 years," Hutchinson said. "So right now you'll be adding a chip on there that has a shorter life span than the life of the passport itself." ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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Tor 0.0.9pre3 is out
by Roger Dingledine 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Along with the bugfixes from 0.0.8.1, plus more bugfixes, this release makes the dirservers file obsolete (finally) in favor of config option lines to specify the location and fingerprint of each dirserver you want to trust. We also now support the use of an http proxy for fetching directories. tarball: http://freehaven.net/tor/dist/tor-0.0.9pre3.tar.gz signature: http://freehaven.net/tor/dist/tor-0.0.9pre3.tar.gz.asc (use -dPr tor-0_0_9pre3 if you want to check out from cvs) o Bugfixes on 0.0.8.1: - Better torrc example lines for dirbindaddress and orbindaddress. - Improved bounds checking on parsed ints (e.g. config options and the ones we find in directories.) - Better handling of size_t vs int, so we're more robust on 64 bit platforms. - Fix the rest of the bug where a newly started OR would appear as unverified even after we've added his fingerprint and hupped the dirserver. - Fix a bug from 0.0.7: when read() failed on a stream, we would close it without sending back an end. So 'connection refused' would simply be ignored and the user would get no response. o Bugfixes on 0.0.9pre2: - Serving the cached-on-disk directory to people is bad. We now provide no directory until we've fetched a fresh one. - Workaround for bug on windows where cached-directories get crlf corruption. - Make get_default_conf_file() work on older windows too. - If we write a *:* exit policy line in the descriptor, don't write any more exit policy lines. o Features: - Use only 0.0.9pre1 and later servers for resolve cells. - Make the dirservers file obsolete. - Include a dir-signing-key token in directories to tell the parsing entity which key is being used to sign. - Remove the built-in bulky default dirservers string. - New config option "Dirserver %s:%d [fingerprint]", which can be repeated as many times as needed. If no dirservers specified, default to moria1,moria2,tor26. - Make moria2 advertise a dirport of 80, so people behind firewalls will be able to get a directory. - Http proxy support - Dirservers translate requests for http://%s:%d/x to /x - You can specify "HttpProxy %s[:%d]" and all dir fetches will be routed through this host. - Clients ask for /tor/x rather than /x for new enough dirservers. This way we can one day coexist peacefully with apache. - Clients specify a "Host: %s%d" http header, to be compatible with more proxies, and so running squid on an exit node can work. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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WiMax Operator's Manual: Building 802.16 Wireless
by brian-slashdotnews＠hyperreal.org 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/21/1657253 Posted by: timothy, on 2004-10-21 22:00:00 from the beaming-it-out-there dept. [1]Dozix007 (Kurt Kaylor) writes "Daniel Sweeney, a technical writer, business reporter, and industry analyst is coming full circle in his series of wireless related writings with his latest book WiMax Operator's Manual: Building 802.16 Wireless Networks. Sweeney brings the WiMax 802.16 standard into the context of a ISP solution for the masses. WiMax is a recent standard from the IEEE that is similar to conventional wireless technology, however WiMax supports higher data rates and longer distance transmissions than other standards from the IEEE. This book drifts away from the recent flood of wireless books by conveying all needed knowledge to establish, understand, operate and potentially profit from an 802.16 wireless network, rather than a specific look at one aspect of the technology. This book is not only for the business minded, but for a consumer looking to establish a quality long-distance wireless network of their own." Read on for the rest of Kaylor's review. [2]Click Here WiMax Operator's Manual: Building 802.16 Wireless Networks is primarily a utilitarian book rather than conceptual. It provides a background in broadband wireless fundamentals, packet data, and overall network operation and management to enable a network operator to set up a network with standards-based equipment and to run it profitably thereafter. Sweeney notes early in the book : "Nothing is particularly admirable about purism in terms of wireless technology, and if wire line technologies serve the same purpose better over some portion of the network footprint, then wise network operators will avail themselves of them." This theme of realism in relation to the application of a wireless network is prevalent though out the book. Wired networks in the same footprint will almost always beat a wireless network in speed, reliability, and cost. This is primarily due to the previously created infrastructure available to Internet carriers. The goal that Sweeney promotes is to find an ideal region that has not yet been exploited by a wired service provider. These regions are ideal due to the low-cost setup for a wireless network compared to the cost of a wired network. Sweeney describes and informs the user of ways to find and establish these networks in an efficient manner to maximize profitability. Sweeney also discusses network security in the later chapters of his book. He acknowledges the increasing need to secure the network's own infrastructure, the safety of its customers, and a nation itself. In relation to wireless networks, Sweeney notes "[Security] is becoming increasingly important in network operations today and cannot be considered optional at this point." To this end, the network security section is devoted to security policies, secure electrical systems, cyber warfare, and other information on safeguarding your network. Another concern also addressed is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. CALEA is a complex piece of federal legislation that expands law enforcement's authority to conduct electronic surveillance, including surveillance over public networks. Sadly, as of yet there is no real way to combat this intrusive act. WiMax Operator's Manual: Building 802.16 Wireless Networks is a great resource for businesses and individuals looking to establish their own 802.16 network. I enjoyed the foresight provided in this book for potential problems faced by network operators. The honesty in the practicality of an 802.16 network as a realistic network solution also made the book a great resource. There was no fantasy scenario or white lies to convince a user of the merit of a 802.16 network beyond what it can do. The gripe I do have with this book is its complete utilitarian nature. A little more theory and insight into the standard itself would have been great. This book stands purely as an Operator's Manual, and not an exploration of WiMax as a standard, but rather a tool. Otherwise, this book was highly enjoyable and well written. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to establish a network beyond the standards commonly available (e.g. 802.11a - 802.11g). This book is unique in its topic and sheer honesty, and is one of the few references available on the specific subject. _________________________________________________________________ You can purchase [3]WiMax Operator's Manual: Building 802.16 Wireless Networks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the [4]book review guidelines, then visit the [5]submission page. References 1. mailto:dozix007@uberhacker.com 2. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=4826&alloc_id=10297&site_id=1&request_id=7629555… p=click&page=%2farticle%2epl 3. http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&sourceid=39391960&isbn=1590… 357X 4. http://slashdot.org/book.review.guidelines.shtml 5. http://slashdot.org/submit.pl ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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Re: [tor-talk] Botnets through Tor
by Maxim Kammerer 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 5:47 AM, <andrew(a)torproject.is> wrote: > I'd be interested if gnunet or i2p have seem similar usage by > botnets. I was going to write that for I2P it is highly unlikely due to autonomous daemon configuration complexity, a dependency on Java, and unreliability wrt. network configuration changes, but here is a botnet advertisement that mentions I2P support: http://uscyberlabs.com/blog/2012/09/24/dark-heart-botnet-tor-c2-bullet-proo… -- Maxim Kammerer Liberti Linux: http://dee.su/liberte _______________________________________________ tor-talk mailing list tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[drone-list] The Brookings Institution 21CSI
by Gregory Foster 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Congratulations to Peter W. Singer, appointed to lead Brookings' new Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence (21CSI), with programs focusing on defense policy, intelligence, arms control, and cybersecurity. Brookings (Mar 12) - "Brookings Launches the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence (21CSI)": http://www.brookings.edu/about/media-resources/news-releases/2013/0312-secu… HT @peterwsinger: http://twitter.com/peterwsinger/status/311834859108720640 gf -- Gregory Foster || gfoster(a)entersection.org @gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/ -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at companys(a)stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/drone-list ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[tahoe-dev] CodeCon! (and can I borrow your laptop and give it back in pieces?)
by zooko 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hey folks: If you are in San Francisco this weekend, come to CodeCon! http://codecon.org I'll be presenting Tahoe at 13:15 on Saturday, April 18. By the way, I was originally planning to borrow an old Pentium 133 laptop from Brian, show it operating as one of the storage servers in the live demo (live demos are a requirement of presentations at CodeCon), and then smash it to pieces with an axe. The demo would then proceed to show how the files can still be accessed by using the remaining storage servers (which are also laptops, sitting visible on stage with me). However, Brian can't get his P133 laptop to boot because the CMOS battery is dead so it can't find its hard drive at boot time. Hopefully he can get it to boot from cd and we can install Tahoe on it. If that doesn't work, does anyone else have a computer which is powerful enough to run Tahoe, unloved enough to be sacrificed for a greater cause, and flimsy enough to satisfyingly splinter under assault? Thanks! Zooko _______________________________________________ tahoe-dev mailing list tahoe-dev(a)allmydata.org http://allmydata.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[p2p-hackers] Project Announcement: P2P Sockets
by Brad Neuberg 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hi everyone. I just posted the web site, source code, and two tutorials for the Peer-to-Peer Sockets Project at http://p2psockets.jxta.org. The source code represents a working, 1.0 beta 1 release, with several pieces of software, such as Jetty and XML-RPC Client and Server libraries, already ported onto this new API. I have spent the last month and a half working full time on this. Here are some more details on the project: ------------------------ Are you interested in: * returning the end-to-end principle to the Internet? * an alternative peer-to-peer domain name system that bypasses ICANN and Verisign, is completely decentralized, and responds to updates much quicker than standard DNS? * an Internet where everyone can create and consume network services, even if they have a dynamic IP address or no IP address, are behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) device, or blocked by an ISP's firewall? * a web where every peer can automatically start a web server, host an XML-RPC service, and more and quickly make these available to other peers? * easily adding peer-to-peer functionality to your Java socket and server socket applications? * having your servlets and Java Server Pages work on a peer-to-peer network for increased reliability, easier maintenence, and exciting new end-user functionality? * playing with a cool technology? If you answered yes to any of the above, then welcome to the Peer-to-Peer Sockets project! The Peer-to-Peer Sockets Project reimplements Java's standard Socket, ServerSocket, and InetAddress classes to work on a peer-to-peer network rather than on the standard TCP/IP network. "Aren't standard TCP/IP sockets and server sockets already peer-to-peer?" some might ask. Standard TCP/IP sockets and server sockets are theoretically peer-to-peer but in practice are not due to firewalls, Network Address Translation (NAT) devices, and political and technical issues with the Domain Name System (DNS). The P2P Sockets project deals with these issues by re-implementing the standard java.net classes on top of the Jxta peer-to-peer network. Jxta is an open-source project that creates a peer-to-peer overlay network that sits on top of TCP/IP. Ever peer on the network is given an IP-address like number, even if they are behind a firewall or don't have a stable IP address. Super-peers on the Jxta network run application-level routers which store special information such as how to reach peers, how to join sub-groups of peers, and what content peers are making available. Jxta application-level relays can proxy requests between peers that would not normally be able to communicate due to firewalls or NAT devices. Peers organize themselves into Peer Groups, which scope all search requests and act as natural security containers. Any peer can publish and create a peer group in a decentralized way, and other peers can search for and discover these peer groups using other super-peers. Peers communicate using Pipes, which are very similar to Unix pipes. Pipes abstract the exact way in which two peers communicate, allowing peers to communicate using other peers as intermediaries if they normally would not be able to communicate due to network partitioning. Jxta is an extremely powerful framework. However, it is not an easy framework to learn, and porting existing software to work on Jxta is not for the faint-of-heart. P2P Sockets effectively hides Jxta by creating a thin illusion that the peer-to-peer network is actually a standard TCP/IP network. If a peer wishes to become a server they simply create a P2P server socket with the domain name they want and the port other peers should use to contact them. P2P clients open socket connections to hosts that are running services on given ports. Hosts can be resolved either by domain name, such as "www.nike.laborpolicy", or by IP address, such as "44.22.33.22". Behind the scenes these resolve to JXTA primitives rather than being resolved through DNS or TCP/IP. For example, the host name "www.nike.laborpolicy" is actually the NAME field of a Jxta Peer Group Advertisement. P2P sockets and server sockets work exactly the same as normal TCP/IP sockets and server sockets. The benefits of taking this approach are many-fold. First, programmers can easily leverage their knowledge of standard TCP/IP sockets and server sockets to work on the Jxta peer-to-peer network without having to learn about Jxta. Second, all of the P2P Sockets code subclasses standard java.net objects, such as java.net.Socket, so existing network applications can quickly be ported to work on a peer-to-peer network. The P2P Sockets project already includes a large amount of software ported to use the peer-to-peer network, including a web server (Jetty) that can receive requests and serve content over the peer-to-peer network; a servlet and JSP engine (Jetty and Jasper) that allows existing servlets and JSPs to serve P2P clients; an XML-RPC client and server (Apache XML-RPC) for accessing and exposing P2P XML-RPC endpoints; an HTTP/1.1 client (Apache Commons HTTP-Client) that can access P2P web servers; a gateway (Smart Cache) to make it possible for existing browsers to access P2P web sites; and a WikiWiki (JSPWiki) that can be used to host WikiWikis on your local machine that other peers can access and edit through the P2P network. Even better, all of this software works and looks exactly as it did before being ported. The P2P Sockets abstraction is so strong that porting each of these pieces of software took as little as 30 minutes to several hours. Everything included in the P2P sockets project is open-source, mostly under BSD-type licenses, and cross-platform due to being written in Java. Because P2P Sockets are based on Jxta, they can easily do things that ordinary server sockets and sockets can't handle. First, creating server sockets that can fail-over and scale is easy with P2P Sockets. Many different peers can start server sockets for the same host name and port, such as "www.nike.laborpolicy" on port 80. When a client opens a P2P socket to "www.nike.laborpolicy" on port 80, they will randomly connect to one of the machines that is hosting this port. All of these server peers might be hosting the same web site, for example, making it very easy to partition client requests across different server peers or to recover from losing one server peer. This is analagous to DNS round-robining, where one host name will resolve to many different IP addresses to help with load-balancing. Second, since P2P Sockets don't use the DNS system, host names can be whatever you wish them to. You can create your own fanciful endings, such as "www.boobah.cat" or "www.cynthia.goddess", or application-specific host names, such as "Brad GNUberg" or "Fidget666" for an instant messaging system. Third, the service ports for a given host name can be distributed across many different peers around the world. For example, imagine that you have a virtual host for "www.nike.laborpolicy". One peer could be hosting port 80, to serve web pages; another could be hosting port 2000, for instant messaging, and a final peer could be hosting port 3000 for peers to subscribe to real-time RSS updates. Hosts now become decentralized coalitions of peers working together to serve requests. Two tutorials are available: * Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Sockets - http://www.codinginparadise.org/p2psockets/1.html * How to Create Peer-to-Peer Web Servers, Servlets, JSPs, and XML-RPC Clients and Servers - http://www.codinginparadise.org/p2psockets/2.html Download P2PSockets-1.0-beta1.zip, (released 9-5-2003) which contains the core package and extensions both compiled and in source form, at http://www.codinginparadise.org/p2psockets/P2PSockets-1.0-beta1.zip Thanks, Brad GNUberg bkn3(a)columbia.edu _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list p2p-hackers(a)zgp.org http://zgp.org/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers _______________________________________________ Here is a web page listing P2P Conferences: http://www.neurogrid.net/twiki/bin/view/Main/PeerToPeerConferences ----- End forwarded message ----- [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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[tahoe-dev] CodeCon! (and can I borrow your laptop and give it back in pieces?)
by zooko 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hey folks: If you are in San Francisco this weekend, come to CodeCon! http://codecon.org I'll be presenting Tahoe at 13:15 on Saturday, April 18. By the way, I was originally planning to borrow an old Pentium 133 laptop from Brian, show it operating as one of the storage servers in the live demo (live demos are a requirement of presentations at CodeCon), and then smash it to pieces with an axe. The demo would then proceed to show how the files can still be accessed by using the remaining storage servers (which are also laptops, sitting visible on stage with me). However, Brian can't get his P133 laptop to boot because the CMOS battery is dead so it can't find its hard drive at boot time. Hopefully he can get it to boot from cd and we can install Tahoe on it. If that doesn't work, does anyone else have a computer which is powerful enough to run Tahoe, unloved enough to be sacrificed for a greater cause, and flimsy enough to satisfyingly splinter under assault? Thanks! Zooko _______________________________________________ tahoe-dev mailing list tahoe-dev(a)allmydata.org http://allmydata.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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FreedomBox - reports of its death greatly exaggerated?
by Poor Richard 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Wired: Good News For Spies and Dictators: bFreedomBoxb Is in Danger of an Early Death http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/06/freedombox/all/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[p2p-hackers] Project Announcement: P2P Sockets
by Brad Neuberg 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hi everyone. I just posted the web site, source code, and two tutorials for the Peer-to-Peer Sockets Project at http://p2psockets.jxta.org. The source code represents a working, 1.0 beta 1 release, with several pieces of software, such as Jetty and XML-RPC Client and Server libraries, already ported onto this new API. I have spent the last month and a half working full time on this. Here are some more details on the project: ------------------------ Are you interested in: * returning the end-to-end principle to the Internet? * an alternative peer-to-peer domain name system that bypasses ICANN and Verisign, is completely decentralized, and responds to updates much quicker than standard DNS? * an Internet where everyone can create and consume network services, even if they have a dynamic IP address or no IP address, are behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) device, or blocked by an ISP's firewall? * a web where every peer can automatically start a web server, host an XML-RPC service, and more and quickly make these available to other peers? * easily adding peer-to-peer functionality to your Java socket and server socket applications? * having your servlets and Java Server Pages work on a peer-to-peer network for increased reliability, easier maintenence, and exciting new end-user functionality? * playing with a cool technology? If you answered yes to any of the above, then welcome to the Peer-to-Peer Sockets project! The Peer-to-Peer Sockets Project reimplements Java's standard Socket, ServerSocket, and InetAddress classes to work on a peer-to-peer network rather than on the standard TCP/IP network. "Aren't standard TCP/IP sockets and server sockets already peer-to-peer?" some might ask. Standard TCP/IP sockets and server sockets are theoretically peer-to-peer but in practice are not due to firewalls, Network Address Translation (NAT) devices, and political and technical issues with the Domain Name System (DNS). The P2P Sockets project deals with these issues by re-implementing the standard java.net classes on top of the Jxta peer-to-peer network. Jxta is an open-source project that creates a peer-to-peer overlay network that sits on top of TCP/IP. Ever peer on the network is given an IP-address like number, even if they are behind a firewall or don't have a stable IP address. Super-peers on the Jxta network run application-level routers which store special information such as how to reach peers, how to join sub-groups of peers, and what content peers are making available. Jxta application-level relays can proxy requests between peers that would not normally be able to communicate due to firewalls or NAT devices. Peers organize themselves into Peer Groups, which scope all search requests and act as natural security containers. Any peer can publish and create a peer group in a decentralized way, and other peers can search for and discover these peer groups using other super-peers. Peers communicate using Pipes, which are very similar to Unix pipes. Pipes abstract the exact way in which two peers communicate, allowing peers to communicate using other peers as intermediaries if they normally would not be able to communicate due to network partitioning. Jxta is an extremely powerful framework. However, it is not an easy framework to learn, and porting existing software to work on Jxta is not for the faint-of-heart. P2P Sockets effectively hides Jxta by creating a thin illusion that the peer-to-peer network is actually a standard TCP/IP network. If a peer wishes to become a server they simply create a P2P server socket with the domain name they want and the port other peers should use to contact them. P2P clients open socket connections to hosts that are running services on given ports. Hosts can be resolved either by domain name, such as "www.nike.laborpolicy", or by IP address, such as "44.22.33.22". Behind the scenes these resolve to JXTA primitives rather than being resolved through DNS or TCP/IP. For example, the host name "www.nike.laborpolicy" is actually the NAME field of a Jxta Peer Group Advertisement. P2P sockets and server sockets work exactly the same as normal TCP/IP sockets and server sockets. The benefits of taking this approach are many-fold. First, programmers can easily leverage their knowledge of standard TCP/IP sockets and server sockets to work on the Jxta peer-to-peer network without having to learn about Jxta. Second, all of the P2P Sockets code subclasses standard java.net objects, such as java.net.Socket, so existing network applications can quickly be ported to work on a peer-to-peer network. The P2P Sockets project already includes a large amount of software ported to use the peer-to-peer network, including a web server (Jetty) that can receive requests and serve content over the peer-to-peer network; a servlet and JSP engine (Jetty and Jasper) that allows existing servlets and JSPs to serve P2P clients; an XML-RPC client and server (Apache XML-RPC) for accessing and exposing P2P XML-RPC endpoints; an HTTP/1.1 client (Apache Commons HTTP-Client) that can access P2P web servers; a gateway (Smart Cache) to make it possible for existing browsers to access P2P web sites; and a WikiWiki (JSPWiki) that can be used to host WikiWikis on your local machine that other peers can access and edit through the P2P network. Even better, all of this software works and looks exactly as it did before being ported. The P2P Sockets abstraction is so strong that porting each of these pieces of software took as little as 30 minutes to several hours. Everything included in the P2P sockets project is open-source, mostly under BSD-type licenses, and cross-platform due to being written in Java. Because P2P Sockets are based on Jxta, they can easily do things that ordinary server sockets and sockets can't handle. First, creating server sockets that can fail-over and scale is easy with P2P Sockets. Many different peers can start server sockets for the same host name and port, such as "www.nike.laborpolicy" on port 80. When a client opens a P2P socket to "www.nike.laborpolicy" on port 80, they will randomly connect to one of the machines that is hosting this port. All of these server peers might be hosting the same web site, for example, making it very easy to partition client requests across different server peers or to recover from losing one server peer. This is analagous to DNS round-robining, where one host name will resolve to many different IP addresses to help with load-balancing. Second, since P2P Sockets don't use the DNS system, host names can be whatever you wish them to. You can create your own fanciful endings, such as "www.boobah.cat" or "www.cynthia.goddess", or application-specific host names, such as "Brad GNUberg" or "Fidget666" for an instant messaging system. Third, the service ports for a given host name can be distributed across many different peers around the world. For example, imagine that you have a virtual host for "www.nike.laborpolicy". One peer could be hosting port 80, to serve web pages; another could be hosting port 2000, for instant messaging, and a final peer could be hosting port 3000 for peers to subscribe to real-time RSS updates. Hosts now become decentralized coalitions of peers working together to serve requests. Two tutorials are available: * Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Sockets - http://www.codinginparadise.org/p2psockets/1.html * How to Create Peer-to-Peer Web Servers, Servlets, JSPs, and XML-RPC Clients and Servers - http://www.codinginparadise.org/p2psockets/2.html Download P2PSockets-1.0-beta1.zip, (released 9-5-2003) which contains the core package and extensions both compiled and in source form, at http://www.codinginparadise.org/p2psockets/P2PSockets-1.0-beta1.zip Thanks, Brad GNUberg bkn3(a)columbia.edu _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list p2p-hackers(a)zgp.org http://zgp.org/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers _______________________________________________ Here is a web page listing P2P Conferences: http://www.neurogrid.net/twiki/bin/view/Main/PeerToPeerConferences ----- End forwarded message ----- [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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