Amal Nagm

What is 'MUTE' File Sharing?

MUTE is clearly superior to bit torrent downloading.

MUTE is an emerging P2P network with one important feature: MUTE conceals all of its users identities through virtual addressing, effectively building in the most anonymity of any P2P network in 2006. Especially for torrent downloaders, MUTE may be a good alternative means to share files.

MUTE is special by using a special technology based on the behavior of ants in colonies, MUTE allows large file downloading through the Internet, while still concealing the identities of its P2P users from each other (and from prying authorities' eyes).

MUTE files are not as plentiful as bittorrent files are at this time.

Additionally, it does take longer to establish connections, find files, and download them through MUTE...up to three or four days. But this seemingly sluggish nature is an inherent downside to the privacy model, because users are purposely separated by many layers of connections - no direct connections are made between downloader and uploader.

But as more P2P users learn to use the MUTE network with patience, and as word of the MUTE P2P network spreads, you can expect P2P users to migrate to this safer and more anonymous community. MUTE will become a better source of files during later 2006 and early 2007... you can bet on it.

Is MUTE better than torrent downloading?

Answer: In terms of speed and size, no...MUTE is 5 times slower. But in terms of anonymity,

How Does 'MUTE' File Sharing Work?"

A. MUTE downloading anonymity works because it routes its signals the same way a colony of ants routes its worker insects: by constantly shifting the most efficient path, but no single insect is ever responsible for choosing that path. This is called a "mesh" model of computer networking.

In the words of its creator, Jason C. Rohrer, a young, talented programmer from New York state, MUTE is a "secure, anonymous, distributed communications framework. Node-to-node connections are encrypted, and messages are routed using an ant-inspired algorithm."

An Ant-Inspired Algorithm?

Ants tend to travel in fairly straight lines between their nest and a source of food. These also happen to be the shortest, most efficient routes.

As they wander around, they mark their routes with pheromones.

When they find food, they grab a piece of it and follow the pheromone trail back home. As they make the subsequent trips down the food path, they repeatedly scent the trail. This attracts more ants to follow the new trail and abandon the old "inefficient" ones.

The collectively intelligent behavior of ants it mimicked by the MUTE network nodes. MUTE nodes don't use pheromone markers. Instead, they send messages to "learn" which routes are the most efficient.

When a new node joins the mesh, it creates and maintains the connection to the neighbor nodes. These nodes, in turn, maintain connections to their neighbors.

The new node broadcasts a "request" message to its neighbors. If they don't have what is requested, they pass the request to their neighbors, and so on.

MUTE File Sharing uses "response timeouts" to detect "inefficient" routes and improve routing performance. If a node times out waiting for a response from another node, it resends the message with a fresh route request.

There is much more to the technical side of MUTE than this short explanation covers. If you are a techie-oriented type, you may enjoy some quite fascinating details of MUTE's operation here:

http://mute-net.sourceforge.net/technicalDetails.shtml