Most people use torrents to download music, movies, ebooks , software etc. Copyright violation and piracy are rampant in the torrent world. Most people I know, just don’t care. When you can get something for free why would you consider spending even a nickel?
So, how do they work and how different are these from the regular downloads?
Unlike, sites from where you can download stuff directly from the web server. Torrents just keep record of what is called a “Tracker“. A Tracker is the server which keeps track of the swarm. The swarm consists of many seeds and peers.
A torrent file may be just 16KB while the file it contains the tracker to i.e the file which you wish to download might be over 1GB…….
A seeder is the one who has completed the download and has 100% of the file you want. He just uploads.
A peer is the one who has completed only a part of it, and is currently downloading just like you. He downloads and uploads.
In that sense, the larger the swarm, better are your chances of downloading the file. A 2:1 ratio of seeds and peers is considered great while 1:1 although fine may not give the best downloads speeds. Anything less than that means its not worth the time.
When you start downloading, bits and pieces are downloaded one by one and combined together at your end by a Torrent client example utorrent for windows/linux, transmission for MAC.
The speed at which you upload is called upspeed and the speed at which you download is called downspeed. Downspeed is what is important to you while upspeed is of importance to the peers who are downloading the same file.
The reason why torrents are so popular is because people are compelled to upload while they are downloading. If you cap your uploads speeds, your download speeds are automatically reduced! If you wish to do some social work, you can continue seeding after your download is complete.
So, how do they work and how different are these from the regular downloads?
Unlike, sites from where you can download stuff directly from the web server. Torrents just keep record of what is called a “Tracker“. A Tracker is the server which keeps track of the swarm. The swarm consists of many seeds and peers.
A torrent file may be just 16KB while the file it contains the tracker to i.e the file which you wish to download might be over 1GB…….
A seeder is the one who has completed the download and has 100% of the file you want. He just uploads.
A peer is the one who has completed only a part of it, and is currently downloading just like you. He downloads and uploads.
In that sense, the larger the swarm, better are your chances of downloading the file. A 2:1 ratio of seeds and peers is considered great while 1:1 although fine may not give the best downloads speeds. Anything less than that means its not worth the time.
When you start downloading, bits and pieces are downloaded one by one and combined together at your end by a Torrent client example utorrent for windows/linux, transmission for MAC.
The speed at which you upload is called upspeed and the speed at which you download is called downspeed. Downspeed is what is important to you while upspeed is of importance to the peers who are downloading the same file.
The reason why torrents are so popular is because people are compelled to upload while they are downloading. If you cap your uploads speeds, your download speeds are automatically reduced! If you wish to do some social work, you can continue seeding after your download is complete.
The two sites I prefer are :
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