What is Bit Torrent?
Bit torrent is an open source peer-to-peer filesharing system. Typical filesharing networks, such as Kazaa, or napster, operate using central servers. All data flows back and forth between the users and those servers.
With Bit torrent, things work a little differently. The data flows directly between users (or peers) without going through a central place.
Bit torrent does not work on a network basis like Kazaa does. Allow me to elaborate. For users to be able to download via Kazaa, the servers in Kazaa HQ need to be up and running. With Bit torrent, anybody can setup filesharing anywhere in the world without the need for servers. Theoretically, if you and your friend were the only computers on the net, you could get some bit torrent sharing going.
Visit the official site Bit torrent site
here∞.
How does it work?
Person A wants to share a file, or some files (in this case, a music album). Person A creates a torrent file (e.g.
MusicAlbum.torrent). This torrent file contains a list of the names of all the files to be shared, as well as a checksum for each file (a kind of code unique to that file) that identifies it uniquely (to stop people sharing incorrect files on a torrent).
The torrent file is then uploaded to a tracker. A tracker is a kind of server that can be hosted on any web server in the world. The URL of the tracker (e.g.
http://VJ.com/tracker.php∞) is coded into the torrent file. Typically, the tracker will have an affiliated website which lists all of the torrents that have been uploaded.
Next, Person A will download that torrent file and load it into their Bit torrent client so that he is seeding. 'Seeding' is when a Bit torrent user has 100% of the data from the torrent, and is openly sharing this data.
Person B can then come along and find the torrent file and load it into their Bit torrent client. The torrent looks at the tracker URL and inside its brains it finds the information for that torrent, including a list of all people who are on that torrent. In this case, it would only be Person A. Person B's client then connects to Person A's, and starts to download the data in a random, non-sequential order.
At any point, Person C or Person D (and so on ad infinitum) can download the torrent and load it into their client. Person A would then be sending the data to all of these people. The twist is that Person B would also be sending any data they have to the other users while they are still downloading other parts of the data. This means that as a torrent grows in popularity, so too does the speed you can download at.
Once Persons B C D etc have finished downloading all of the data, they go from being "peers" (sometimes referred to as "leechers") and become "seeders", just like Person A. The more seeders there are, the faster others can then download the data at a later time.
Bit torrent is reliant on users continuing to seed (i.e. upload) data after they have finished downloading. Most torrent communities have rules or guidelines on how long users should continue to seed after downloading - it is typical for communities to expect all users to upload the same amount of data that they have downloaded.
What do I need to get going?
You need 2 things to get going:
- Bit torrent software (or a 'client')
- Somewhere to get the torrent files (i.e. a tracker community).
Clients
There are many torrent clients in existence, but the most popular is a piece of software called Azureus. This is highly recommended for new users.
Download Azureus from
here∞.
Other clients:
Torrent/tracker communities
Unfortunately for the budding torrenter, many of the best Bit torrent communities have restricted membership. However, there are a number of good sites open for public use that can be found via the power of the mighty Google. Here are some torrent communities that are open to the public:
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