Kerkia

Background

From Wikipedia:

“ 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 accounts for approximately 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.^[1]

BitTorrent protocol allows users to distribute large amounts of data without putting the level of strain on their computers that would be needed for standard Internet hosting. A standard host's servers can easily be brought to a halt if extreme levels of simultaneous data flow are reached. The protocol works as an alternative data distribution method that makes even small computers (e.g. mobile phones) with low bandwidth capable of participating in large data transfers.

First, a user playing the role of file-provider makes a file available to the network. This first user's file is called a seed and its availability on the network allows other users, called peers, to connect and begin to download the seed file. As new peers connect to the network and request the same file, their computer receives a different piece of the data from the seed. Once multiple peers have multiple pieces of the seed, BitTorrent allows each to become a source for that portion of the file. The effect of this is to take on a small part of the task and relieve the initial user, distributing the file download task among the seed and many peers. With BitTorrent, no one computer needs to supply data in quantities which could jeopardize the task by overwhelming all resources, yet the same final result—each peer eventually receiving the entire file—is still reached.

After the file is successfully and completely downloaded by a given peer, the peer is able to shift roles and become an additional seed, helping the remaining peers to receive the entire file. This eventual shift from peers to seeders determines the overall 'health' of the file (as determined by the number of times a file is available in its complete form).

This distributed nature of BitTorrent leads to a flood like spreading of a file throughout peers. As more peers join the swarm, the likelihood of a successful download increases. Relative to standard Internet hosting, this provides a significant reduction in the original distributor's hardware and bandwidth resource costs. It also provides redundancy against system problems, reduces dependence on the original distributor and provides a source for the file which is generally temporary and therefore harder to trace than when provided by the enduring availability of a host in standard file distribution techniques.

Programmer Bram Cohen designed the protocol in April 2001 and released a first implementation on 2 July 2001.^[2] It is now maintained by Cohen's company BitTorrent, Inc. There are numerous BitTorrent clients available for a variety of computing platforms. “

Those clients are used a lot for the fast sharing of popular files available for free. You may need to open a port in your router and/or firewall to have it working though, as with most similar tools, and please be aware that, while you download, you also contribute to the torrent yourself and as such have a visible IP address on this network. It is hence advisable to only deal with legal content.

Recommendations

We recommend mTorrent, as we found this is the fastest and one of the easiest to use of all clients we have tried. Its latest releases also include a renewed user interface which we find pleasant to use, and this tool is also one that uses the least system resources yet has a very large feature set.

Our second recommendation go to Vuze. A Much larger program but it brings the support for playing the videos you download from within the tool, and is hence our recommendation for those who do want this capability and prefer a tool that very strongly focuses on video content as opposed to being a more generic client.

Web links

mTorrent

Web site: http://www.utorrent.com/

Download: http://www.utorrent.com/

Vuze

Web site: http://www.vuze.com/

Download: http://www.vuze.com/