[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[BULK] - [pct-l] Torrent



On May 6, 2005, at 4:23 PM, Steve Courtway wrote:
> yeah but, do you know how to use it oilcan ?????

Y'all can check out www.bittorrent.com if you want
all the details but here is "simple" overview if you
are interested in this sort of thing:

Providing large files (like videos) for download
presents a problem for the person providing them
because large files eat up lots of bandwidth and
if a lot of people want the large files it eats up
lots and lots of bandwidth.  And if lots of people
want the large files in a short amount of time it
eats up *HUGE* amounts of bandwidth.  Think about
all the tsunami video from last year.

Bit Torrent solves this problem by distributing
the original file across many servers so that when
someone wants to download the file they retrieve
small parts of the file from each of the many servers.
and re-assemble the parts back into the original file.
In this way the download process doesn't "focus" on
one particular server and so no individual server has
to handle the massive amounts of requests/data/downloads.

To download a torrent, you need to have special software
on your computer because the basic web browser or ftp
software doesn't know how to find and assemble all the
parts of the torrent.  You can get that software at the
site linked above.

To make a file available for download someone has to
host the original file and provide a "seed" link for
downloaders to access the file.  The link is then
advertised to the intended audience via email or a
web page or whatever.

Here is the really interesting part.  You might wonder
where all those other servers come from.  It turns out
that the other servers are all the other people trying
to download the original file!   So the first person starts
downloading the file from the source.  When the second
person starts downloading, they get some of the file from
the source and some from the first person (who has already
downloaded part of the file).  When the third person starts
downloading, they get some of the file from the source, from
the first person, and from the second person, and so on.  The
more people trying to "assemble" the file the better because
that simply creates more "servers" for the next batch of
downloaders.  It is sort of a pyramid scheme in software.

Bit Torrent is ideally suited for large, popular files, that
are in demand over a short period of time.  For large files
that are only occasionally requested it isn't all that useful.

Finally, I don't think that WeatherCarrot's DVD is a good
example because it is in DVD format which presents a lot of
file conversion/format issues in order to download and burn
a DVD.