Patent ID: 7487245

Claim:
One or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer that is part of a plurality of computers in a network, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising: selecting a portion of file information corresponding to a file stored on one of the plurality of computers, wherein the selected portion of the file information comprises a set of least significant bits of the file information, and wherein a size of the portion of the file information is based at least in part on a count of computers that the one computer is aware of in the network; comparing, for each of the plurality of computers, the selected portion to a portion of a computer identifier associated with the computer; identifying which of the computer identifiers have portions matching the selected portion of the file information; and communicating, for identification of potentially identical files stored on the plurality of computers, the file information to each of the computers associated with a computer identifier having a portion matching the selected portion of the file information.