Two-way Internet: useful avenues for interacting online.(Tech Life)(Column)

When you surf the web, you're generally limited to receiving whatever information a web site's centralized computers deliver, making the Internet more like a one-way street than a superhighway. But the Internet was built to act like a two-way street: Every participant can be an originator of information (a server, in industry parlance) and a recipient, or client. The web's success as a commercial medium for everything from appliances to watches has overshadowed its ability to let users contribute and collaborate.

Lately, though, some new Internet applications have encouraged individuals to play a more active role through peer-to-peer (or P2P) computing. Napster, the music-sharing service beset with legal problems (see page 41), is perhaps the best-known P2P application. But there are many others, and they involve much more than music.

Here's a sampling of the applications, most of which work with both Windows-based and Macintosh computers.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

File-sharing technology lets individuals share selected files on their home computers with millions of other users. While the sharing of copyrighted music via Napster (www.napster.com) has received the most public attention, it isn't the only widely used file-sharing system.

Gnutella (www.gnutella.wego.com) is a file-sharing technology used in various free, downloadable software applications to form a spontaneous, independent network of individuals who wish to share files. Gnutella isn't run by any one enterprise.

We tried a popular Gnutella program called Bearshare (www.bearshare.com; not Mac-compatible). It quickly networked us with dozens of other users, from New Zealand to Spain. With Bearshare, we easily located well-known Beatles titles on those other computers in a matter of seconds. We also located nonmusic files, including digital images, electronic books, and software.