Quote:
Originally Posted by G-Ballz
Can someone briefly explain what a torrent is, and what seeding a torrent is?
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BitTorrent is a file distribution protocol that was pretty much *designed* for cases like this: a large number of people all wanting the same data at once. It's not specifically for piracy, although to be fair that is what the bulk of its use is. There are plenty of legitimate uses, too, though, and a number of software companies have started delivering downloads via bit torrent.
A "seed" is a user that has a complete copy of the file, and can send all the pieces out. A torrent is pretty much useless without at least one seed. Users that don't have a full copy are known as "leechers". The way it works is that there is a central computer (the "tracker") which keeps track of who has what parts of the file. When the torrent first starts, only the seed(s) have any pieces, so all the leeches talk to it to get a piece. Once they have a portion, anyone *else* who needs that piece can talk to them instead of talking to the seed. Basically, it's an expanding network of "I need this part." "Ok, Joe over there has it, go get it from him and then share it with everyone else", which means as long as the original seeds are fast, you can *theoretically* share a file of any size in about the time it takes to upload it just once.
It falls apart dramatically in other cases, but you didn't ask about that.
