AllPeers was a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

browser extension for Mozilla Firefox. On March 2, 2008, AllPeers announced the end of the service. The extension allowed building a

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

and sharing files on a

P2P P2P may refer to: * Pay to play, where money is exchanged for services * Peer-to-peer, a distributed application architecture in computing or networking ** List of P2P protocols * Phenylacetone, an organic compound commonly known as P2P * Poin ...

basis. It used a

darknet A dark net or darknet is an overlay network within the Internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorization, and often uses a unique customized communication protocol. Two typical darknet types are social ne ...

style of peer-to-peer communication; files and information shared between users are only accessible as long as the users have each other on their respective access lists - their 'trusted private network'. AllPeers

beta version A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

was launched on August 24, 2006. It worked on

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

and Mac, which, once downloaded, becomes a toolbar in Mozilla Firefox. AllPeers used open source BitTorrent technology to facilitate file transfer. The extension did not require any ports be opened. AllPeers encrypted its communication using standard protocols like SSL so as to protect the user against 3rd party intervention listening in. At its beta launch AllPeers comprised 200,000 lines of

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

and

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

code. Although the AllPeers client was open sourced in March 2007, the server source remains closed. AllPeers claimed this was because the network must have a single, stable server instance to function reliably.

References

Free Firefox legacy extensions File sharing software BitTorrent {{web-software-stub

See also

References