One of the most important parts of the bit torrent network is obviously the trackers, cause without them, there would be no bit torrents. However, over the last couple of years, much change has occurred to the bit torrent client software, one of these changes is the DHT, or the ability to download a file without an actual tracker. Unlike other P2P networks, the bit torrent network relies on the torrent file which contains a sort of roadmap to the other computers in the network that maintain parts or whole files of that particular file you are looking for.

Although by technicality, you can download without the need of a tracker, the hardest part, is getting others to access the same file without some sort of centralization. This comes more into play when dealing with a file which for any number of possible reasons, may become no longer available. In this case, if the bit torrent file has been set up to allow DHT, the remaining computers can still connect with each other and continue the full download. So the DHT, is more fundamentally for the longevity of a bit torrent file rather than the ability to completely download without a centralized bit torrent indexing website.

Other forms of trackers, which are not as appearent is the us of an RSS feed style connection in which any and all clients in the network broadcast the files that are open for share to the other clients in the network. This allows you to search within the client side software to find the file you are looking for. Although this is more accurate as far as the number of available sources, it also leads to a higher level of legal responsibility on the developer of the P2P software.

One such program that utilizes this RSS style feature is the Ares P2P network. In this network, which is also capable of downloading torrents as well, you can also preview the file that you are downloading. For example, if you are downloading a movie file, you can preview it by pushing play, but instead of seeing the whole thing, you can only see the parts that you have already downloaded. The program itself, splices the pieces together to allow you to preview it.

But Ares is a P2P program and not technically a bit torrent protocol software seeing as it uses a different line of protocols more similar to that of eDonkey.

It is, no matter how you look at it, important to have some means to communicate between the various nodes, or client computers in any bit torrent or P2P network. It is within this communication that allows you to be able to connect with other computers to ensure that you can download the file that you are looking for. Unfortunately, just as the software needs these communications, or “road maps”, any person who is of a dubious nature can also access these IP addresses that the clients utilize in order to take advantage of your own personal computer as well as ISP.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Client side implementation of the bit torrent client is rather straight forward in 99.9% of the situations. You are basically going to a website where you can download a bit torrent client, download and install it and that’s it. However, there are some issues that may come up when dealing with the client side implementation of a bit torrent client.

First and foremost is a firewall. In general, most people’s firewall is set-up to automatically create rules that will allow a bit torrent client to gain access to a port of its or your choosing. However, this is not always the case as some people have their firewalls set-up to make no exceptions. If this is the case, the best way, and of course the easiest, is to change your firewall settings before installing the bit torrent client. If not, chances are, you will have to manually make an exception.

The bit torrent clients need access to a port in your computer. This is not a visual port, but rather a computer generated one. In many instances, you may already be utilizing some of your available ports. For example, if you access the internet to get your bit torrent client, you are connecting to another computer’s port 80.

It is these ports that allow simultaneous connections to the world. If you are in a network, and you have a router in your home or office, most likely you will have to access your router’s configuration and add the bit torrent client to create an exception. What this does, is it actually forwards any incoming connections that are asking for a particular port, directly to your computer. Otherwise, the incoming connection will not be allowed. Sometimes your ISP may be using a router of some type and therefore you may not be able to get them to forward a port request. Do not feel bad if this is the case, you can still download, but it may not be as fast. The reason it may be slow, is instead of another computer connecting to you, their computer will send a request to someone you have already been connected to you, which in turn, that request will be forwarded to you. This is known as pushing UDP, all that it does, is tells your bit torrent client to connect with them instead of them connecting to you. This is sometimes called a handshake as well.

You may notice if you ever check your stats with your bit torrent client that you only made X number of incoming connections, but you had X² “Handshakes.” These are instances where you connected to another computer instead of that computer connecting to you. It all works out in the long run as long as you download the file you wanted.

Popularity: 11% [?]

When dealing with the many legal issues surrounding the use of bit torrent client software, one must think about the many compromises that the indexing websites have had to take in order to continue their services to the world.

When a bit torrent index website gets raided by the various possible government and copyright authorities, two things may happen. The first possibility is the complete shut down of the web server to prevent the future spread of various copyrighted data. The other possibility, is what most people have seen upon visiting the many bit torrent indexing websites. The warnings. These warnings are usually a compromise between government authorities, copyright authorities and the web site owner him/her self. They simply state that there is a possibility that the various .torrent files that you may be downloading may contain copyrighted data.

Although, this is less of a warning, and more of a friendly gesture as the majority of bit torrent clients visit the sites to find the copy righted data.

Lets take the first possibility. This would be newly released movies. Some people may not have access to watch these movies, or depending on their location, the cost may be too great. They turn to the utilization of bit torrent client software to get their movie mojo fix. The same can be said for virtually any possible copyrighted data.

This is not an excuse to break the law regardless.

It is because of this, that the many bit torrent indexing services have had to make compromises with various authorities both locally and internationally. There is always a high probability of downloading copyrighted data. But lets face the facts. A warning that states that you may or may not be downloading intellectual copyrights of another, is mainly ignored due to the possibility that you are infact at the indexing site to get copyrighted data.

The truth is. That if there was no such thing as copyrighted data, there would most likely never be a need for bit torrent client software, since you could simply go to Microsoft and download the latest copy of their operating system free of charge. But then that would not work, because then Bill Gates would not be the richest man on the face of the planet.

Although, compromises generally are more of a forced reconciliation on the website’s side and no of the intellectual copyright holder’s side. Otherwise we would see lower prices for the thing that we are planning to download.

As it has been stated before though, the law is the law and it must be obeyed, and it is for this reason that the bit torrent indexing websites have become targets for the copyright authorities. It is not physically possible for the various copyright authorities to go after everyone. As a matter of fact, they cannot. Even according to US law, if you were to purchase a pirated movie, the one who gave you access to that movie is the one who would be responsible. The same goes for the indexing websites. Due to the fact that they are a channel or means for one to access pirated data, in general, they are the one who would take the burden of the punishment. They also believe, that by shutting down the bit torrent indexing websites that they will stop the trade of intellectual data. In reality, if the indexing services were shut down, there would always be another way to access this data.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The intraoffice transferring of files and various data throughout the corporation utilizes a sufficient amount of bandwidth. Why use up that bandwidth when one can simply utilize a bit torrent client software in order to transfer that file or data.

This is where corporate file transfers come into play when dealing with clients. For the larger corporations, the utilization of large amounts of bandwidth for file transfers between offices is not a sufficient amount. However, when the with the smaller international corporations, and the fact that some countries do not have a good Internet connection, bit torrent client software is a good alternative. This and coupled with the fact that VPN networks are expensive to maintain.

So since independent users of bit torrent client software are able to benefit from the use of the client software, why can’t a small business that is at an international level do so as well. There’s actually no reason why they cannot utilize the benefits of using bit torrent client software.

When speaking about VPNs, the first thing that comes into play is the fact that they are a secured network. The assumption that a bit torrent client, as well as a torrent file is not secure, is far from the truth. If you need to transfer large amounts of data from one office to another office, but do not need to utilize the bandwidth of a server, simply create a private tracker.

The difference between a standard, bit torrent client track their and a private tracker, is the fact that a standard bit torrent client track there is posted on an indexing website. If you want to make it private, all you have to do is simply e-mail the tracker torrent file to the various recipients so that they may begin to download. In this case, you are not utilizing the bandwidth of your website’s server, you are utilizing the in-house server capabilities of your office Internet access.

The major differences between this, is that when utilizing a website server if you are paying by the bandwidth usage, but while utilizing your office’s internet access, you are in most cases receiving a set amount of upload and download capabilities based on real-time bandwidth allotments. So save your office is gaining a 5 MB connection, you are allowed on a daily basis. There is no set amount of monthly bandwidth usage, like there is with a websites ever.

Just because in most cases the general office is are not utilizing a bit torrent client software for their file or data transfers, does not mean that it should not be a suggested form of file transfer. Most the assumptions made about utilizing a bit torrent client software have hopefully been covered.

The use of a bit torrent file is not only efficient for corporate applications, but also Internet-based companies that are selling large amounts of data are in the form of e-books, software, graphics integration or even in website template packs. Moving a small torrent file that is usually less than a couple of kilobytes is a lot easier than moving a large file that is several hundred megabytes. Everybody today is worried about piracy and theft, so to make it easier, why not utilize a torrent file and allow your clients to download the file or data in question utilizing a free bit torrent client software.

Popularity: 2% [?]

When discussing the network impact of the bit torrent client, the actual logistical numbers can not be determined with accuracy. In such a case an estimate is utilized in order to represent the use of the Internet traffic. In this case, a research organization that is part of the cable industry in the North American continent has estimated that over 18% of all of the broadband traffic in the world, is utilized by bit torrent clients. However, another research has also shown that the actual number is closer to 35% of the world’s Internet traffic.

In order to do these research numbers, the various ISP providers take a look at the routing networks. When dealing with routers, certain units utilize a network address translation system, that controls the various IP addresses and ports within the network.

To further the situation, the effects on the network that are caused by the bit torrent clients are also focused on your typical home networks. With a growing number of homes utilizing routers as a means of firewall protection for their personal computers, it must take into effect that most home routers are only capable of 2000 entries at a given time. However, the bit torrent client software will make frequent contacts in between 300 to 500 different servers around the world per second. This eventually causes the various home routers to lock up requiring one to reset the router.

Since most bit torrent client software do not utilize anonymity of the various nodes on the peer-to-peer network, one could actually utilize the various IP addresses that are available in the various logs for any particular download. This would allow a hacker to expose and unsecure system, so that they may access it at a later time.

When it comes to older torrents, they become increasingly harder to find do to the fact that each individual home computer is supposed to act as a server. However due to the fairly small incentive for any particular node to remain a seed for a file, some people eventually delete the file or just plainly remove it from the bit torrent client software. So that nobody else can access it.

Without the new seeds available for a particular file it will eventually die out. Although in general, this does not actually impacting network, what does impact the network is that a new file exactly the same as the previous one is added to the system. Sometimes this is down with a simple name change or adding a-somewhere in the name.

As an attempt to compensate for this refusal to share the file, many of the paid bit torrent indexing websites track the amount of files that you download or a lower in order to increase the sharing ratio of a particular file.

Bit torrent, however, is not actually intended for the dialect user as it is generally more efficient for the broadband user.

Popularity: 1% [?]