What is torrent and how does it work?

Torrent is a file type commonly associated with piracy and downloading illegal files. In fact, there is no hiding the fact that this is one of the main uses for this protocol. But it can also be used completely legally.

In this article we will explain absolutely everything you need to know about torrent files. What they are, in fact, what are their main uses, what programs are used to download files via torrent and also how to use this protocol in a completely legal way.

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What is torrent?

Torrent is nothing more than a file extension, just like .JPG (image file), .EXE (Windows executable), .DOCX (Word text document) and so on. However, the .torrent extension is only compatible with the BitTorrent P2P sharing protocol.

This sharing protocol was created in April 2001 by programmer Bram Cohen. In the next topic I will explain in greater detail how this sharing protocol works, which has come to revolutionize the internet.

The BitTorrent company emerged just over 3 years later, in September 2004. Bram Cohen formed a partnership with fellow programmer Ashwin Navin and, together, they founded BitTorrent Inc., which is based in the city of San Francisco, California. Today, almost 20 years later, the P2P BitTorrent protocol is responsible for a large share of all internet traffic.

Server-Based

Before the emergence of the BitTorrent protocol, there was only a server-based model for file sharing. In other words, a server (central computer) is responsible for storing the files and distributing them on the network. Whenever you want to download or view a file, you need access to the server.

Want a good example of sharing in the client-server model? Cloud computing. Services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and others use precisely this same model. A server (in these cases, several servers) stores files that can be accessed by clients from any device with internet access.

Streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, HBO Max, Spotify and many others also use the client-server model. In this case, the films and music are stored on the servers of these companies, which, in turn, distribute the files only to their subscribers.

This is a centralized sharing model. The BitTorrent P2P protocol, as we will see below, is a decentralized model.

P2P BitTorrent

In the P2P protocol, the opposite happens. P2P means peer-to-peer (point-to-point). Here there are no central servers that store shared files. In this model, all users are also servers.

Whenever you download a file via torrent, you automatically start sharing it with other users. This way, the more devices that have downloaded a given file, the more download points you will have, speeding up the process.

This decentralized data sharing model, in addition to being easy to use and free, is very difficult to track. This is why it is widely used in pirating games, films, series, music and other copyrighted files. There is simply no way to turn off the server, as the server is all the computers sharing the files. And here we are talking about millions of users.

How does torrenting work?

In torrenting we must pay attention to two terms: seed e peer. Seed is every user who is sharing a file. And peer is every user who is downloading a file. As you may have already noticed, in the BitTorrent protocol it is possible to be a seed and a peer at the same time.

The first user to share a complete file is called the original server, i.e. the first seed. From the moment other people start downloading the file to their computers, they will also become seeds. Even before the download finishes, the BitTorrent client used by the person starts sharing parts of the file in question.

Therefore, the more downloads a given file has, the more seeds it will have. And, the more seeds it has, the faster/more stable the download of that file will be. Therefore, whenever you choose a torrent file to download, choose the one that has the highest number of seeds. Let’s look at a practical example.

Let’s suppose you want to download a movie. A given link has 1,000 seeds. And another has 500 seeds. Give preference to downloading via the link that has 1,000 seeds, as the download tends to be faster and more stable. Even if some seeds are turned off (which makes sharing impossible), it is likely that several other seeds are active.

How to download torrent files?

It’s quite simple. You will need BitTorrent software on your computer, smartphone or even your browser. After that, you need to open a .torrent file corresponding to the file you want to download in this program. Another option is to click on the Magnet link, which is much simpler and more practical.

With Magnet link you don’t need to download the .torrent file to your computer. just have the BitTorrent client installed on the machine. So, when you click on the Magnet link, it will automatically open the torrent program that you installed on your PC with the file data you want to download.

You can see the file size, number of seeds, peers and even if there is more than one file in the link. It is common, when downloading movies and games, for the original user to include files and images, txt or others. You can simply deselect the files you don’t want to download and only download the file that interests you.

Once the download is complete, this file is automatically shared with other users. Then you become a seed. Each torrent program basically shares the same interface, where you can see which files you have downloaded, which ones you are sharing, which ones have errors, how much data has been transferred, among other information.

What are the best BitTorrent clients?

Now that you know exactly what torrenting is and how it works, let’s show you some program options that you can install on your computer. Called BitTorrent clients, these are the programs that will read the file with a torrent extension and download the files.

There are several BitTorrent client options, but the best ones are the ones we will indicate below.

uTorrent

O uTorrent is the best known and most used BitTorrent client on the market. It was one of the first programs of its kind to appear on the internet and, for many years, it was unanimous among users. But today it is no longer like that.

In addition to the emergence of other options, often better and more efficient, uTorrent began to be frowned upon by users after exaggerating the number of advertisements that appeared in the software interface. This made the program unnecessarily heavy and slow.

And, to make matters worse, there were some cases of espionage and invasion of privacy involving uTorrent that made it fall even further in users’ ratings, losing space to the other options that we will show here. Even so, uTorrent is still very consistent software that performs its function of downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol very well.

BitTorrent

O BitTorrent It was developed precisely by the company that created the BitTorrent sharing protocol. It offers the same quality as uTorrent but without the excessive display of ads. In the free version, of course, there are ads. But not too much.

There is a paid version where, in addition to no more ads, you get some extra functions. Among them we have scanning and protection against viruses and other malware, a media player that can run the file before the download is finished, among others.

The BitTorrent program is compatible with Windows, Linux, MacOS as well as Android.

qBittorrent

O qBittorrentin my humble opinion, is one of the best BitTorrent clients on the market. And that’s what I use here on my computer. What sets qBittorrent apart from its competitors is that it is very lightweight. Its proposal is precisely to use as little memory and CPU as possible.

Therefore, it is a very light program but offers several advanced functions. Among them we can mention that the program has an integrated media player, encryption, IP filtering and torrent prioritization.

Without a doubt, it is one of the best programs for downloading and managing your torrents available on the market.