Can I create my own P2P file sharing program? UPDATED: now with SPECIAL pics

[statetech]

I'm looking into the possibility of developing a project to code a simple file sharing program. I'd like your input and point out where I'm just dreaming and when I'm just dead wrong.

I must admit I'm just a beginning programmer. I've taken a few courses here and there (which I've completely forgotten) and I'm currently taking an introduction course in Java, which I really like. I'm willing to learn outside of class and spend time just hacking at the code. By every sense of the word, I'm a programming newbie.

The type of files that will be shared are historical financial market data, in various formats. I know you can just go to yahoo....lol. It gets a little more complicated than that. The client base is pretty small.

I remember xolox being a great, but extremely "simple looking" interface and am curious if its outrageous for someone like myself with limited programming background to consider doing this. Of course I would get some assistance, alot of assistance, from professors and such, but am I whacked out of my mind for considering this?

My current idea is to look for an open source, preferable java, small project that I could adapt to my needs. I'm not doing this for financial gain, but as a nice project and also allow me to learn more about programming.
Right now, ideas are all I have and would love some enlightenment! 🙂

Leave a comment if you like 😀

 

[DaveSimmons]

file sharing itself is basically running a simplified FTP server, and there is a ton of open source code for this, as well as books on "winsock programming"

why people need more complicated programs like Kazaa is to publish / share directory listings of the files they're "sharing." You need server(s) of some sort to negoiate the connections between downloaders and sharers, and to transmit directory listing of the files being "shared".

Without server(s) to broker connections, you'd have to find out / "know" the IP addresss of people offering files some other way, such as e-mail or a static web page listing.

Edit: why not just use something existing like Kazaa? Kazaa even comes with bonus spyware and stealth distributed computing apps to use up CPU power and disk space that's just going to waste now.