Each user is connected to other users, who in turn pass along the other hosts on the network. It is far more useful than Napster, as it can transfer .zip, .mpeg, .asf, .mov, .qt, .hqx, .exe, .jar, .sit, or any other type of file users put online. Gnutella makes it much easier to find files than say, Hotline, or the WWW, as you are searching for specific filenames and types over a network of thousands of individual users. Because Gnutella is open source, it is freely distributed, constantly improving, and available on virtually any platform. There is no central sever to connect to.
Every user is both a host and a client.
Because of this, it is near impossible for ISPs, governments, hackers to disable the network. Gnutella can be used to transfer any type of file, and there are no passwords, no fees, and no rules. Each GnutellaNet client can share files, search for files, and download files from any other user. As such, it was scrapped at version .48, a working beta. However, the beta had already been distributed for testing to a few hundred people, and since it was open-source, could legally be reverse engineered to create clones of the original idea.