[p2p-hackers] Questions about Overnet

[Paul Harrison]

On Sat, 20 Mar 2004, Enzo Michelangeli wrote:

> I don't know if this is the right forum for my questions, but can anybody
> kindly enlighten me on this:
>
> 1. Are Overnet searches exhaustive, meaning that, if content is presently
> published, a search for it can be reasonably expected to return a hit with
> probability close to 1?
>
> 2. If a node publishes content on Overnet, after how long, on average,
> will that content it be "visible" to searches initiated from any other
> node?
>
> My reason for asking is that I'd like to understand if it is possible, and
> viable, to build a distributed directory and presence service on top of
> Overnet's publishing and searching facility.
>

Overnet is based on Kademlia, a Distributed Hash-Table. So, assuming it's
a robust implementation, searches will be exhaustive and content will be
visible as soon as it is published.

It's certainly possible to build presence services and directories on top
of a DHT. For example, Circle (thecircle.org.au) has an instant messaging
system built on top of a DHT (including the ability to search by name or
cryptographic id, and to publish a request to be notified when a
particular person comes online... basically everything a normal IM system
does).

cheers,
Paul

pfh at logarithmic.net | http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh

                                      end apartheid