Getting started with torrents: What is a torrent?
To understand more about torrents we must know what it is so first up, we’ll look at what a torrent actually is and why people use it.
What is a torrent?
Simply put, a torrent is a downloadable file. Anything that can be downloaded from the web can be a torrent. This can range from the latest drivers for your GPU to your own vacation videos of last summer to a cool set of DeviantArt wallpapers. A torrent uses the bittorrent protocol to make it available for download.
What is bittorrent?
BitTorrent is a protocol designed to transfer files, large amounts of files to be more precise.
How does it work?
By making a file or group of files available to the network, a user becomes a seed. When a user is seeding a file, other users, named peers, can connect to the network and download that file. The file is broken into parts (blocks) of data and when a peer downloads one of those parts, he makes it available to others for download. When a file is completely downloaded by a peer, he may choose to continue to make the data available to others, thus becoming an additional seed.
However, there is a main server that coordinates the action of all peers. This is called a tracker and it manages all of the peer connections therefore making it possible for a tracker with limited bandwidth to support a high amount of users. What is it used for and why? Simply, it’s used to distribute a file or specifically a large file to a high amount of people, cheaply and easily. This could range from the latest map pack for a popular game to the 1000 best wallpapers of all time. It’s used because of the high availability, affordability, ease of use and speed.
A common misconception is that torrents are only used for pirated files and that every law abiding citizen should steer clear and shake their fists at the torrent community. Wrong, a torrent is simply a way to distribute a file to a large number of users. Have you ever tried to download a trailer of the latest blockbuster, or maybe the demo of a long awaited video game? Well, ten million other people is also trying which means that almost every server everywhere is overloaded and you’re stuck having to wait until next week.
Now if 500 users are downloading that trailer or demo through a torrent, each of them is essentially giving you a piece of the file making the download extremely fast as well as available to everyone.
Take OpenOffice for an example. It’s free, legal and pretty much the best open source office out there, no wonder it gets at least 500 downloads every day. On a 128 megabyte file, that would equate to 1.92 terabytes of bandwidth used in a month and not even to mention the amount of mirrors it would take to successfully handle all those downloads. Distributing OpenOffice through a torrent is quicker, easier and cheaper for them.
What is the difference between a torrent and a direct download?
The main differences are where the file is stored and the download speed. A direct download is stored on a particular server, when you click on it’s download link the server gives you the file. A torrent is not stored anywhere and is made available to other users directly.
The speed can vary between different direct downloads and torrents. When 50 000 users are seeding a torrent you will almost certainly max out your speed, but when there’s only 3 or 4 seeders you will be creeping along at 1kb/s. With a direct download your speed depends on the server and how much load it’s under meaning that if you are downloading from a server which is not very busy or from a high speed server, your speed will most likely max out. Most of the time, even when a server is fairly busy, you have decent download speed for your connection. Don’t let this put you off though, we have a number of free speed increasing tips and tools on this site to help you increase your speed.
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