a network type where computers act as both service providers and requestors. also referred to as workgroups and has no centralized administration. suited for networks with &lt;= 10 computers.
peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application.
network characteristics: clients share their resources with other clients, resource sharing is made available through the clients' os