How to setup Peer to Peer on Transact : (was Transact and peer to peer)

[Peter Foley]

Heya,

Ok, your statement is not altogether correct.

I know a little bit about PPPoE and the Transact stuff (Probably enough to
get me into trouble, by getting things wrong =p).

Firstly with the PPPoE stuff, I am sure you know that you can set-up
multiple connections to any AC (I know for a fact that the Linux
implementation allows this and RASPPPoE does as well.  Not sure about the
PPPoE driver that comes with Windows XP).

So then it is just a simple case of setting up one connection for each
service that you want, eg lets say you set-up one connection for your ISP,
one connection for Peer to Peer (In the IP Private address space to make
routing easier), (lets complicate things a bit) another connection for
someone providing an FTP service and also maybe another service that
provides Game servers.

Then it is a case of just connecting to each service that you want to use.
Naturally it might complicate the routing side of things but I think that it
would well be worth it =p.

Hell I am no hardware expert so take this with a grain of salt, but
depending on hardware requirements it might be possible for a group of ppl
to chip in some money and set-up their own router/AC which would then
authenticate ppl onto the Peer to Peer service, put a nice big FTP server on
the Peer to Peer side and wola one Peer to Peer network.  Then wack up a
nice Web Page with a script to set them up in the authentication list.
Depending on interest to help with costs I am sure most ppl would be willing
to chip in money to help get it up and running =p.

So in effect afaik the only thing that is really holding things back is that
AC/Service and the Hardware to support it.  So if transact provides this
service then they would have to outlay the Man Power and hardware.  So that
could be why it is low on their priorities.

As an aside, we just recently connected to transact and signed up with one
of the service providers anyway during the course of the talks apparently
Netspeed has around 240 customers (Since transact started) and Webone has
about 60 (they started being a Transact ISP about 6 months ago).  So I guess
numbers are still fairly low, but I am sure if someone set-up a Peer to Peer
network that that number would definitely increase.  Btw I signed up with
Webone and they seem to be pretty good so far (=p, I have had to upgrade my
plan twice in the last two days.  Curse these high speed connections, so
many tar balls to down load so little MBs in a plan).

So just to clarify my rambling, the ISPs don't have to support this.  All
that would need to happen is Transact (or someone) would just have to
provide another service in the AC list for Peer to Peer.  Which would
involve some form of hardware.  Also depending on costs it might even be
possible to for some enterprising group to set this up.

Peter.
(Now returning to long term lurk mode)


>
> --__--__--
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 01:50:41 +1000
> From: Andrew <andrew at donehue.net>
> To: linux at samba.org
> Subject: re Transact and peer to peer.
>
> Hi,
>     The problem with peer to peer networking and transact can't be
> solved that easily.  Each connection is created with an Authentication
> handshake (which is handled by the ISP of choice).  Therefore if we
> wanted any transact client to send data directly to another one without
> being charged, ALL the ISP's (I believe only two at the moment, but
> growing) would have to agree on this.  As far as my knowledge goes,
> ISP's in Canberra aren't "buddies" - there is no incentive for them to
> do this (and it would take a bit of time...).  ISP's are offering plans
> around 9cents/MB - they wouldn't be making more than a cent or two per
> M/B on the data they sell - I believe it is in their interest to keep
> the customers paying the full price.
>
> At the moment I am sitting on a Telstra ADSL connection (via my Linux
> Box).  The service is great - I remember having it down for a day a long
> time ago, but now it seems to be up all the time.  My PPPoE sessions
> last for weeks at a time (only get turned off when I do a H/W upgrade,
> or the power fails etc).  I use the connection mainly for Email, ICQ,
> and downloading source code - it's really fast and just as good as my
> Neighbours TransACT data connection (except mine is much cheaper).
>
> However - the ADSL modems that Telstra hands out are old technology, and
> TransACT has a much better future (more services - when the arrive) so
> my opinion is only in what you get for your buck now - not down the road.
>
>
> That's my 5 cents.
>
>
> Cheers,
>         Andrew Donehue
>
> http://www.eon.com.au
>
>