Author: Mike Hearn 2014-08-08 10:01:03
Published on: 2014-08-08T10:01:03+00:00
The conversation is regarding the use of NODE_EXT_SERVICES bit which is used to advertise the P2P "getextsrv" command to get information about an auxiliary service. The user intends to use it for advertising services that are not part of the P2P protocol itself but run on a different port. However, reserving service bits for those services is not acceptable. The NODE_EXT_SERVICES bit only helps in getting information such as the port to connect to the auxiliary service. From the client's perspective, this means that if someone implements a useful service and exposes it this way, then the client has to seek out, connect to, and interrogate every possible server even if only a handful provide the service. When there is more than one "ext service," the protocol becomes extremely slow compared to using service bits where addr packets can be downloaded to see which IPs are advertising which services. The user does not see much reason to take a potentially large performance hit when there is already a service advertisement mechanism that works. The existing mechanism is questioned for its shortcomings.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T02:04:34.713599+00:00