A data processing method comprising establishing a first node in a peer-to-peer data communications network, wherein the node is configured as a supernode in conformance with a peer-to-peer communications protocol, wherein the first node is configured as an active listener to one or more network routing protocols executing at a network router; receiving a routing information message from one of the network routing protocols; modifying an operational characteristic of the first node in response to the routing information message; receiving a request from a second node in the peer-to-peer network for a resource that is known to the first node; and responding to the request based on the modified operational characteristic. For example, a peer-to-peer node may be configured as a network-aware BitTorrent Tracker, Gnutella supernode, etc., and can use IGP and BGP information from a router to determine how the node behaves.