giFT

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giFT Internet File Transfer (giFT) is a computer software daemon that allows several file sharing protocols to be used with a simple client having a graphical user interface (GUI). The client dynamically loads plugins implementing the protocols, as they are required. The protocols are:

• Stable
  • OpenFT, giFT's own file sharing protocol ^[1]
  • Gnutella (used by LimeWire, Shareaza)
  • Ares Galaxy
  • Turtle F2F
• Beta version
  • FastTrack (used by Kazaa). The giFT plugin is giFT-FastTrack.
• Alpha version
  • OpenNap
  • eDonkey
  • Soulseek

The clients communicate with the giFT process using a lightweight network protocol; the protocol code is completely abstracted from the user interface. There are already several giFT GUI front-ends for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and Unix-like operating systems.

The name giFT is a recursive acronym.

giFT is written using relatively cross-platform C code.

giFT currently lacks unicode support included, and it is impossible to share files with characters such as "ø","ä", "å", "é", "è", "ó", "ö", "ù", "ü" in their names.^{[citation needed]}

giFT (and other multi-protocol implemenations) lacks many features needed to use the Gnutella network effectively.

OpenFT protocol

giFT's sibling project is OpenFT, a peer-to-peer file sharing network protocol that has 'search' nodes and 'index' supernodes in addition to common nodes. According to the giFT documentation:

Search nodes handle search requests. They search the filelists their CHILD (common) nodes submitted to them. These nodes must have a capable Internet connection and at least 128M RAM. A modern processor is highly recommended as well.

and

INDEX nodes keep lists of available search nodes, collect statistics, and try to maintain the structure of the network.

giFT front-ends

See also

• MLDonkey

References

1. ↑ "giFT: Internet File Transfer". 2002-05-11. http://www.zeropaid.com/news/1038/gift_internet_file_transfer/. Retrieved 2010-1-4. 
2. ↑ Scott Rippee (15 Jan 2004) Throw That GUI Out the Door: Console Applications That Shine, OSNews
3. ↑ Juergen Haas, Appolon, About.com Kubuntu Guide
4. ↑ Carsten Schnober, Olympian Exchange. File Sharing with Apollon and GiFT, Linux Magazine issue 55, June 2005, pp. 82-83
5. ↑ Thomas Mennecke (September 5, 2004) Getting Into KCeasy, Slyck.com
6. ↑ KCEasy Review FileSharingZ.com
7. ↑ John Borland, Macintosh users join Kazaa network, CNET News, November 19, 2003
8. ↑ Thomas Mennecke, Poisoned: Bringing FastTrack to the Macintosh Community, November 21, 2003

• Marcus Bergner, FastTrack chapter in his MS Thesis "Improving Performance of Modern Peer-to-peer Services", 10 June 2003, Umea University, chapter "discusses the FastTrack protocol used by the KaZaA family of file sharing applications. Since the protocol is a well kept secret most discussions will relate to the giFT project, an open source implementation attempting to provide similar capabilities."
• Choon Hoong Ding, Sarana Nutanong, and Rajkumar Buyya, Peer-to-Peer Networks for Content Sharing in Ramesh Subramanian, Brian D. Goodman, Peer-to-peer computing: the evolution of a disruptive technology, Idea Group, 2005, ISBN 1591404304, pp. 58-61
• "Introduction to giFT - internet File Transfer". 2007-01-06. http://vodka-pomme.net/projects/introduction-to-gift-internet-file-transfer. Retrieved 2010-1-4. 

Further reading

• Minaxi Gupta, Markus Jakobsson, Andrew Kalafut, and Sid Stamm, Crimeware and Peer-to-Peer Networks, chapter 3 in Markus Jakobsson, Zulfikar Ramzan, Crimeware: understanding new attacks and defenses, Addison-Wesley, 2008, ISBN 0321501950, pp. 55-76 (discuses malware in the OpenFT and Limewire networks) A short version appeared in MCS'06

External links

• giFT (Official Website)
• About giFT
• The giFT-FastTrack project page
• The giFT-OpenNap project page
• The giFT-Ares project page