Due to the fact that the various bit torrent client software have to rely on ports and IP addresses to make connections, this creates a large security vulnerability for most people. Too often, rather than creating the exceptions for their bit torrent client software in their firewall, people will actually disable their firewall prevention. When a person uses a bit torrent client software, their IP addresses are made public to others on the network. Just because you may no longer be downloading a particular file, also does not mean that your IP address is no longer available. The trackers keep tabs on this to maintain connections even long after you have downloaded a file.

A dubious person can very easily look up these IP addresses and possibly even hack them and leave a virus or a worm behind them. Most of this of course can be prevented by simply added the exception to the firewall, and never turning it off. This does not mean that you are still free from possible hacks, as hackers can still access your computer through the ports that you have left open for the software. Special care must be taken, especially when downloading. If you are downloading a questionable torrent, chances are, someone may bee looking for your computer by using the torrent for this purpose.

There is also many forms of limitations imposed by the bit torrent client software. Although offering an incentive is no where on the docket, the network can still punish you. For example, if you download a torrent, there is no incentive for you to seed, or in return share that file with others, so many times people just do not do it at all and delete their logs in an attempt to not be lecher punished. The various bit torrent indexing websites may or may not also maintain IP information on who has downloaded what and what their share ratio is. This leeching is a form of punishment. If you are not sharing, the software can simply slow down you downloads until you share. But you can always clear out your logs to prevent this. But now-a-days, many of the indexing sites are doing the same. These you can not simply clear out, you have to share or you cannot download.

Unfortunately, many people today still share an IP address and since the indexing websites and their torrents go by IP address, it is completely possible for you to be leech punished for someone else’s failure to share. This becomes an even greater issue in some 3rd world and developing countries where a ISP may have you sharing an IP with sometimes over 1,000 other clients.

Popularity: 10% [?]

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% [?]

Over the years of the World Wide Web, many forms of file sharing protocols have both come and gone, however, bit torrent seems to be not going anywhere any time soon. There are literally countless variables and possibilities associated with the areas of use that one could benefit from the bit torrent protocol.

If you want to see a movie, but do not have the time to go out and get it, you can simply start a download, go to bed, and when you wake up, its there waiting for you. The biggest problem though, is the simple fact that most people do not want to watch the public domain films, instead they want to see the latest blockbuster release. This becomes an issue due to the fact that the latest blockbuster release is under numerous copyright laws. By downloading this file you make yourself open to possible legal actions.

But lets forget about the movies, lets go way back to the beginning of the bit torrent protocol and its original intended use. Software! Around the world, there are literally millions of newbie software developers producing programs to make their life simpler. Once they try these programs, and are satisfied with the results, they could then offer it to the world under a GNU license. Unfortunately, if they were to pay for a server and host a website to offer this new program, they have to also fork over the money to cover the costs imposed by the ISP and webhoster.

Thanks to the bit torrent protocol and indexing websites, that same programmer, could go to the indexing site, take some time talking about their program in the comments section and then offer the program through the torrent protocol. Move ahead a couple years, and now not only can they go by the torrent way, but they can also find a free web hosting service that offers database and PHP services, place that program on the server along with an online web-based bit torrent client and they are set to go with out the massive overhead associated with the venture.

This is important as items released under GNU, are free to use and therefore, the programmer does not make the money from the program to cover the added costs. Then if you take also into account that the various bit torrent indexing websites also get frequented by the search engine bots more frequently than you could get to a personal website, you could very well be sharing your program with the world within a matter of days instead of months or years.

This is just one of the many possibilities one could come up with in using the bit torrent clients for their file sharing needs. There are many more, but due to the overwhelming number of possibilities, it is easier to just tell you about one and let you decide what areas that the bit torrent protocol will work best for your personal needs.

Popularity: 36% [?]

The first generation of peer-to-peer file sharing died leaving room for the second generations to come forward and take its place in the world of P2P file sharing networks. Originally, the first generation of P2P networks focused on a centralized server that maintained the data to be down load, while the second generation made room for a decentralized structure in which the files would be maintained on the clients personal computers then transferred others through a redundant virtual network.

The first such attempt to decentralize the network was done by the Gnutella right after the fall of Napster. Gnutella was developed by Justin Frankel who was part of the Nullsoft development company. The fist working model ended up being an almost complete failure as the entire network would bottle neck due to the onslaught of ex-Napster users who came looking for a place to share their files.

The main reason why Gnutella, at first, bottle necked was due to the simple fact that Gnutella made all the nodes equal. Soon FastTrack would create a new development that allowed certain nodes to be more equal than some of the other nodes on the network.

Gnutella picked up this development and implemented it into their own system which then created the Gnutella network that we all know of today. It was this development by FastTrack that allowed for the true decentralized peer to peer networks. In the network, some nodes become super nodes and have higher priority over others. They do this because they then become basically indexing nodes that maintain a track of the less than equal nodes attached to them.

Later, the second generation peer to peer networks also added the Dynamic Hash Tables to allow for file transfers without the need of the tracker file even further decentralizing the file sharing networks.

With over 10.3 million users, not including the bit torrent protocol, world wide, the FastTrack developed method of file sharing in the second generation has grown a quite respectable reputation.

The bit torrent and various other file sharing networks are not going anywhere, nor are they just going to disappear. As long as there is a need to share virtually any type of file with a complete stranger on the other side of the world, the file sharing networks are only going to grow in size.

The file sharing and especially the bit torrent network is quite literally the largest community in the world with hundreds of million members in virtually every county world-wide. How do you join the world’s largest community? You can simply download any bit torrent client software for free. Sit back and let the program bring the file you want directly to you. The faster your connection and the more you share, the faster you can get your files. It basically that simple!

Popularity: 26% [?]

The eDonkey P2P file sharing network began quite simply as a first generation server-client-protocol network, but became eDonkey2000 as part of its decentralization process. It no longer uses a centralized service as it did in the past, but unlike Napster who stayed centralized as a pay service, eDonkey became a totally different machine.

When eDonkey first began, it was sponsored by the MetaMachine Corporation who has since gone out of business, but the network still remains as a proprietary freeware based network that still runs on the original protocol developed by the MetaMachine Corporation. eDonkey2000 is a C++ based file sharing client application which was slightly modified from its original form to accommodate the decentralization process. The original server set-up used a closed-source C coded program that was developed by Lugdunum. Although the network is decentralized, it still utilizes its own servers to store the meta data much like the bit torrent indexing servers do.

Basically, the major difference between eDonkey and bit torrent, is that unlike bit torrent which you can get the .torrent file almost anywhere, the eDonkey network requires their tracker to be on their servers. Likewise, rather than the clients themselves making independent connections to each other autonomously, with the eDonkey Network, your client program first contacts the server who in turn will match your client up with another. All of the eDonkey file sharing is done in this “shaking hands” mannerism which basically requires the use of the servers.

Although it may be considered to be decentralized, the fact of the matter is that due to the necessity to shake hands with an eDonkey2000 server, it still falls under the first generation of file sharing networks, and may even be considered an out-dated technology by many. Unlike the bit torrent network, with eDonkey there is absolutely no privacy what-so-ever. Since each client has to shake hands with a server, these servers can then keep logs of all the clients around the world, as well as what files they have requested and what files they have completely downloaded.

Although eDonkey has a fairly good following that comes by means of many years of devoted users, eventually, due to the requirement to shake hands, their network will eventually disintegrate into an oblivion. eDonkey is considered by many to offer competition to the bit torrent network, but in reality, there is no competition because the number of users around the world is no where near being closely matched.

The truth is, that the bit torrent file sharing network is the largest community in the world. With literally hundreds of millions of users world-wide, this network is considered by many internet service providers to take up a large chunk of the world internet bandwidth usage.

Popularity: 5% [?]