P2P networking aka peer to peer networking is creating quite a stir in the information technology field. Both networking professionals in the corporate world as well as the personal users on the internet have been using this technology increasingly. When it comes to peer to peer networks, a lot of people are touting this movement as the hottest thing around. And with the new advances happening every day in technology, many people anticipate that the p2p network will be the basis of future networking both on the internet and in the office.

The concept and even the practice of p2p networking to some extent have been around for a while. It is just that the controversy over copyright laws in regards to some of the music file sharing networks has really brought p2p networking to the forefront. No one truly knows exactly how the copyright issues will shape the future of the file sharing network; just know that p2p networking will stick around in some form or fashion.

p2p networks as mentioned before have been around for a while. However, it existed in more of a traditional sense. In an office setting, this peer to peer networking meant that each computer workstation shared responsibilities such as memory resources as well as hard drive and storage. This negates the concept of having a centralized server which holds all the information that must be retrieved by users. This new p2p networking movement has also spawned new IT positions being created in some of the larger corporations in network p2p management.

Of course, when most people, especially individual users, hear of p2p networking, chances are that they are thinking of the file sharing networks BitTorrent, Gnutella and Fast track. Add the some of the best free p2p network software like BitTorrent, LimeWire and eMule and recognition grows exponentially.

Some of these free p2p network applications could also be construed as a peer to peer social networking as well. There are plenty of places on the internet to download p2p networking applications. Some are free and some are by subscription depending on if you want to download copyrighted songs or not. Just note that there are vulnerabilities to p2p networks. Some people have nothing better to do than post dummy files out there for people to download that contain malicious programming such as viruses or spy ware. Therefore, you want to be certain that you are downloading or uploading from a trusted source.