When a search is initiated, the node obtains a list of Hubs, if needed, and contacts the Hubs in the list, noting which have been searched, until the list is exhausted or a predefined search limit has been reached. Most Leaves maintain two connections to Hubs, while Hubs accept hundreds of Leaf connections, and an average of 7 connections to other Hubs. Gnutella2 divides nodes into two groups: Leaves and Hubs.

Many Gnutella2 proponents claim that this is because of political reasons, while gnutella supporters claim that the drastic changes don't have enough merit to outweigh the cost of deep rewrites. G2 is not supported by many of the 'old' gnutella network clients, however, many Gnutella2 clients still also connect to gnutella. The draft specifications were released on March 26, 2003, and more detailed specifications soon followed. With the developers entrenched in their positions, a flame war soon erupted, further cementing both sides' resolve.

This backwardly compatible handshake method was criticized by the Gnutella Developers Forum as an attempt to use the gnutella network for bootstrapping the new, unrelated network, while proponents of the network claimed that its intent was to remain backwards-compatible with gnutella and to allow current gnutella clients to add Gnutella2 at their leisure.

The Gnutella2 protocol still uses the old 'GNUTELLA CONNECT/0.6' handshake string for its connections as defined in the gnutella 0.6 specifications. Some still refuse to refer to the network as 'Gnutella2', and instead, refer to it as 'Mike's Protocol' ('MP'). While some thought the goals stated for Gnutella2 are primarily to make a clean break with the gnutella 0.6 protocol and start over, so that some of gnutella's less clean parts would be done more elegantly and, in general, be impressive and desirable other developers, primarily those of LimeWire and BearShare, thought it to be a 'cheap publicity stunt' and discounted technical merits. In November 2002, Michael Stokes announced the Gnutella2 protocol to the Gnutella Developers Forum.

Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients.

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