Torrents are increasingly become the standard way by which to transfer files. Not only is BitTorrent an incredibly efficient protocol by which to share files – thus effectively facilitating the idea of torrents – but there are many clients, sites and trackers currently in use that all help create a “network effect” for its use.
The BitTorrent protocol differs over the longer established HTTP and FTP in that it allows many simultaneous connections to many different peers on a number of different ports; HTTP allows one connection on one port.
Whereas downloads using BitTorrent are performed on a piece by piece nature (the file to be transferred is split into many identically-sized segments) HTTP downloads an entire file in one large lump. Not only does this require a connection lasting over the entire transfer process, but it also means that one error will destroy the entire download (and, naturally, it isn’t until the download is finished that this will be discovered). Torrents allow each segment of file to be tested upon its collection – if that segment of file is corrupt then it is discarded and the segment downloaded again. This automatic error correction feature of torrents mean that time and resources are not wasted because of a correct file segment.
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