Napster is, basically, a search engine dedicated to finding MP3's. It gives people the opportunity to do P2P file sharing. Napster offers a different way to share music. Instead of storing all of the music on a central server, it stores a list of songs and where each is located on different people's computers. When you download a song off Napster, you are actually downloading directly from someone's computer. This is called P2P, or person-to-person sharing.

When someone uses Napster here is what really happens:

1. You open the Napster utility.
2. Napster checks for an Internet connection.
3. If it finds a connection, Napster logs you onto the central server. The main purpose of this central server is to keep an index of all the Napster users currently online and connect them to each other. It does not contain any of the MP3 files itself.
4. You type in the title or artist of the song you are looking for.
5. The Napster utility on your computer queries the index server for other Napster computers online that have the song you have requested.
6. Whenever a match is found, the Napster server informs your computer where to find the requested file.
7. When the server replies, Napster builds a list of these systems in the results window.
8. You click on the file(s) that interest you and then choose Download.
9. Your copy of Napster attempts to establish a connection with the system hosting the file you have selected.
10. If a connection is successfully made, the file begins downloading.
11. Once the file is downloaded, the host computer breaks the connection with your system.
12. You open up your MP3 player software and listen to the song.