What are Ultrapeers, Leaves, and Peers?
Ultrapeers are the backbone of the Gnutella network. An Ultrapeer handles most Gnutella traffic, shielding its Leaves from this traffic. Ultrapeers accept connections from the Leaves, giving them access to the network and handling their requests. Ultrapeers also connect to each other, bringing the network together, Leaves do not connect to each other. Leaves commonly do not meet the requirements for being an Ultrapeer. A Leaf now connects to two Ultrapeers, one used actively and the other kept just in case the first should fail. New versions of BearShare regulate when you become an Ultrapeer based on a strict set of criteria and the overall need of the network. “Peer” literally means “Equal to one’s rank”, an Ultrapeer then means “Beyond one’s rank”. A Leaf is so named because it acts like a leaf on a tree, not connecting to any other leaf. Ultrapeers see other Ultrapeers as equal so they refer to each other as “Peers”. A Leaf would refer to other Leaves also as Peers but since they ne
