What is BitTorrent ?

BitTorrent is an open source peer-to-peer protocol for downloading files on the internet. Open source means the code is available for anyone to modify and redistribute at will. Consequently there are several free BitTorrent programs available to the public, each with differing features. The original source code was written by Bram Cohen.

The idea behind BitTorrent is to allow massive distribution of popular files without penalizing the source by soaring bandwidth costs and possible crashes due to demand that exceeds the capability of the server. In this way, anyone who creates a popular program, music file or other product can make it available to the public regardless of assets, even if the file becomes highly popular.

To understand how BitTorrent functions, first consider how normal downloading works.Personal computers connected to the Internet are known as clients while the websites visited reside on Internet servers. Servers "serve up information" to clients. If you surf to a site and click on a link to download a program, you create a one-on-one connection to that server that uses whatever bandwidth is necessary to serve you the file. When you have received the entire file, the connection is released so the server can utilize that stream of bandwidth for handling other connections.

The problem arises when unusually high numbers of clients visit a site simultaneously. This can cause the server to effectively run out of available bandwidth and "crash." When this happens, clients are refused a connection. "The site is down."

To avoid this, BitTorrent creates a different networking scheme. It uses the other clients who are also downloading the file to effectively act as servers to one another, simultaneously uploading the parts of the file received to others requesting the file. Hence, when you click on a file to download, several connections will be made to receive "slices" of the file that combine to create the entire file. Meanwhile, as you are downloading these "slices" you are also uploading them to anyone else that needs the parts you are receiving. Once the entire file is received it is considered polite to keep your client connected to act as a seed. A seed refers to a source that has the entire file available.

In this way BitTorrent relieves the burden of the servers but more significantly it makes it possible for anyone to disseminate a file quickly and easily without requiring expensive servers or an infrastructure of distribution. If the demand is there, the file will spread.

BitTorrent differs from other peer-to-peer (P2P) programs like Kazaa or Morpheus in that you do not make a library of files available for sharing. You only share the file you are actively receiving (or have just finished receiving).

Aside from the many legitimate uses of BitTorrent, some sites hosting BitTorrent downloads were targeted by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in December 2004 for distributing digitized movies in violation of copyright. One intellectual property monitoring system called FirstSource, by BayTSP, reportedly identifies initial clients to upload copyright content to BitTorrent and other P2P networks. In turn all subsequent clients that download or share that file can be traced by IP address.

Evolution Of Internet

History and the evolution of the internet.

The vast, global internet of today had rather humble origins when it initiated. In 1969, the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) developed an experimental network called ARPAnet to link together four supercomputing centres for military research. This network had the many and difficult design requirements that it had to be fast, reliable, and capable of withstanding a nuclear bomb destroying any one computer center on the network. From those original four computers, this network evolved into the sprawling network of millions of computers we know today as the internet. The internet itself is really a massive "network of networks." There is no central "Internet, Inc," to which you can connect. Essentially, it is a collection of Internet service providers (ISPs) who each operate their own networks, with their own clients, and agree to interconnect with each other and exchange packets. Many of the large ISPs sell connections to their network to smaller ISPs, some of whom again sell connections to other ISPs. Ultimately, these ISPs at all levels sell connections to individuals and corporations, who then merge their networks (or individual computers) into this larger network called the internet. While there is no exact governance of the Internet, communication standards and coordination of ISP actions are overseen by a nonprofit organization called the Internet Society. An affiliated organization, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) coordinates the work of numerous committees that define Internet communication standards and research methods of explaining and improving Internet communication. The actual communication standards are referred to as RFCs (Requests for Comments) and are voluntarily adhered to by all ISPs. Internet uses can be simply categorized as publishing and getting information on various subjects like marketing, management, science, new technologies, training materials, jobs, higher education, mathematics, music, games, software, etc. and E-Commerce And the kind of information available in the internet can also be listed as text documents, graphic files, sound and video files, downloadable games and software, demo games and software, etc. At the speed the internet has been evolving, many predictions can be made about the internet in the future, like main communication method coming with functions of being translated automatically into the language preferred by the receiver, finding a tune through humming into the microphone, virtual tours of a house, car, etc. could become common thing. This is what the Internet has become today, starting from its modest birth in 1969, to become an indispensable service for the human race at present and will remain the same in the future.