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 This BitTorrent Guide has been put together to help you get familiar with the BitTorrent file sharing network. You need not any previous experience with other file sharing networks but is advised. The
BitTorrent network is currently one of the popular file sharing networks, judging from the general internet traffic usage
reports. What is BitTorrent? Simple: BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol. It doesn't involve central servers or
SuperNodes, but trackers. Trackers are servers that will coordinate the downloading and uploading process. A tracker will
create a small network where users can connect to each other to download and/or upload. It tells you're BitTorrent client to whom
other you can connect. Every file has its own little
network, so there can be multiple networks being coordinated or tracked by the tracker. These various networks are not connected
to each other in any way, not even on the same tracker. Although the name might suggest otherwise, a trackers has no knowledge of
any files being shared on its networks, it never even has a copy of any file.
Since there are many different trackers which do not interact with each other, BitTorrent has no search capability. It is
impossible to search for a file on the entire BitTorrent network. Not to worry, there are many different sites out there that
index torrents. And almost every torrent site has its own tracker, which files it also adds to its index.
So what are torrents? Torrents are small files (ending with the extension .torrent) which allow you to connect to a tracker and start downloading a certain
file it is tracking. In fact it doesn't need to be one file; it is perfectly possible that there is more then one or contains
directories. "Torrent" is generally used to describe one or more files being tracked by a tracker in its own little network.
The speed depends highly on the peers you connect to. Though with BitTorrent you can instantly achieve the highest speed that is
technically possible with your internet connection, you simply need to be in luck.
 Torrents generally do not last that long. If there are no peers connected to the tracker for a particular torrent, the tracker
will stop tracking it. This means that no more peers can download or upload that torrent anymore. That's why popular torrents tend
to last longer then unpopular and why you should keep you're torrents running after you finished downloading.
A peer is usually called a leech. A Leech is a peer which has uploaded less than it has downloaded or is still trying to
acquire a complete copy of a file. To not upload is impossible; there are no BitTorrent clients which allow this. When you are not
a leech, you must be a seed. A Seed only uploads. Usually seeds have a complete copy of all the files in the torrent. There
is a share ratio or rating to keep in mind when downloading.
A Share Ratio /Rating is simply the ratio of your amount uploaded divided by your amount downloaded. A 1:1 ratio or 1.0
rating means you uploaded as much as you downloaded.
People may request a Reseed if peers are stuck with an incomplete download. This may happen when a torrent is no longer
tracked by its tracker, or if there are no seeds with a complete copy of all files in the torrent.
Swarm is the name given to the network of peers and seeds that are connected to each other, downloading and or uploading
the same torrent.
Get yourself a BitTorrent client, find a torrent link on a torrent site and click it to start downloading and uploading!
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