BitTorrent

The use of torrents has exploded over the past couple years...and it's done so for good reason. BitTorrent is way to download huge files (like movies or software) quickly and easily. However, most of the explanations I've read on how torrents work are extremely hard for non-technically minded people to understand. For example, here's the start of an entry in Wikipedia:

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used to distribute large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and by some estimates it accounts for about 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet.^[1] The initial distributor of the complete file or collection acts as the first seed. Each peer who downloads the data also uploads it to other peers, even after they have dismounted the original seed. Because of this...

Look at these words: file sharing, protocol, files, distributor, seed, dismounted...no wonder people who aren't technically minded are scared off by all this talk.

In a way, the people who use bitTorrent like it that way - the inexperienced user won't look past all this complicated jargon to fully understand how powerful and useful this system is - and the users who *DO* get it will be left alone to do whatever they want.

The fact is that BitTorrent is simple to use, once you have a very practical understanding of how it works.

There are two pieces that you need to start downloading files using bitTorrent - the software and the torrent file:

Software - this is a program (like uTorrent...my personal favorite) that can read a torrent file and download what you're looking for. This is also referred to as a "client" or "client software"

Torrent file - This is the file that tells your computer where to get the file you want. You can download torrent files from any number of free sites (such as isohunt or torrentscan) or membership sites (like Demonoid)

As an example - let's say you want to download 'America's Army' a free video game created and distributed by the US military. First, you would need to download some torrent software (assuming you haven't done so already), then just do a search on a torrent site (like isoHunt), find the torrent for 'America's Army,' download it, and open the torrent file with the software. That's it!

There are some illegal applications for torrent use, such as downloading files that aren't free or things you haven't already paid for...but those are issues for the lawyers to handle, and I'm no lawyer.

Though there are some drawbacks; the files don't download instantaneously, which could mean a wait of hours or sometimes days depending on the size of the file. Also, sometimes you'll get a bad torrent - especially if what you're looking for is obscure - and the file may never show up at all.

That said, it's little wonder more and more people are using bitTorrent.