consistency of terminology - leaf node
 

The Monitor tab has a check box to enable the display of incoming searches. When checked Limewire is liable to display a message:

Your client is a leaf node shielded by an Ultrapeer.

OK, so Limewire acts as either a leaf node or an Ultrapeer.

In the Connections tab Limewire's mode of operation is described as either:

[client] or [ultrapeer]

So what happened to our leaf node ?

OK, so the Limewire Gnutella Servant acts as either a leaf node or an Ultrapeer.

Where does the term "client" fit in here ?

The langauge used is a hangover from the old client/server model in which relatively dumb terminals accessed the main computer for all their requirements. The language for Peer to Peer networking is still developing.

Each computer on a p2p network is both a client (it accesses other computers for information) and a server (it provides information to other clients). Each computer is (or should be ) a host in that it hosts (holds) files for other computers to access.

So - on a p2p network 'client', 'server', 'host' and 'peer' all mean the same thing but are sometimes used to differentiate 'this' computer from 'that' computer.

There is a similar problem with uploading and downloading. What is uploaded from you is downloaded by me and vice versa.

Leaf Node and client are very nearly identical - except that a client doesn't have to be a leaf - but on the current network a client is much more likely to be a leaf to an ultrapeer than a true peer to another computer.

I hope that makes everything clear :-)

Mark

The issue here is consistency of terminology. I was not until I read
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=15870
That I realised Limewire uses the term [client] to mean NOT [ultrapeer]. If the Connections tab were changed to use the term [leaf node] in place of [client] it would be consistent, logical and easy to understand.

We just changed it. We've been meaning to do this for awhile, actually, we just never did. It should be changed in LW 2.7.