torrents are different from regular downloads in that the download speed varies depending on how many people are downloading at the same time. its not downloading as such - its more like peer to peer sharing, but involving multiple people. the best way i can describe it is this way : someone has something (video or audio) they want to share. the files - usually in a compressed format such as flac - are on that person's desktop. they create a torrent file (the torrent file chops up the original flac files into tiny small pieces, like a jigsaw). they make the torrent file public on a torrent tracker such as www.easytree.org (a GREAT torrent site which i highly recommend). person # 1 joins the torrent and downloads the pieces from the origial guy. person # 2 joins the torrent and simultaniously downloads pieces from the original guy AND person # 1. person # 3 joins the torrent and simultaniously downloads pices from the original guy AND person # 2 AND person # 3 . the more people who join the torrent , the faster the download runs. you could be simultaniously conencted to 20 people, downloading pieces from ALL of them at the same time. i've been using and seeding Torrents for a long time now - if anyone wants to try their hand , i'll be happy to try and help em get started - shoot me an email offlist. it would be best to use a public tracker site like easytree rather than keep it with "us" - the more people who know about it, the more people will jump on, the faster it'll be. word of warning - almost all torrent sites are run by "serious" music collectors/traders, and MP3 is a BIG no no. whats get torrented is full 16 bit stereo wav files in compressed formats - which, when uncompressed, mean perfect stereo quality. heres a link to a page that gives a brief how to and a link to both a decent torrenting program and the compression program flac : http://www.taperfriendly.com/newbie.htm mark B in NYC Jon Kamm <kammagic@comcast.net> wrote: Can someone tell us more about torrents. What would we have to do to set one up? Can it be private to us only? Would it cost money? Is it legal? I have only tried downloading from one once and it was incredibly slow and was going to take 3 hours to download something that was only 10MB and I have cable. Is this typical? any info would be helpful. Thanks, Jonathan _______________________________________________ Yello mailing list Yello@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yello Report list abuse to list-abuse at studio-nibble.com For a heart without love is a song with no words And a tune to which no one is listening So your heart must give love and you'll find that You shine like rain on the leaves you'll be glistening