Re: [Blocks-development] Life Signs

[Tod D. I. <to...@je...>]

On Sun, May 13, 2001 at 10:52:34AM +0000, Blat Froop wrote:
> >From: "Tod D. Ihde" <to...@je...>
> >To: blo...@li...
> >Subject: Re: [Blocks-development] Life Signs
> >Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 21:50:46 -0500
> >
> >
> >Why should a node advertise a file? Why not just have the node advertise 
> >that it can GET to a file? The node _requesting_ a file can start the 
> >request on all nodes, and choose the fastest-responding node to get the 
> >file
> >from (and shut down the others). This allows the client to choose where it 
> >gets the file from (to a degree, each node in the chain would be choosing 
> >the fastest next-hop), and eliminates the "this node is storing/inserting
> >this file/block" problem, because you are only advertising that you _know_ 
> >about a file and can get to it, not its route. Each node would only know 
> >that it's neighbor knows how to get to a block/file, not what its neightbor
> >actually has in it's cache.
> 
> IMHO... Blocks needs route information because its a relay
> network rather than a direct P2P network. The issue of
> 'the fastest route' has come up several times before,
> and I think its generally agreed that using the
> length of the route to work this out isnt very sensible.
> I think the only real way of working out the fastest
> route would be to do something akin to what GoZilla!
> does... test multiple routes and measure average speed,
> then choose the best one. Allowing multiple simultaneous
> downloads would be a feature of an advanced GUI rather
> than an inherent Blocks feature.
> 
> Its interesting revisiting these issues :-)
> 
> ttfn
> 
> PG.

 I know I'm going to sound like a nag, but... (I'm going to anyway! Whee!)

Because it's a relay network, it shouldn't need to know complete routes.
Because it's meant to be as secure & anonymous as possible it shouldn't know
complete routes. Because it's not a direct P2P network (system), it doesn't
need to know complete routes. each server in the chain would know the next
server in the chain to a particular destination, but no server would know
anythin about a server 2 hops away (unless it had also connected to that
server as well).

You yourself state that using length of route for a speed indicator is not
that good, so why bother with knowing the route?

The worst that can happen, IMHO, is blocks propigating to multiple servers -
which I don't really see as a problem.

I just wish you'd at least consider releasing a version (test, of course)
with this option, if only to see if its feasable (hey, I believe freenet
uses this method, actually).

 Thanks, 
  Tod.


-- 

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