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By Cory Higgins and Ciarán Tannam 5/18/03 A large core of mainstream P2P readers may be unaware of much details related to BitTorrent. However, the client is beginning to explode on the P2P scene lately with everyone including the BBC talking about it and even Shareaza supporting it . Slyck takes a look at how get the most from this client, Shareaza support and more. Most importantly, while Kazaa Lite or WinMX provide a good solution for most Mp3 files, BitTorrent is used more to find different types of files. |
In Particular, BitTorrent has developed a reputation
as the place to find new files such as newly released TV shows (even before
their US release), films and DVD rips. For example it was one of the first places
online where The Matrix Reloaded was available.
So how does BitTorrent work?
While not a true P2P client it is very similar to the popular Edonkey/Emule
client. Unfortunately Bit Torrent is centralized in nature. A “tracker” is need
for a file to spread threw Bit Torrent. There's a central "tracker" that's encoded
into each .torrent file you run. The file holds the tracker location, the file
ID and a few other pieces of information. So to distribute a file, you start
a tracker and create a .torrent file with the info in it. Then people run your.
torrent file, it tells Bit Torrent to connect to your tracker and your tracker
then directs Bit Torrent to where it can get the file from.
If Bit Torrent were compared to any of the current mammoths networks dominating
the file-sharing world, it would be the Edonkey/Emule/Overnet networks. Like
them a peer when receiving a file off of the Bit Torrent client, they receive
little chunks off the file. You may get a chunk from the middle, then one from
the end. The last chunk you get could be the first part of the file. Also like
ED2K, you are forced to upload the chunks you have to other peers seeking the
file. More comparable to Emule, Bit Torrent also keeps track of the total amount
of data you upload/download. Your download speed over time becomes proportional
to your upload speed.
How do you get connected to BitTorrent?
There are currently three ways to get files with Bit Torrent. One is the official
Bit Torrent client. With it you download one file at a time. All your bandwidth
goes towards the one file you are downloading/uploading. However, while download's
are blazing fast, Bit Torrent will actually use ALL you’re bandwidth making
browsing impossible for some people.
Using a bandwidth management tool or via the ‘BitTorrent experimental unofficial
client’, you can get around the bandwidth issue with the official client. The
unoffical
client allows users to set the maximum amount of bandwidth for both up and
down streams. It also can handle multiple files at a time.
The third and newest of the methods is the Bit Torrent support that has been
added to the newest of the Shareaza betas. Bram Cohen the creator of BitTorrent
told Slyck that in his view Shareaza's implementation was not perfect. Based
on comments he had read he said that “the shareaza author doesn't understand
BitTorrent's tit-for-tat algorithms at all” and therefore “the client is unlikely
to be able to offer as good performance as the official one.” He also slammed
Shareaza for not speaking to him saying no one ever told him anything about
Shareaza's support.
However it is worth remembering that Shareaza 1.9 is still in beta so existing
algorithm issues may yet be resolved and with Shareaza’s support for other networks
(Gnutella 1, Gnutella 2 and eDonkey) it may provide a better experience than
the official client for some users.
Where can you find links to Torrent Files?
Once you have downloaded BitTorrent you will need to be able to find the .tor
files. This is far from an easy task. Websites that provide .tor files seem
to be under constant attack. When it’s not on the legal front they attempt to
deal with DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, and costly hosting fees. TorrentLinks
is probably your best source for sites that provide .tor links. That site
compiles a list of all the sites that are providing them. It is updated very
often. Other good sites include Torrentse.cx
and SuperNova, while
BitTorrentSites
and Smiler’s
BT Site also provide an extensive list of links to other sites out there.
The small files on the web pages contain the hash information to enable you
to download the file. Simply, Click on the torrent file and a Bittorrent window
will pop up and the file will start downloading.
BitTorrent may not be ready for a mainstream audience nor is it likely to be
the only P2P tool that you use. However, BitTorrent’s efficient distribution
method has found a niche in P2P content in which it is thriving.
The
official website is here
Information
on how to host files on BT is here
The team from Slyck.com are regular contributers to MP3 Newswire. Their insights on other digital music issues can be read on his site and we encourage you to check it out.
The Rio Karma is listed on Amazon.
Other MP3 stories:
The RIAA Offensive
- Part I (6/25/03)
The RIAA Offensive
- Part II (7/11/03)
The RIAA Offensive
- Part III (7/17/03)
