Patent ID: 7797722

Claim:
A method for delivering content to a home system communicating with at least one server and at least one peer-to-peer (P2P) network, comprising: determining at least one characteristic of at least one network associated with the home system; based at least in part on the characteristic, determining whether to provide at least one content file to the home system from the server or the P2P network, wherein when content is delivered from the P2P network, at least first and second source peers each containing the content file negotiate with each other to determine which one of the first and second source peers sends a first segment of the file to the home system, the other one of the first and second source peers sending a second segment of the file to the home system as a result of the negotiation; determining a number of peers in the peer network that can serve content to the home system and at least partially based thereon, determining whether to provide the content file to the home system from the server or the P2P network; and determining whether to deliver the file immediately to the home system or to incrementally deliver the file at a later time.