| Torrent is a peer-to-peer protocol used for transferring large files. It is one of the most widely used protocols for files distribution.A torrent refers to a torrent meta-data file or a few files described by it and contains metadata about all the downloadable files. Meta-data files aren't stored on the torrent tracker site, but are disseminated among a number of torrent file servers. Each torrent file guides to a trackers site, which centrally coordinates the P2P transfer of data among Internet users and registers all the downloaders and sharers of the corresponding file. One tracker server can monitor simultaneous downloads of multiple files. Following the link to the torrent meta-data file, a user obtains from the host site a list of some of the peers having a part of the requested file, with whom a direct connection to barter parts of the file can be established.A file downloadable via Torrent is a seed. A person who has at their disposal the entire file and uploads or ‘seeds' it is known as a Seeder. The more seeders, the better.A leecher is a peer who downloads, or leeches, the file from other people. As new leechers join the web and request the same file, their computer obtains a different bit of the data from the seeder. As soon as multiple peers have multiple bits of the seed, they become a source for that portion of the file. So, the task gets distributed among the seeder and many peers, which easens the initial user.As soon as the file is entirely downloaded by a given peer, the latter is able to convert into an additional seed, helping the remaining leechers to obtain the full file.Due to the nature of Torrent, files can be downloaded very quickly. For a secure and quick download, choose the torrents with more seeders than leechers, and visit the comments section, if available. It will preclude you from downloading low quality or infected files. It should be mentioned, however, that torrent trackers are less prone to viruses than P2P programs.It is important to let your torrent-downloaded file seed so that you get a ratio of at least 1.0. This ratio means that you have seeded a file in exchange for the downloaded one. Some tracker servers keep track of the quantity of data disseminated and downloaded by every user, and a bad ratio can be penalized with a bad download speed. Furthermore, disconnecting downloading a file violates the idea of cooperation, which is the core principle of Torrent. |
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