Klonk Mon, 27 Jun 2005 01:44:17 -0500 veschprigt mroktar Jon Kamm <kammagic@comcast.net> [re: [Yello] Bit Torrents]:

Why are torrents so slow? The short answer is that torrents work best when there is a higher seed-to-leech ratio, or, in other words, there is more than only one person seeding. It does therefore take a little bit for a torrent to propagate to the point where blazing download speeds are visible - and this in turn depends on those that leech converting to seed when their download is completed, which happens automatically so long as suckaz don't pop the torrent the second it's at 100%. Leave that stuff running for a good while!

Is there a way of making them load faster? See above. If, say, I am seeding alone, and you are leeching alone, then the speed will be no better than if you were FTP'ing it.

If we create a torrent and then seed it (which I am not sure what that means) are people then downloading directly off our computer? A downloader is receiving pieces and parts from everyone that has any part of the file available.

They seem to be good in theory but I have not had good luck with torrents. Heh. They are *quite* good in practice. That would be why BitTorrent traffick accounts for, what is it? SIXTY PERCENT of all Internet traffick! The only failures are bad trackers, and leeches that cannot be bothered to seed after they complete. And now that BT supports trackerless torrents, the only remaining problem is suckers.

It's totally free, and contrary to Microsoft's latest pathetic attempts at FUD, the protocol itself is not in the slightest way "infected with spyware" like some other protocol clients I could mention. *coughKaZaa* *hiccoughNapster* *burpLimewire* ... and so on. But enough of my hollow bellowing. As always, Google is your very best friend. http://www.google.com/search?q=bittorrent+wiki&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8... Surch'n'larn. --gcr