Bit Torrent Peer to Peer Files and Software Definition
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Bit Torrent Peer to Peer Files and Software Definition
by FrosT
Edit:
Changed Leecher to Strict leecher to avoid confusion. To the person (Matt) who corrected it, next time be polite and your comment would not be deleted. Do not flame or attempt to degrade me in anyway. Feedback is appreciated in a constructive form, you do not have to be an asshole to correct someone.
Introduction
As many internet users join the internet community a common term keeps popping up, Bit Torrents. What exactly is a Bit Torrent? Well the entry "Bit Torrent Peer to Peer Files and Software Definition" will explain exactly that, the definition and uses of Bit Torrents plus links to Bit Torrent Free software and Free Bit Torrent sites to start you off with. Let's get started.
Peer to Peer (P2P) Networks
A peer-to-peer network, commonly referred to as P2P is a network of people who share files. IE: Person to Person trading. In the past there have been many programs and networks that offered Peer-to-Peer file Trading. Perhaps the biggest and oldest file trading network via peer-to-peers is IRC or Internet Chat Relay. IRC to this day is still the largest file trading community on the web. With their major networks such as dalnet, which houses more than 100,000 users makes IRC the ideal spot for file trading.
IRC is an advanced way for people to trade files, generally non-newbies are very familiar with IRC and use IRC constantly. What about the average users though? I bet you remember Napster. Napster was a Peer-to-Peer network created by Shawn Fawning which was mainly a music trading site. There was one problem with Napster, it was vunerable enough to be shut down. Now Napster is a legitimate pay site while IRC and Bit Torrents remain free.
Essentially a Peer-to-Peer network works as such, a person has a file they want to share. They make the file available to a program which then allows users to connect to that person's computer and downloads the file. Once the person who just downloaded this file has it, they now also share this file with all the users of the software and network. That is the essential part of a Peer-to-Peer network. The more people who have the file and are sharing, the better speeds and reliability you have to get a file. Now on to a Bit Torrent.
Bit Torrent
A Bit Torrent is a small file that contains data of where and how to get a file. A bit torrent connects to a tracker which announces the file. Announcing a file means it sends the data needed to connect to the peers and seeders of the file. A seeder in the bit torrent world is a person who has the whole file and is sharing the file with everyone who has the bit torrent file. Seeders are absolutely necessary and without a seeder for a bit torrent file, no one can get the whole file. Generally when you download a whole bit torrent file, you seed it for at least 12 hours. That way you are giving back what you taken.
No one likes strictly leechers. A strict leecher in the Bit Torrent and Peer-to-Peer world is a person who just downloads and downloads and never seeds the bit torrent file or allows people to download off of them. Strict leechers are bad because it breaks what the entire Peer-to-Peer network was based on. Just remember Seed for 12 hours after you download a file to avoid being a strict leecher. Seed for longer if can. With that downloading a bit torrent file is not as complicated as it sounds. With the right websites and software Bit Torrents are an ideal way to share and download files.
Bit Torrent Software
Perhaps the best Bit Torrent software out there, which is also free is uTorrent. Check out the Article "uTorrent: Free Bit Torrent Program and Software."
Ending Notes
Bit Torrents are handy for just about any situation where you need to send files to more than one person. uTorrent's Free Bit Torrent software allows you to create your own bit torrent for sharing. With this awesome free feature from uTorrent you ca now share imags with 10 people at once and minimize the time and bandwidth it would take to send all 10 images to all 10 people.
Posted by frost on Nov 21st, 2005 12:33 - Subscribe
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