The definition of a Peer to Peer network is a network that allows two or more computers to share their resources. This can include not just file sharing, but the sharing of individual resources such as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and printers.
In traditional VPNs, there is a designated “server” computer and “client” computers that are accessing resources or files on the server. But in a peer to peer network, the resources of every computer on the peer to peer network are accessible from every other computer on the peer to peer network.
So, a VPN peer to peer network is one that shares these resources across a public access, such as the internet. Since peer to peer computers have their own hard drives that are accessible by all computers, you can think of each computer as acting as both a client and a server.
VPN Peer to Peer networks would normally be used for sharing content like audio, video, data or anything in digital format. Three major types of peer to peer networks are:
Pure Peer to Peer:
- Peers act as clients and server
- There is no central server
- There is no central router
Hybrid Peer to Peer:
- Has a central server that keeps information on peers and responds to requests for that information.
- Peers are responsible for hosting the information as the central server doesn’t store files, for letting the central server know what files they want to share and for downloading its shareable resources to peers that request it.
- Route terminals are used addresses, which are referenced by a set of indices to obtain an absolute address.
Mixed Peer to Peer:
- Has both pure and hybrid characteristics
An important difference in a VPN peer to peer network from regular dedicated server VPNs is that in peer-to-peer networks, the bandwidth of all clients can be used, so the total bandwidth available grows with the number of users, instead of all clients having to share the bandwidth of one server.
This means adding more clients won’t slow down data transfer for all users like it would when there is a specific server and fixed bandwidth for all users to access it.
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