Patent ID: 7660853

Claim:
A method for accessing information in a peer-to-peer network, the peer-to-peer network including a plurality of peer devices and a database system accessible by at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices, each peer device of the plurality of peer devices being configured to store information files, and further being configured to share file content from selected information files with at least a portion of other peer devices in the peer-to-peer network, wherein each shared file in the peer-to-peer network has a respective HASH ID associated therewith relating to the file content of each shared file, the HASH ID being different from a respective filename associated with each shared file, the method comprising: identifying a first peer device which has been identified as storing a first information file associated with a first HASH ID; identifying a second peer device which has been identified as storing a second information file associated with the first HASH ID; transmitting a first message including the first HASH ID to the first peer device requesting a first portion of file content of the first information file from the first peer device; transmitting a second message including the first HASH ID to the second peer device requesting a second portion of file content of the second information file from the second peer device; detecting a failure in a file transfer process associated with the first peer device; identifying a network address corresponding to a third peer device which has been identified as storing a third information file associated with the first HASH ID; and transmitting a third message to the third peer device, the third message corresponding to a request to retrieve the first portion of file content from the third information file.