How Does BitTorrent Work?
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Torrents
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BitTorrent is a popular file sharing service. It is a vast, massively populated "peer-to-peer" network. This means that instead of downloading files from a single website, users are downloading files directly from the computers of other users.
Files are obtained from websites that contain hundreds of thousands of "torrent" files. These files are incredibly small in size, and are used in conjunction with a BitTorrent "client," which is the name for a program used for downloading and managing files. The torrent contains information and directions for the client to begin the download of the actual requested files.
Seeding
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The user who first uploaded the file or files in question acts as the first "seeder." A seeder is a user who is in possession of the completed file and has made it available for others to download. Users in search of the file connect to as many different seeders as possible at one time and download pieces of the completed file. Because only part of the file is being downloaded from many different users, this greatly improves the rate at which a person can download a file. It also relieves bandwidth and hardware use for the originator of the file.
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Leeching
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People who have only a partially completed version of the file in question are called "leechers." These people are also uploading whatever parts of a file they have at the same time as they are downloading the remainder. This process improves download rates for everyone involved, as the more seeders and leechers a user connects to, the more parts of a file they can download at once, which means the file will finish downloading faster. When a user is down downloading a file, they themselves become seeders for others to download from.
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