by Escaped Minds

Created on: September 26, 2008

BitTorrent has become one of the most widely used methods of transferring large amounts of data between people efficiently. Similar to the concepts used in KaZaa and LimeWire, BitTorrent relies on a peer-based transfer system, whereby A user submits a Torrent file to a tracker website (some common sites include thepiratebay.org, mininova.org and demonoid.com) which then allows other individuals to use the Torrent file to download whatever content is provided (movies, music, games).

Transfer speed is based on the users share ratio. The more upload traffic they allow from their computer to the BitTorrent network, the faster they will be allowed to download files. This is to keep the community fair, and to discourage leeching, which is the practice of downloading a file without allowing others to upload the file from you. This also allows users to attain greater overall download speed as they are downloading from multiple sources, and thus using the largest portion of their available bandwidth possible.

BitTorrent Inc. is the original developper of the transfer protocol, but the community is largely responsible for advances made in BitTorrent client functionality. One of the more popular clients, Azeurus is a cross-platform (Windows, Macintosh and Linux compatible) torrenting program that enables a large variety of features that are often lacking in other programs.

The uTorrent client was developped independently and had speed and size in mind throughout the development phase. The program is a very small download, and when running consumes almost no system resources while allowing a user to achieve maximum transfer speeds. The company was bought by BitTorrent Inc. but continues to be developped as if it were an independent company application. Unfortunately the uTorrent client is only officially released for the Windows operating System (2000/XP/Vista) but a Macintosh OSX version is to be released in the near future (some beta leaks can be found on BitTorrent itself).

There are a variety of clients designed to fill niche markets, and each client has its advantages and drawbacks. It is in the users best interest to try a variety of clients to find the one that fills their needs. The key thing to keep in mind when using BitTorrent is that your speeds are based on your upload speed, and some sites that host Torrents require that their users maintain a certain share ratio (downloaded to uploaded ratio, in size and not speed) to be eligible to use their site or to be allowed full speed access to certain Seeds (computers that are hosting the file for upload only). If you are downloading a file you are known as a leecher as you do not have the full file to offer the community yet, and once your download has completed you become a seeder which is a source for people to download the entire file from. It is important to try and share to at least 100% share ratio, so that you are giving back to the community as equally as you are downloading from it.

This program overall (and its protocol) allow for fast, equal media distribution that doesn't require the hefty expensive servers that most download resources require, because the majority of the work is offloaded to the client. Overall, the BitTorrent program is an ever-improving program that offers many client programs to serve the needs of anyone.

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