Bit Torrent is an up and coming P2P network of sorts that uses a method known as “swarming” to greatly increase bandwidth on large downloads. A small client is all that is required on the user’s end to enable downloading in situations where you’d often just be getting timed out.

So how does this magical program work? It’s quite simple really. The client program downloads a small file, called a torrent. This torrent file contains the address to a BitTorrent tracker, and an index of the files that are to be downloaded.

Next the client contacts the tracker to find a list of available “seeds.” A seed is someone who has completly downloaded the file, and is still running the client program, or someone who is currently downloading. When a torrent is first being uploaded, the person uploading it simply opens the client and keeps it running. Since they already have the file on their computer, it acts as the first seed.

The real benefit of BitTorrent is that everyone who is in the process of downloading the files is also an uploader. After the client has downloaded a certain portion of the file, that portion is made available to other users. To encourage fair uploading, a client’s download speed is directly affected by their upload speed.

BitTorrent has many practical applications. It has been used to distribute things such as new ISO’s of Linux distributions, which are very large files with many thousands of people wanting to download them at once. With BitTorrent, the load on the main server is minimized. Anyone with a decent connection and a will to help can keep the client running after it has been downloaded to further enhance the network.

Another common use is in fansubs of Anime. The site http://a.scarywater.net/ has a number of torrents from various Subbing groups. (These are files in a fuzzy legal status, as just about all of these groups only release files that are not available in english anywhere, and they remove any shows that are picked up to be distributed in the States.)

Many sites have popped up offering a variety of other types of files. One of the largest communities is at http://www.filesoup.com/. Here people arrange through the message boards when they will be posting torrents of recent movie rips, complete programs, and mp3’s. There are always new torrent sites popping up, so just do a google search if you want to find the newest, most active sites. Remember, old sites without alot of participation will not be of any use to you, since there will be no one to send the files to you.

Something downloaded by BitTorrent can be paused or stopped, and will continue just fine when it is started up again. This allows huge files to be transmitted without the fear of the connection dying at 99% complete.

It is important to note that BitTorrents are only effective as a file sharing application when there are many downloaders (and therefore many seeders). Also, there must be people who are not simply leechers. These people close the client as soon as they have completed the download, ending their uploads. The accepted BitTorrent etiquette is to keep your client running until you’ve uploaded at least as much as you’ve downloaded. Remember, without people uploading, this type of network fails.

Where can you get Bit Torrent?
BitTorrent Home - http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/

How can you create a torrent?
Use the utility MakeTorrent, available here:
http://krypt.dyndns.org:81/torrent/maketorrent/

MakeTorrent allows you to create a .torrent file of any file or folder on your computer. You have to choose a tracker to host it with. MakeTorrent lists a number of popular trackers, but you should search for one of the torrent communities to find which tracker they recommend. Then, after the .torrent file is created, open that file in BitTorrent and save it to the same location as the original file. Then you must send this .torrent file to other people. You usually should upload it to the site you used as a tracker. They normally will have forums for you to post to.

Then, just keep the BitTorrent file open, and since you have the completed file, you will act as a seed. Once someone else has downloaded the file, they will also be a seed. The more people who download, the more seeds.

For more information, check out FileSoup’s Links page -
http://www.filesoup.com/links.html

also look at...
Azureus (Java based client) - http://sourceforge.net/projects/azureus/