Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking

Microsoft Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking provides peer-to-peer protocols, an application platform, and user experiences that ship in Windows. Some of the experiences provided with Windows Vista on this platform are:

• Windows Meeting Space to share files, programs or your desktop, anytime, anywhere.
• Windows Internet Computer Names to find and connect to your computer without the cost or complexity of buying a Domain Name System (DNS) domain name or using DNS dynamic update.

This site is a place for developers to gather, learn, and share information. Use this page for links to whitepapers, presentations, documentation, and code samples. Use the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networking MSDN forum or P2P team blog to learn about tips and tricks, upcoming features, beta opportunities, and events where you can meet members of the P2P product team.

Whitepapers

• Introduction to Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
  The scenarios, underlying technologies, and benefits of the Peer-to-Peer Networking platform.
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol
  How the Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) works, why it is important, and where it can be used.
• People Near Me
  How P2P technologies enable discovery of people located nearby so that you can start interacting with them in a variety of scenarios.
• Harness the Power of P2P Communication in Windows Vista and Windows Communication Foundation
  How to build scalable, high performance, large scale messaging solutions for use in collaboration and content distribution scenarios.
• Windows Meeting Space and Resulting Internet Communication in Windows Vista
  How Windows Meeting Space work in managed environments and across the Internet.

Presentations

• Peer-to-Peer in Windows Vista
  A Channel 9 Video describing the P2P platform and experiences in Windows Vista.

Samples and Documentation

• P2P Native APIs
  Conceptual and reference documentation for the Win32 APIs in Windows Vista and Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).
• Peer Channel
  Conceptual and reference documentation for P2P support in the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) for multiparty messaging.
• Peer Channel Samples
  Demonstrates how to use Peer Channel.
• Platform SDK
  Samples that demonstrate the use of the P2P Native APIs. The samples are in NetDS\PeerToPeer folder.
• Windows XP Update for PNRP 2.0
  An update that allows computers running Windows XP with SP2 to communicate with computers running Windows Vista.