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What is a bitTorrent?
- Thread starter Gomez
- Start date
Aeson
I am the mysterious professor.
depends on who you are. If you are the MPAA or RIAA or even the video game industry, it is a tool of the devil.
If your not then it is a program that allows you to download from a website or server. One thing about bit torrent is it allows downloads from more than one source at a time and takes bits and pieces from each. It tends to go faster.
I can not legally advocate the use to download copyrighted material. I have used it to download stuff not just movies or music but game books. I use it as a tool to try something before I buy. I can try it and if I like I buy a legal copy. If I don't I get rid of it and rejoice that I did not waste my money.
If your not then it is a program that allows you to download from a website or server. One thing about bit torrent is it allows downloads from more than one source at a time and takes bits and pieces from each. It tends to go faster.
I can not legally advocate the use to download copyrighted material. I have used it to download stuff not just movies or music but game books. I use it as a tool to try something before I buy. I can try it and if I like I buy a legal copy. If I don't I get rid of it and rejoice that I did not waste my money.
Psionicist
Explorer
Arrgh, I hate ignorant media / newspapers spreading disinformation. BitTorrent is NOT NOT NOT NOT some kind of "piracy tool". BitTorrent is NOT NOT NOT some kinda of new fancy Napster or Kazaa. NOT! 
BitTorrent is a way to distribute data. BitTorrent is not a program itself but a protocol, like http, ftp, smtp. To put it simple, BitTorrent is a set of rules that allow lots of computers to "talk" to each other to distribute files. If you download a file from a website, it's a one-to-one communication, the website sends you the file. If you however use BitTorrent to download the file, you use many-to-many communication and sends and recieves data to others downloading the file. You help distribute the file you download by uploading to others at the same time.
Lets say we have a 1000 MB file lots of people want. 1000 MB is _alot_, a regular MP3-file is around 4-5 MB. Before BitTorrent, large files were usually hosted on websites. This was very expansive because all the people who wanted the file downloaded it from one single computer. With BitTorrent, you download chunks of the file from different locations, then other can download your chunks from you instead of the original host.
An anology is the telephone kind. Lets say you want to tell your gaming group you cant play this friday. Instead of you calling all your 10 gaming buddies, you call 2 of them, and tell them to pass the message on. You dont have to do as much work if everyone helps a little. Thats BitTorrent.
To use BitTorrent you need a bittorrent client, such as "ABC", or the official client (named "BitTorrent", which is confusing), or Azureus (spell?). To download a file using bittorrent you download a ".torrent"-file from a website, and then the bittorrent client will take care of the rest for you.
--
The whole TV / Movies thing you have heard about is just because BitTorrent is really good at distributing these kinds of files because they are large. BitTorrent is the best technology right now if you want to distribute (download/upload) large files, kinda like the german Autobahn is the best road if you want to drive fast. BitTorrent is not only used for these kind of files but also large programs such as Linux.
Please tell everyone you know BitTorrent has nothing to do with piracy. Guns dont kill people, other people do.
BitTorrent is a way to distribute data. BitTorrent is not a program itself but a protocol, like http, ftp, smtp. To put it simple, BitTorrent is a set of rules that allow lots of computers to "talk" to each other to distribute files. If you download a file from a website, it's a one-to-one communication, the website sends you the file. If you however use BitTorrent to download the file, you use many-to-many communication and sends and recieves data to others downloading the file. You help distribute the file you download by uploading to others at the same time.
Lets say we have a 1000 MB file lots of people want. 1000 MB is _alot_, a regular MP3-file is around 4-5 MB. Before BitTorrent, large files were usually hosted on websites. This was very expansive because all the people who wanted the file downloaded it from one single computer. With BitTorrent, you download chunks of the file from different locations, then other can download your chunks from you instead of the original host.
An anology is the telephone kind. Lets say you want to tell your gaming group you cant play this friday. Instead of you calling all your 10 gaming buddies, you call 2 of them, and tell them to pass the message on. You dont have to do as much work if everyone helps a little. Thats BitTorrent.
To use BitTorrent you need a bittorrent client, such as "ABC", or the official client (named "BitTorrent", which is confusing), or Azureus (spell?). To download a file using bittorrent you download a ".torrent"-file from a website, and then the bittorrent client will take care of the rest for you.
--
The whole TV / Movies thing you have heard about is just because BitTorrent is really good at distributing these kinds of files because they are large. BitTorrent is the best technology right now if you want to distribute (download/upload) large files, kinda like the german Autobahn is the best road if you want to drive fast. BitTorrent is not only used for these kind of files but also large programs such as Linux.
Please tell everyone you know BitTorrent has nothing to do with piracy. Guns dont kill people, other people do.
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Psionicist
Explorer
Exactly, and thats not good, because BitTorrent is the smartest thing this millenium (at least in computers) and I dont like it's labeled as a tool only used for illegal purposes.
Psionicist
Explorer
KenM said:
Thats how it works, if you don't upload you won't download. Most BitTorrent trackers makes sure you will never download faster than you upload. If you configure your network and firewalls correctly you will download at least as fast as your maximum upload. My download is usually 800 kb/sec with my 8/1 mbit connection with BitTorrent (assuming there are at least a few seeders), better than when I download from FTPs.
You dont have to be so paranoid, the official client has had 0 security vulnerabilities during the last 6 years according to Secunia ( http://secunia.com/product/3028/ ), thats even better than Firefox.
Agamon
Adventurer
KenM said:
I think you may be mistaken as to what you need to do to make BT work. Port forwarding does not leave your firewall open for attack. In fact, it doesn't really open anything at all. It simply tells the router which PC to send the info to without it having to guess, speeding the process up.
And if you have a router, then a software firewall is right next to useless. The router stops incoming attacks. The software firewall will just be taking up resources.
