File sharing is the newest rage in computing - the newest rage
of about five years ago. And as file sharing's popularity grew, so
did the technology behind it.
What's the latest trend with file sharing? The latest sending
and receiving gem is BitTorrent.
What Is Bittorrent? How Does It Work?
BitTorrent is a program used for file sharing. Simple enough,
eh? There are many other programs and technologies that you can use
to download files with.
Most file sharing programs, such as LimeWire, use a technology
called Gnutella.
Loosely, Gnutella works by sending a request for a file to other
computers on the Gnutella network. If someone on the network has
the file, it is sent to you.
BitTorrent works a bit differently. You download a tracker file
from a website and then use the tracker in your BitTorrent client
(there's a list of a few clients at the end of the article). The
tracker contains information about the torrent you'll be
downloading.
Typically a torrent is either a folder or a zip file. The folder
contains a set of files that are downloaded a bit at a time (hence
the name), and each bit may come from a different source. This is
useful to send a program or a whole CD at one time, as opposed to
Gnutella, which can send only one file at a time.
When BitTorrent downloads a file (called a torrent), it sends
and receives simultaneously. As you're downloading a section from
one or more people, you're also sharing the bits you already have
with others. This speeds up the process and keeps distribution
high.
As with other peer to peer (P2P) networks, getting a file
depends on having users currently online with that file.
How Is It Useful?
The biggest advantage is that you're almost always sending and
receiving at the same time. You're unable to be a "freeloader" or
"leacher," as it's termed in the rest of the P2P world, by not
sharing anything. Forcing users to share what they're downloading
puts makes more available at one time.
Of course, once it's downloaded, you don't need to share it any
longer, although it's considered polite to do so for a while after
completing your download. As I've said before, it's useful for
sending an entire album or program instead of one file at a
time.
How Do I Get Started?
There are many clients for sending and receiving a torrent file,
such as Tomato
Torrent (Mac only), Azurues (a Java
client), or the official BitTorrent Client. Azurues offers
the most bells and whistles. You get a good view of what's going on
with the torrent you're downloading. The official client has a more
straightforward interface. Tomato is somewhere in the middle. They
all work pretty well, so you can choose one based on how much
control you really want over your downloading.
Are There Any Downsides?
Well, first and foremost, there's no search function as compared
to a regular P2P client like LimeWire. Instead, you'll need to find
.torrent files on the Internet at places like Suprnova.
Since torrent files are normally larger than what you would
download off of another service, bandwidth can become an issue.
Copyright is another issue, one we won't cover in this article.
