Torrent Reality | uTorrent

Torrent definition

What is a torrent?

Most likely, you’ve heard of a torrent, used a torrent, or at least seen that term on the internet somewhere else. And whether you have actually used them or not, a lot of people don’t know what it actually is and how it is uses. Let’s start the basic...

What is a torrent ?

When you hear the word “torrent” in the technical world, it usually refers to a computer file that contains meta data carrying various information. A Torrent files normally comes with an extension of ".torrent" but it does not contain the actual contents to have be distributed.

This information or data will then be used by a BitTorrent type software such as uTorrent, Transmission or BitTorrent for the “real” distribution – which essentially allows for users to easily download torrent files or data to their personal computers or on their devices.

Torrent defenition

In respect, due to the ease of the use of BitTorrent technology, many of the torrent users end up downloading copyrighted materials unknowingly. This is of course Came upon in many countries and some of them have been prohibiting it as illegal torrents by means of incarceration. Now, that doesn’t mean at all torrents are unsafe to use. There’s plenty of legal torrent sites out there which you can use safely without harming rules and regulations.

How does a torrent work?

In short words, a torrent file acts as the key to initiating of the  downloading of  actual content. When somebody  is interested in receiving a files(like.. books, music, documents, etc.), from torrent,they must first obtained the corresponding torrent file by either downloading the ".torrent" files directly or by using a magnet link.

A BitTorrent software is then required to open this file or link. Once the BitTorrent software scans the torrent file or the link, it’ll then need to find the locations of seeders which are sharing the corresponding file or data. To do so, it will try to connect to a list of defined trackers (from the torrent file meta-data) and attempt a direct connection to the files. If it’s successful, the appropriate content will start begin transferring.

Note: A torrent download can be done in fragments or parts, so in reality you’re actually downloading bits of pieces of the full content which is later reassembled when all of the pieces are received to you.

Where can i find torrents?

To find torrent files, users commonly hooks up to popular websites such as The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents generally. Although these websites are much popular, they have been getting shutted down left and right, causing mirror sites to spread up around the internet. Even though torrents are technically legal, over the years it has become synonymous to illegal activity due to a myriad of users abusively sharing pirated content which can harm a copyright owner or a corporation.

Essentially, you’ve got to know what content is legal and what’s illegal before you start any torrent download or connection.

Why is torrenting dangerous ?

Downloading torrents can always be dangerous due to the fact that other peers will be able to see your IP address which might be dangerous. Lots of Big and record companies started to hire people to go in and report all these IP's addresses being found downloading torrents so that they can be passed along to ISPs that the Victim is using. The ISPs will then contact with law enforcement agencies to prevent the file from being downloaded further, which may cause incarcerating the operators or users.

Connecting to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) will works as a game changer as it would change your IP address and keep you anonymous while downloading torrents. This is a crucial tool to use when downloading torrents so that your ISP does not know what you are doing and you can download files easily but sometimes VPN's cause little internet connection problem.