Peer to Peer Network (P2PN)

In a peer-to-peer network (P2PN), all of the computers on the network are equals, or peers—that’s where the term peer-to-peer comes from—and there’s no fil server. But there is file sharing, in which each computer user decides which, if any, files will be accessible to other users on the network. Users also may choose to share entire directories or even entire disks. They also can choose to share peripherals, such as printers and scanners. Peer-to-peer network are easy to set up; people who aren’t networking experts do it all the time, generally to share an expensive laser printer or to provide Internet access to all of the workstations on the LAN. Peer-to-peer networks tend to slow down as the number of users increases, and keeping track of all of the shared files and peripherals can quickly become confusing. For this reason, peer-to-peer LAN’s aren’t suitable for networks that connect more than one or two dozen computers.