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jon.davey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > Hi, I've recently been trying to pick up bittorrent. I found this site where > it was explained; > BitTorrent is not like other peer-to-peer applications (such as Winmx, > Kazaa, Gnutella, etc.) in that it does not have its own "universe." Put > another way, BT lives on top of the Web, which means that all of the > searching/listing of available files is done on the web. When you find a > file you want to download, you click on it and the BitTorrent client program > will run and ask you where to put it, > ....if this is right then does this not make Bittorrent just like a download > manager? When I use Limewire I often find obscure techno music that I'm sure > a google searchg wouldn't find. Why should I use bit torrent? > Cheers, Jon. > You can find all sorts of stuff on Bit Torrent using sites such as Mininova.org and PirateBay.org. Some of it is legal and some of it isn't so it's up to you if you go and have a look at these sites. Bit Torrent is more than just a download manager. The files are stored on individual users computers just like LimeWire/WinMX etc and when you download something you're also making the file available to others who can download chunks of it from your machine. This is where it differs. A download manager just downloads where as Bit Torrent downloads and uploads. Part of the idea I think is to ease the load on servers. For instance when a new Fedora DVD comes out it's about 3GB or so. If 100 people download that 3GB ISO from a site then it's going to hammer the poor server. If however they use BitTorrent then the ISO can be downloaded from hundreds if not thousands of machines which means a higher speed download and less strain on the main Fedora servers. Even if each client machine only uploads 1K per second, connecting to a few hundred machines soon speeds the downloads for the users downloading. Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html