Patent ID: 8645553

Claim:
An article comprising: a non-transitory storage medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for controlling access to files by: selecting, by a first network node in a peer to peer file sharing system, a first file to make available for sharing with a second network node in the peer to peer file sharing system, the first file being stored on a file storage system accessible by the first network node, wherein the peer to peer file sharing system comprises the first network node, the second network node, and a third network node; selecting, by the first network node, a second file to make available for sharing with the third network node, the second file being stored on the file storage system accessible by the first network node; providing index information for the first file to the second network node only, without broadcasting the index information for the first file to any other network node in the peer to peer file sharing system; providing index information for the second file to the third network node only, without broadcasting the index information for the second file to any other network node in the peer to peer file sharing system; after the first network node has provided the index information for the first file to the second network node only, performing a local search on the second network node only, without using services from any other network node, to identify local and remote files of interest to a user of the second network node, wherein the remote files of interest comprise the first file; and after identifying local and remote files of interest to the user of the second network node, using the index information on the second network node for the first file to obtain the first file from the first network node.