A type of network where computers communicate directly with each other rather than through a central server. Often referred to simply as peer-to-peer, or abbreviated P2P with this type of network each workstation has equivalent capabilities and responsibilities in contrast to client/server architectures in which some computers are dedicated to serving the other computers. A « network » is a group of two or more computer systems linked together by various methods. In recent usage, peer-to-peer has come to describe applications in which users can use the Internet to exchange files with each other directly or through a mediating server.