BitTorrent: best for big downloads [BT broadband office]

BitTorrent: best for big downloads

Posted 7 November 2007 at 8:11AM by Simon Dickson in IT systems and support

If you've ever heard of BitTorrent, chances are it was in the context of illegal filesharing. When you hear of a large filesharing website being shut down (eg Pirate Bay), or an upcoming album or movie being leaked online (eg OiNK), chances are it was all happening via BitTorrent. It's said that as much as 70% of internet traffic, at certain times of day, is peer-to-peer filesharing, and most of that is BitTorrent. But there's nothing inherently illegal about the technology, and it's starting to find its way into the legitimate mainstream.

BitTorrent works on an extremely simple principle. It breaks large files down into tiny chunks; your BitTorrent software downloads those chunks in whatever order it chooses, and once they're all in, it re-assembles them back into a copy of the original file. But here's the clever bit: once you've downloaded a particular chunk, your PC effectively becomes a 'server' for that chunk. If you've got a chunk that I need, I can download it from your machine (and vice versa).

There are considerable benefits for all parties. Faster and more reliable downloads for the users, lower bandwidth bills for the providers. In fact, the more popular a particular file is, the easier it should be to download: contrast that with the all-too-common experience of websites crashing due to high demand.

For most people, using BitTorrent is as simple as downloading a piece of free software, and clicking on a web link to start the download. The official bittorrent.com software is far from the only tool available, but it's certainly one of the prettiest, and avoids most of the ugly technical jargon. It should be enough to click the .torrent link, then leave the software to do its thing.

I've tended to use BitTorrent to download large 'open source' software, such as the free OpenOffice suite or versions of the Linux operating system such as Ubuntu. It's quick, you can stop and restart downloads as required, and it's in keeping with the share-and-share-alike ethos of 'open source'.

Now BitTorrent is getting serious, as it expands into the growing field of video distribution. They launched their own online video store in early 2007, and have now started licensing their technology to other companies. Brightcove, which provides video services to numerous big media brands, is to use BitTorrent technology to deliver 'broadcast-quality Internet TV'. But it's already a crowded field: the high-profile Joost has already done deals to bring several media giants into its peer-to-peer TV system, and both Sky and the BBC have built offerings on the Kontiki peer-to-peer system.

Tags: bittorrent, joost, kontiki, OpenOffice.org, peer to peer, ubuntu

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Comments

1. At November 7, 2007 4:53 PM, alastair wrote:

i've got to say i love torrents.

i used to use limewire for downloading and as we know about applications like and and especially kazaa you tend to get well.... rubbish on there when you search for something you can end up downloading XXX videos disguised as what you are looking for amoung other issues.
torrents and similar applications allow you to download from VERY reliable sources and most files are legitamite since some providers moderate the content. you can get more than you expect from them e.g. looking for a song to download by a band? you can get all the bands albums on torrents. back of the net!

2. At November 7, 2007 6:28 PM, anjanesh wrote:

the fact that BBC and skype use peer-to-peer technology this could be a forerunner for future internet usage - but constrained by individual download restrictions and the omnipresent risk of being throttled.

3. At November 14, 2007 1:12 PM, Bob HXC Holly wrote:

BT promoting Bit Torrent yet throttle it on their network after 6pm.

ANOTHER GREAT BT SERVICE.

and the Pirate Bay wasnt shut down, its still up and running and better than ever.

i find uTorrent to be far superior, with such features like you can modify which parts of a torrent you wish to download...

BT broadband office