What "is" torrenting anyways?
A text file, is a file whose data is composed of text... A music file, is a file whose data is composed of music... A torrent is a file whose data is essentially a map. This map shows your torrent client (i.e.- utorrent, transmission, etc.) where to find the data. This data can be found in one place (no seeders) or in multiple places (people seed)...
ANALOGIES
Bag of Chips (not accurate):
A person has a bag of chips... and wants to share his bag of chips amongst 3 of his friends... In this make-believe world, the person copies his bag of chips and gives one to each of his friends... Now another person comes along, and wants a bag of chips too... But you don't want to get in trouble for copying chips... so you and your 3 friends allow this person to take/copy a quarter of their bags, thus giving the new person a full bag of chips for himself...
Song (more accurate):
There's a song (3 minutes long) and i want to download it using a torrent. Three other people have downloaded this song, and is now seeding it. My torrent client would download the 1st minute from the first person, then the 2nd minute from the 2nd person, and the last minute from the 3rd person... Then it puts it all together as to have a full copy of the song... Make sense?
The original seeder (or uploader) contains a full copy of the data, and uploads it to demonoid where he/she shares the file(s). Then a person comes along, and downloads his file... Now there are 2 copies of the data. Now, this person can either run away with this file for his own purposes (leeching), or he can give back and "seed". Seeding means the person who downloaded the file, is now allowing other people to upload part of their data to make a full copy. Generally, the more seeders a file contains the faster the download speed.
Is it illegal?
While torrenting is not illegal, it can be used for illegal purposes... i.e.- music sharing, movie sharing, etc. What some governments do is they "track" your ip address (which is provided by your internet service provider) and find your address. One way to combat this is to use an "ip blocking" application (which prevents users from "connecting" to your ip). One which has grown in popularity was developed by Pheonix Labs and is called Peer Guardian. If you wish to protect yourself from the government, I suggest using it. It can be found at:
WINDOWS XP/VISTA (Peer Guardian 2) - http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
MAC OSX (PEER GUARDIAN) - http://phoenixlabs.org/pgosx/
Have fun, be safe, and remember that the people who created whatever it is you downloaded need to eat/survive too. "Sharing is only fun if everyone benefits from it."
A text file, is a file whose data is composed of text... A music file, is a file whose data is composed of music... A torrent is a file whose data is essentially a map. This map shows your torrent client (i.e.- utorrent, transmission, etc.) where to find the data. This data can be found in one place (no seeders) or in multiple places (people seed)...
ANALOGIES
Bag of Chips (not accurate):
A person has a bag of chips... and wants to share his bag of chips amongst 3 of his friends... In this make-believe world, the person copies his bag of chips and gives one to each of his friends... Now another person comes along, and wants a bag of chips too... But you don't want to get in trouble for copying chips... so you and your 3 friends allow this person to take/copy a quarter of their bags, thus giving the new person a full bag of chips for himself...
Song (more accurate):
There's a song (3 minutes long) and i want to download it using a torrent. Three other people have downloaded this song, and is now seeding it. My torrent client would download the 1st minute from the first person, then the 2nd minute from the 2nd person, and the last minute from the 3rd person... Then it puts it all together as to have a full copy of the song... Make sense?
The original seeder (or uploader) contains a full copy of the data, and uploads it to demonoid where he/she shares the file(s). Then a person comes along, and downloads his file... Now there are 2 copies of the data. Now, this person can either run away with this file for his own purposes (leeching), or he can give back and "seed". Seeding means the person who downloaded the file, is now allowing other people to upload part of their data to make a full copy. Generally, the more seeders a file contains the faster the download speed.
Is it illegal?
While torrenting is not illegal, it can be used for illegal purposes... i.e.- music sharing, movie sharing, etc. What some governments do is they "track" your ip address (which is provided by your internet service provider) and find your address. One way to combat this is to use an "ip blocking" application (which prevents users from "connecting" to your ip). One which has grown in popularity was developed by Pheonix Labs and is called Peer Guardian. If you wish to protect yourself from the government, I suggest using it. It can be found at:
WINDOWS XP/VISTA (Peer Guardian 2) - http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
MAC OSX (PEER GUARDIAN) - http://phoenixlabs.org/pgosx/
Have fun, be safe, and remember that the people who created whatever it is you downloaded need to eat/survive too. "Sharing is only fun if everyone benefits from it."
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