Direct Connect (DC)

When i first joined the collage,one of my friend was having a Laptop and we (me and my friends) used to gather around to watch certain movies or TV series as we were exposed to the Direct Connect software of the Institute. At first it seemed more like a magical software, whatever we searched for in the search column, the software provided instant results elegantly arranged on the basis of file types such as video, audio, text and many more. Interestingly, the movies which we searched, which was our top priority, we displayed in a number of files sizes depending on the quality of the file and then what we just have to click the download option and the movie will be downloaded in minutes, and if the it was a music video then we just have to wait for few seconds for the completion of download. The feeling was just awesome. :)

I was just fascinated by this software, so i decided to learn the basic idea regarding the working of the software. I asked on of my senior who was in mechanical, but to my bad-luck he also didn't have much idea regarding that (i think that's because of the branch, no offense to anyone). So i goggled about the software but i only came across the different versions and alternatives of the same software like Apex DC++, DC++, Strong DC, etc. Then i go though a article in Wikipedia, where it was explained that Direct Connect is a Protocol (set of rules) for sharing files directly among the users, which are connected centrally to a HUB. This HUB was run by the Institutes server, so we just have to connect using the given IP address and get started. Every user is required to access the HUB by registering to a website hosted on the local servers of the institute, which required the detailed attributes of the student and then we connect to that HUB. This method varies with collages.

This was my first experience and exposure to the Networking aspect of Computer Science and i think that ignited a desire to learn more about networks and their administration.