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Torrents are an increasingly popular technology for sharing files, typically large media files, over the internet. Torrents employ the BitTorrent protocol, designed for transferring files in a peer-to-peer manner. What this means is that a user in theory will upload parts of the file, as it downloads the file in parts also. In this way, the BitTorrent protocol will exhibit improved performance as the number of users increases. Torrent users will encounter terminology such as seeds, peers and leeches. Basically, a seed is a user who has a complete copy of the torrent (file), and a peer, also known as a leech, will be downloading and sharing various parts of the torrent but does not yet have a complete copy. Consider a book where peers might have some chapters but not all, and will seek and share various chapters until it has the complete book, at which point it becomes a seed. The seed can share the torrent by providing various parts to further peers, though it would not be necessary to give a full copy to each peer, which would decrease the performance protocol. To commence downloading torrents, it is necessary to first install a BitTorrent client. There are several popular clients in the web domain, any of which will manage the download, and which will require a local installation. Next, a search for the desired torrent is needed. At this point you can visit any major torrent site and search their index, or take a step back and use a meta-search engine such as uSniff. What this will do is search the search engines of multiple torrent sites, thereby increasing the chances that you will find what you are seeking. Taking uSniff as an example, sort the results to find your download with the highest number of seeds, or those with the complete torrent. A high number of peers may reduce your download duration. Click on the link of the torrent you wish to download, and a new browser window will open showing the details of the torrent. At this point, you will often see information on trackers, which essentially are servers that coordinate the activity of BitTorrent clients. When you initiate a torrent downlaod, your client contacts the tracker and requests a list of peers with which to initiate contact. You do not need to involve yourself in this communciation, this will be managed between your client and the tracker. Next, select the link to a .torrent file. This will be a small file of approximately less than 1k in size. Once it is downloaded, double-click on it to launch your BitTorrent client, which then initiates the BitTorrent sharing process. At this point you will see the number of peers and seeds sharing the download with you. There is no ""shared directory"" setting as with other peer-to-peer applications. When BitTorrent starts, it allocates space locally on your machine to accommodate the entire torrent, because the download will arrive in an arbitrary order of parts, unlike http or ftp downloads where the file parts arrives sequentially. Once you have the entire file you become a seed, and the BitTorrent client remains connected to the swarm, sending to other users until you close it. Finally, good torrents etiquette involves leaving your client open for as long as possible, as it benefits other users. Some communities publish guidelines on when it's permissible to disconnect, typically after you have sent the same amount of data as you have received.
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Torrents
