BitTorrent as a protocol depends on you sharing bits of the file you're downloading.
Basically, the torrent chops the file up into hundreds of pieces, and you download these pieces, one at a time, from each person. The way it works is that one person gets one piece from a person, another person gets a different piece, then the two people with pieces share those pieces between them. Multiply that a hundred times and that's how BT works.
You're not sharing any of the material on your hard drive, only the file you're actually downloading. Built into the protocol is a dependency that you will only get a good download rate if you allow the same file to be uploaded, so it's no good trying to block your uploads or anything like that, it won't work. The less you restrict your upload speed, the more you will find you can download, up to the limits of your bandwidth and available people to download from.
After you've got the file, you then are in a position to "seed" the file (ie: continue to share the file without needing to download anything further). It's up to you how long you do this for, and many torrent sites encourage you to do this for as long as you can (obviously the more people that do this, the faster other people can get the file), but I tend not to bother too much after I've got the file.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2006-11-23 06:59 pm (UTC)Basically, the torrent chops the file up into hundreds of pieces, and you download these pieces, one at a time, from each person. The way it works is that one person gets one piece from a person, another person gets a different piece, then the two people with pieces share those pieces between them. Multiply that a hundred times and that's how BT works.
You're not sharing any of the material on your hard drive, only the file you're actually downloading. Built into the protocol is a dependency that you will only get a good download rate if you allow the same file to be uploaded, so it's no good trying to block your uploads or anything like that, it won't work. The less you restrict your upload speed, the more you will find you can download, up to the limits of your bandwidth and available people to download from.
After you've got the file, you then are in a position to "seed" the file (ie: continue to share the file without needing to download anything further). It's up to you how long you do this for, and many torrent sites encourage you to do this for as long as you can (obviously the more people that do this, the faster other people can get the file), but I tend not to bother too much after I've got the file.