The peer-to-peer (P2P) network has received a lot of bad press recently. Often used for sharing illegal files between different users, a wide number of people in the industry misunderstand the concept and what it could be used for on a legitimate basis.

For instance, the advantage of P2P sharing is that you can share files between a number of users, without requiring your system to be connected to the Internet 24/7. The P2P network also enables you to download files from other peers and leave your download running, rest assured that more than one peer (download) will be available. Used legitimately, you could use the P2P network to share your digital photos, your home videos or your work, between family and authorised friends.

AllPeers is a P2P network for Firefox users. It installs as an extension to Firefox, so whenever you use Firefox, the files you want to share with your friends are made available. As only you can authorise other people to find and share your files (and share theirs, too), you’re not using a public P2P network, so your files are safe and secure.

Download here is for the Windows version of Mozilla Firefox (and now works with Firefox 2.0).