What is Torrenting? [Guide to Torrents]

Christian Stewart ✔️
4 min readMay 29, 2019

“Torrenting” is a way to share files online based on peer-to-peer, or P2P, technology. Torrenting lets people connect to the internet and share and download files without relying on a single source for downloads. Each “peer” is basically a mini-server so your downloads are more distributed.

What is a Torrent?

A torrent is a file sent using the BitTorrent protocol. This could be any type of file, including movies, songs, games, or software. While these files are transmitted, the file is incomplete and therefore is called a “torrent”.

Torrenting vs. Direct Download

As opposed to direct downloads which download files directly from a server, torrenting lets users download from the server and from other users. This reduces the stress put on the server, as not all users have to connect to the server. Some users can just download the files from other users (or peers). One of the main differences between torrents and direct file downloads is that they usually are downloaded from multiple servers at once. This is what limits the bandwidth requirements for each individual server.

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