How BitTorrent Works

BitTorrent has become the preferred way to download movies and CDs, and it works slightly different than other file-sharing software. It downloads bits and pieces of the requested file from multiple computers, and then assembles them into one file after it receives all the pieces. To use BitTorrent, you first need to download and install a client piece of software. BitTorrent clients are free, and available from many places on the Internet, including at www.bittorrent.com.

Note

Download speeds in BitTorrent depend on how much that client has been used to upload files to other computers. So, a computer that leaves BitTorrent running frequently, and has uploaded files to many other computers, will be given privileges to download faster than a computer that has rarely uploaded files to other computers.