BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounted for roughly 27% to 55% of all Internet traffic as of February 2009.
Programmer Bram Cohen designed the protocol in April 2001 and released a first implementation on July 2, 2001. It is now maintained by Cohen’s company BitTorrent, Inc. There are numerous BitTorrent clients available for a variety of computing platforms.
The Bit Torrent system is a download mechanism, in which you download from others who have already downloaded the same file (peers), instead of straining one download server. It’s a file you download into a BitTorrent client. When you download the torrent, which has trackers, you begin to download the file from other people who have the file. In order to download it, other people have to seed though. When you go to a site to find a torrent, there will often be information such as “seeders” and “leachers”, these numbers affect download speed. If you have 0 seeders, you won’t be able to download it for instance.
What is .torrent file?
A torrent file stores metadata used for BitTorrent. It is defined in the BitTorrent specification. In a conventional Internet download, a file or group of files is transmitted from one computer (usually a server) to another computer (a client). Data is held in a central location and is retrieved per the request of a single user.
A torrent, however, distributes data differently on many levels. Firstly, a .torrent file is not the actual file being retrieved. The .torrent file is merely data which has information about the file that the user is seeking. The .torrent file is, in a sense, a sort of index of the file being retrieved. The torrent divides the target file into a series of equally sized pieces that are each assigned an identifying checksum.
The transfer of the torrent file is done between many different peers. Rather than the data being transferred from one machine to the next, the various pieces of the file are held on many different computers. The torrent client communicate with other peers in order to check which pieces they have and exchanges them for the ones they need. In this way, transferring files via a torrent is sort of like a lightning fast, digitally automated game of “Go Fish.” Peers swap pieces of files with as many different computers as possible and eventually combine the various parts into the whole, requested file.
-Wikipedia.org
How it works:
-All torrenting takes place using a torrent program. Examples of torrenting programs include uTorrent, Azureus and the original BitTorrent. These programs allow your computer to send and receive files on a specific port and interpret the data from .TORRENT files. .TORRENT files contain all of the information on a specific torrent, who started it, what the torrent contains, and how to download and upload information corresponding to that torrent.
– You download a .torrent file (mostly from the tracker itself), which has some info and a link to the tracker server.
– The tracker server, well tracks each and every peer; the people who are downloading or have downloaded. Your torrent program connects to this server and requests a list of peers.
– Your program then connects to the peers which have already downloaded parts of the file, which you still have to get. Most programs connect to a dozen peers at the time.
– You then keep repeating to download little parts from others, and others download from you, until you have a complete file.
-Once the torrent program has received all portions of the torrent, it assembles them into a file using the directions found in the .TORRENT file.
This mechanism keeps the bandwidth down for the servers, and still allows distribution of files.
However, Torrents have become very popular with software/media pirates, because the file itself will never be located on a central server, instead, it will be split over hundreds of computers. This means you can’t tackle it easily by shutting down one server, and because the tracker doesn’t have a physical copy of the file itself, its not doing anything illegal. And when people tell you that torrents are illegal; it’s in case of copyrighted materials.
Controversy
Unfortunately, since its inception, peer-to-peer torrenting has been highly controversial. Because trackers cannot and do not keep track of what information can be found in their torrents, the potential for copyright infringement, file theft and even child pornography exists. Organizations pursue legal activity against torrent trackers and users every day under claims of copyright infringement. However, despite all of the controversy, torrenting remains a very popular way to transfer large amounts of data from and to users at a very quick speed. Many computer companies, such as Blizzard Entertainment, even use torrenting to allow users to download their software.
Anyway, in my view its all legal because SHARING is never illegal; its caring. 🙂
Some torrent sites include thepiratebay.com, mininova.com and google can find many.
Cheers!
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