BitTorrent

What is BitTorrent

BitTorrent is an application used to share files, computer to computer or what is usually referred to as peer-to-peer networking. Since its creation in 2001, this type of file sharing has increased quickly until today where it is estimated that peer-to-peer file sharing accounts for anywhere from 43 percent to 70 percent of all Internet traffic!

The way that BitTorrent works is actually quite simple. Let's say that your company, “Wysiwyg Software,” has a 100 MB software update for one of their products that needs to be distributed to their customers. Unfortunately, the software in question has 2 million customers that need the update. Your company could place the 100 MB file on one of its Web servers and simply notify the 2 million customers that the update file was now located on the Web server and available for download. What do you think would happen if even only 25 percent of those 2 million users navigated straight to the Web site and started downloading? The ability of the website to send that file out to 500,000 users would quickly be crippled or slowed to the point of being unusable.

However, this is where BitTorrent saves the day! The BitTorrent client installed on your computer is kind of like a Web browser but different in the sense that the client can browse other privately owned computers for the files being searched. Then, once found, the client begins to download the file, but not just from one computer, the client continues to search for others and adds them to the download list. This not only breaks up and distributes the bandwidth requirement to several different computers, thus making the transfer faster and not affecting only one client, but also spreads out the work to a large number of clients.

Below is a list of the pros and cons of using BitTorrent.

Pros

• Speed – Downloading files via BitTorrent is only limited to your Internet download speed and how many people have the file you are looking for

• No size limitations - I have downloaded files up to 90 GB in size. Sure, it took a little while, even with 20 mbps download speed. But the file completed in expert fashion

• Large user base – With 43 percent to 70 percent of the traffic on the Internet being peer-to-peer file sharing, the selection of software or other media is unimaginable

• Cost – Free!

Cons

• Be careful – there is no way to tell if a particular file is what it says it is. Because BitTorrent is used by millions of individuals, you have no reliable way to know whether you are downloading what you requested or not. Therefore, keep the virus scanner and malware scanner handy