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Torrent downloads are something new for those who have recently got broadband connections and looking at the rate at which new broadband connections are comming up in India I can say for sure that there are many who are looking for answers on what torrent downloads are.

Althought I have been using torrents for the last few years but I am also a noob when it comes to explaining to some one about how torrent downloads work..

First you would need to download a torrent client which in my case is Utorrent and then go to a torrent site where they have a list of all the trackers of torrents available and just download the small torrent file and open it using your torrent client like I use Utorrent and there you go your download will start and as time goes your download speed will also increase. As you download the file others will also download from you so its a give and take sort fo thing.

I would really appreciate if our senior members can please explain it better as this is the best I could do

just4kix

In a typical web service, our PCs are clients whereas the URL that we type is a server. We request something from a server such as a web page, information or a complete file. Sometimes we also send information to the server to be processed. This is a typical client-server environment.

Torrent downloads are completely different. When we are downloading from torrents, this is not a typical client-server environment. There is no central server that is attending and serving the download requests. In a torrent (or peer-to-peer) network, all connected computers share files. Some computers are uploading (seeding) while others are downloading (leeching).

A file is made up of many blocks and the file is downloaded or uploaded, block by block. When someone starts a fresh download, that client starts with zero. It finds other computers in the P2P network that have the file to share (seeds). The download (leeching) starts block by block. The download is complete when all blocks of the files are recieved.

When the download completes, the same computer is now ready to share. Now the leech becomes the seed.

Some points to be noted:

• A file may be seeded by 10 peers. When someone is downloading, the file blocks are downloaded from any seed and not necessarily from the same peer.
• A leech becomes a 100% seed at the end of the file download. However, as soon as you have some blocks downloaded, you are ready to seed (share) them
• So even while downloading (leeching), uploading (seeding) is also going on

__________________

smoothvibes

here are two best applications to download torrents
µTorrent
and
BitTorrent

and apart from this there is one more good application known as Azureus Vuze
Azureus Vuze

Archer

Bit torrent and utorrent are the same now. And Azureus is Vuze now.

smoothvibes

i know that they are same but brand name matters a lot, acer and dell both are into same business and both's computer's looks same but still people go for Dell... I think i am clear now

and Azureus is Vuze from last 2 years

Rameshjeee

Got some doubt regarding seeds & peers.
While downloading torrent, under seeds I have 20 (111) & under peers I have 25 (87). What does these numbers mean...

Note: The above numbers are just random & imaginary.

just4kix

The number is brackets mean the number of seeds/peers available for connection and tracked by the trackers.

The number outside bracket mean the actual connections established.

jhellie_baby

I download movies using torrent. It is a great site to do so.

You can save a lot on the cd's and dvd's too.

Dragon

But i have heard that most of the torrents websites offers Viruses Free of cost

just4kix

Only if you download software and warez. So stay away from warez.

smoothvibes

there are lot many good websites which offer good torrents and don't send any virus or spywares, most of the people use torrents to download movies and pirate softwares and its recomended to check (using good AV Software) .exe files downloded from torrents before running on system

thats_me

Reading comments and posts can help a lot. Sometimes downloads are fake,Virus infected etc. Some comments reveal some truth about the torrents.

ShAdOwCoN

Whenever you download a file from the Internet.no matter what you use[torrents,web browser,download manager etc] the file is broken into many parts/blocks called data packets. Each block is given a number/I.D and sent to the destination/client by the source/server system .When it reaches the destination computer it is reassembled into the complete original file . Transfer of File over the internet takes place using the FTP protocol to avoid traffic jams of data packets.

Protocol = set of rules

More info on torrent

Torrents use a special algorithm .... " Rarest first algorithm" ....First the rarest block [block present in least no of connected peers and leechers] is downloaded first.
When you use web browsers like IE or Firefox for downloads they download the blocks/data packets in a linear manner .... that is they download packet No 1 then 2 then 3 etc ....
But in Torrents as they use rarest first algorithm packets are downloaded in a random manner depending only on which packet is rarest . These are then reassembled after download .
This is the reason y you can effectively pause a download and continue it at any time later in torrents.

peers 5(20)
seed 6(30)

The number inside the brackets are the total number of seeders/peers having the file
The number outside the brackets are the number of seeders/leechers you r connected to.
There is always a Limit to the number of seeders/leechers you can connect . It also depends on other factors .

Myth Buster

Torrent sites only index the Torrents file they do not host the torrent files in their server !.

The torrent files are present only in our computers that is seeder's and leecher's computers .
For example
The torrent site 'The pirate Bay' only indexes the torrent files in their servers ...When you click on the index entry a small file will be downloaded and then you ll be connected thru a torrent client to all peers/seeders downloading the file .....The leechers and peers are from other torrent sites as well not only from the index site you got connected from .....Ofcourse that will also depend on the trackers

For getting virus free downloads
-->Select a torrent site which gives space for comments

-->Find some reliable trackers and blacklist ones that are not good .remove these blacklisted ones whenever they r added automatically at the start of download
You can find blacklisted trackers in the internet

--> Knowing the exact size of the file you want to download will help.For example i am downloading Firefox from torrents . I know that it is a 7 mb download . But i ll also find 14mb or 30 mb firefox downloads . i know that these r fake by their file size

--> Add the reliable trackes for all your downloads

Dragon

Nice explanation..eddy..repo awarded (Let me c if i can grant some)

Yesss...repo awarded

ShAdOwCoN

Thanks

Dragon

No need to give thanks man...repo chalega

Rameshjeee

Few Terminologies:

Announce:
Same as scrape (see below), but client also announces that it wants to join the swarm and that server should add it to the peers in that swarm.

Choked:
Describes a peer to whom the client refuses to send file pieces. A client chokes another client in several situations:
The second client is a seed, in which case it does not want any pieces (ie. it is completely uninterested)
The client is already uploading at its full capacity (ie. the value for max_uploads has been reached)

Client:
The program that enables p2p file sharing via the BitTorrent protocol. Examples of clients include µTorrent and Vuze.

Downloader:
A downloader is any peer that does not have the entire file and is downloading the file. This term is used in Bram Cohen's Python implementation, and lacks the negative connotation attributed to leech. Bram prefers downloader to leech because BitTorrent's tit-for-tat ensures downloaders also upload and thus should not be unfairly branded leech.

Hash:
The hash is a string of alphanumeric characters in the .torrent file that the client uses to verify the data that is being transferred. It contains information like the file list, sizes, pieces, etc. Every piece received is first checked against the hash. If it fails verification, the data is discarded and requested again. The 'Hash Fails' field in the torrent General tab shows the number of these hash fails.

Index:
An index is a list of .torrent files (usually including descriptions and other information) managed by a website and available for searches. An index website can also be a tracker.

Interested:
Describes a downloader who wishes to obtain pieces of a file the client has. For example, the uploading client would flag a downloading client as 'interested' if that client did not possess a piece that it did, and wished to obtain it.

Leech:
A leech is usually a peer who has a negative effect on the swarm by having a very poor share ratio - in other words, downloading much more than they upload. Most leeches are users on asymmetric internet connections and do not leave their BitTorrent client open to seed the file after their download has completed. However, some leeches intentionally avoid uploading by using modified clients or excessively limiting their upload speed. The term leech, however, can be used simply to describe a peer - or any client that does not have 100% of the data.

Lurker:
A lurker is a user that only downloads files from the group but does not add new content. Unlike a leech, a lurker will seed what he or she has downloaded.

p2p:
Stands for "peer to peer" which is the technology used for file sharing among computer users over the internet.

Peer:
A peer is one instance of a BitTorrent client running on a computer on the Internet to which other clients connect and transfer data. Usually a peer does not have the complete file, but only parts of it. However, in the colloquial definition, "peer" can be used to refer to any participant in the swarm (in this case, it's synonymous with "client").

Piece:
This refers to the torrented files being divided up into equal specific sized pieces (ie 512Kb, 1Mb). The pieces are distributed in a random fashion among peers in order to optimize trading efficiency.

Scrape:
This is when a client sends a request to the tracking server for information about the statistics of the torrent, such as with whom to share the file and how well those other users are sharing.

Seeder:
A seeder is a peer that has a complete copy of the torrent and still offers it for upload. The more seeders there are, the better the chances are for completion of the file.

Share ratio:
A user's share ratio for any individual torrent is a number determined by dividing the amount of data that user has uploaded by the amount of data they have downloaded. Final share ratios over 1 carry a positive connotation in the BitTorrent community because they indicate that the user has sent more data to other users than they received. Likewise, share ratios under 1 have a negative connotation.

Snubbed:
An uploading client is flagged as snubbed if the downloading client has not received any data from it in over 60 seconds.

Super-seeding:
When a file is new, much time can be wasted because the seeding client might send the same file piece to many different peers, while other pieces have not yet been downloaded at all. Some clients, like ABC, Azureus, BitTornado, TorrentStorm, and µTorrent have a "super-seed" mode, where they try to only send out pieces that have never been sent out before, theoretically making the initial propagation of the file much faster. However the super-seeding becomes substantially less effective and may even reduce performance compared to the normal "rarest first" model in cases where some peers have poor or limited connectivity. This mode is generally used only for a new torrent, or one which must be re-seeded because no other seeds are available.

Swarm:
Together, all peers (including seeders) sharing a torrent are called a swarm. For example, six ordinary peers and two seeders make a swarm of eight.

Torrent:
A torrent can mean either a .torrent metadata file or all files described by it, depending on context. The torrent file contains metadata about all the files it makes downloadable, including their names and sizes and checksums of all pieces in the torrent. It also contains the address of a tracker that coordinates communication between the peers in the swarm.

Tracker:
A tracker is a server that keeps track of which seeds and peers are in the swarm. Clients report information to the tracker periodically and in exchange receive information about other clients to which they can connect. The tracker is not directly involved in the data transfer and does not have a copy of the file.

Archer

Nice info jee. This will help newbies of torrents understand the techenical terms used in it. Even I didn't know some of them.

1. Snubbed
2. Super-seeding
3. Lurker

How do you enable the 'Super-seeding' feature in µTorrent. Is it automatic ?

Evander Leopold

Users dont have to select super-seeding , SUPER SEEDING is done by TORRENT TRACKERS. It is a technique used to increase seeders for new torrents.
U probably know that files included in torrents r divided in multiple virtual parts. When ur torrent client requests a certain part, the tracker-servers send the request to the nearest free seeder.
In case of super seeding, the very first seeder uploads each part only once. In this way, when he seeds 100% - no leecher has got the entire file (they have parts of it).
So then they start sharing among themselves.( Although no one alone has got 100%, together they have got the entire file) This way number of seeders for newer torrents increase rapidly. This is SUPER SEEDING.

-feedback please.

cableguy

Good explanation but you got some of it wrong.
Trackers don't have anything to do with super-seeding, the only job of the tracker is give a list of peers & seeders (IP addresses) to the clients.

Super seeding is intended for the initial seeder to more efficiently spread the pieces to peers. (Minimize uploading of duplicate pieces and spread all the pieces using less bandwidth)

Super seeding is only really useful if you are the only seeder in the swarm (usually is the case when you upload a new torrent and you are the initial seeder).

Super-seeding has to be enabled for torrent in your client.
For Utorrent it's by right-clicking a torrent -> Properties and selecting "Initial Seeding".

Again super-seeding is only useful if you are the first/or only seeder in a torrent. Enabling it while there are other seeds will only slow down the torrent.