Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking is undoubtedly one of the most touted topics of the day. The popularity achieved by applications like Napster and Gnutella provides testimony to the potentials of peer-to-peer applications. Amid the plethora of efforts going on in this domain, Sun Microsystems initiated Jxta, a network computing platform for P2P application development. This article explores P2P and the Jxta effort in particular. It serves as an introduction to all early adopters, programmers, and hobbyists who wish to develop P2P applications.