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BitTorrent (abbreviated to BT) is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) which is used to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet.
BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, such as digital video files containing TV shows or video clips or digital audio files containing songs. Peer-to-peer networks have been estimated to collectively account for approximately 43% to 70% of all Internet traffic (depending on location) as of February 2009.[1] In February 2013, BitTorrent was responsible for 3.35% of all worldwide bandwidth, more than half of the 6% of total bandwidth dedicated to file sharing.[2]
To send or receive files, a person uses a BitTorrent client on their Internet-connected computer. A BitTorrent client is a computer program that implements the BitTorrent protocol. Popular clients include μTorrent, Xunlei,[3]Transmission, qBittorrent, Vuze, Deluge, BitComet and Tixati. BitTorrent trackers provide a list of files available for transfer, and allow the client to find peer users known as seeds who may transfer the files.
Programmer Bram Cohen, a former University at Buffalo student,[4] designed the protocol in April 2001 and released the first available version on 2 July 2001,[5] and the most recent version in 2013.[6]BitTorrent clients are available for a variety of computing platforms and operating systems including an official client released by BitTorrent, Inc.
As of 2013, BitTorrent has 15–27 million concurrent users at any time.[7]As of January 2012, BitTorrent is utilized by 150 million active users. Based on this figure, the total number of monthly BitTorrent users may be estimated to more than a quarter of a billion.[8]
Animation of protocol use: The colored dots beneath each computer in the animation represent different parts of the file being shared. By the time a copy to a destination computer of each of those parts completes, a copy to another destination computer of that part (or other parts) is already taking place between users.
- 2Operation
- 3Adoption
- 4Technologies built on BitTorrent
- 4.2Web seeding
- 10Malware
- 10.1BitErrant attack
Description[edit]
The middle computer is acting as a 'seed' to provide a file to the other computers which act as peers.
The BitTorrent protocol can be used to reduce the server and network impact of distributing large files. Rather than downloading a file from a single source server, the BitTorrent protocol allows users to join a 'swarm' of hosts to upload to/download from each other simultaneously. The protocol is an alternative to the older single source, multiple mirror sources technique for distributing data, and can work effectively over networks with lower bandwidth. Using the BitTorrent protocol, several basic computers, such as home computers, can replace large servers while efficiently distributing files to many recipients. This lower bandwidth usage also helps prevent large spikes in internet traffic in a given area, keeping internet speeds higher for all users in general, regardless of whether or not they use the BitTorrent protocol. The first release of the Bittorrent client had no search engine and no peer exchange, so users who wanted to upload a file had to create a small torrent descriptor file that they would upload to a torrent index site. The first uploader acted as a seed, and downloaders would initially connect as peers. (see diagram on the right) Those who wish to download the file would download the torrent which their client would use to connect to tracker which had a list of the IP addresses of other seeds and peers in the swarm. Once a peer completed a download of the complete file, it could in turn function as a seed.
The file being distributed is divided into segments called pieces. As each peer receives a new piece of the file, it becomes a source (of that piece) for other peers, relieving the original seed from having to send that piece to every computer or user wishing a copy. With BitTorrent, the task of distributing the file is shared by those who want it; it is entirely possible for the seed to send only a single copy of the file itself, and eventually distribute to an unlimited number of peers. Each piece is protected by a cryptographic hash contained in the torrent descriptor.[6] This ensures that any modification of the piece can be reliably detected, and thus prevents both accidental and malicious modifications of any of the pieces received at other nodes. If a node starts with an authentic copy of the torrent descriptor, it can verify the authenticity of the entire file it receives.
Pieces are typically downloaded non-sequentially, and are rearranged into the correct order by the BitTorrent client, which monitors which pieces it needs, and which pieces it has and can upload to other peers. Pieces are of the same size throughout a single download (for example a 10 MB file may be transmitted as ten 1 MB pieces or as forty 256 KB pieces).Due to the nature of this approach, the download of any file can be halted at any time and be resumed at a later date, without the loss of previously downloaded information, which in turn makes BitTorrent particularly useful in the transfer of larger files. This also enables the client to seek out readily available pieces and download them immediately, rather than halting the download and waiting for the next (and possibly unavailable) piece in line, which typically reduces the overall time of the download. This eventual transition from peers to seeders determines the overall 'health' of the file (as determined by the number of times a file is available in its complete form).
The distributed nature of BitTorrent can lead to a flood-like spreading of a file throughout many peer computer nodes. As more peers join the swarm, the likelihood of a successful download by any particular node increases. Relative to traditional Internet distribution schemes, this permits a significant reduction in the original distributor's hardware and bandwidth resource costs. Distributed downloading protocols in general provide redundancy against system problems, reduce dependence on the original distributor[9], and provide sources for the file which are generally transient and therefore there is no single point of failure as in one way server-client transfers.
Operation[edit]
A bittorrent client is capable of preparing, requesting, and transmitting any type of computer file over a network, using the protocol. Up until 2005, the only way to share files was by creating a small text file called a 'torrent'. These files contain metadata about the files to be shared and the trackers which keep track of the other seeds and peers. Users that want to download the file first obtain a torrent file for it, and connect to the tracker or seeds. In 2005, first Vuze and then the Bittorrent client introduced distributed tracking using distributed hash tables which allowed clients to exchange data on swarms directly without the need for a torrent file. In 2006, peer exchange functionality was added allowing clients to add peers based on the data found on connected nodes.
Though both ultimately transfer files over a network, a BitTorrent download differs from a one way server-client download (as is typical with an HTTP or FTP request, for example) in several fundamental ways:
- BitTorrent makes many small data requests over different IP connections to different machines, while server-client downloading is typically made via a single TCP connection to a single machine.
- BitTorrent downloads in a random or in a 'rarest-first'[10] approach that ensures high availability, while classic downloads are sequential.
Taken together, these differences allow BitTorrent to achieve much lower cost to the content provider, much higher redundancy, and much greater resistance to abuse or to 'flash crowds' than regular server software. However, this protection, theoretically, comes at a cost: downloads can take time to rise to full speed because it may take time for enough peer connections to be established, and it may take time for a node to receive sufficient data to become an effective uploader. This contrasts with regular downloads (such as from an HTTP server, for example) that, while more vulnerable to overload and abuse, rise to full speed very quickly, and maintain this speed throughout. In the beginning, BitTorrent's non-contiguous download methods made it harder to support 'streaming playback'. However, recently more and more clients are offering streaming options.
Search queries[edit]
The BitTorrent protocol provides no way to index torrent files. As a result, a comparatively small number of websites have hosted a large majority of torrents, many linking to copyrighted works without the authorization of copyright holders, rendering those sites especially vulnerable to lawsuits.[11] A BitTorrent index is a 'list of .torrent files, which typically includes descriptions' and information about the torrent's content.[12] Several types of websites support the discovery and distribution of data on the BitTorrent network. Public torrent-hosting sites such as The Pirate Bay allow users to search and download from their collection of torrent files. Users can typically also upload torrent files for content they wish to distribute. Often, these sites also run BitTorrent trackers for their hosted torrent files, but these two functions are not mutually dependent: a torrent file could be hosted on one site and tracked by another unrelated site. Private host/tracker sites operate like public ones except that they may restrict access to registered users and may also keep track of the amount of data each user uploads and downloads, in an attempt to reduce 'leeching'.
Web search engines allow the discovery of torrent files that are hosted and tracked on other sites; examples include The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, isoHunt and BTDigg. These sites allow the user to ask for content meeting specific criteria (such as containing a given word or phrase) and retrieve a list of links to torrent files matching those criteria. This list can often be sorted with respect to several criteria, relevance (seeders-leechers ratio) being one of the most popular and useful (due to the way the protocol behaves, the download bandwidth achievable is very sensitive to this value). Metasearch engines allow one to search several BitTorrent indices and search engines at once. DHT search engines monitors the DHT network, and indexes torrents via metadata exchange from peers.
The Tribler BitTorrent client was among the first to incorporate built-in search capabilities. With Tribler, users can find .torrent files held by random peers and taste buddies.[13] It adds such an ability to the BitTorrent protocol using a gossip protocol, somewhat similar to the eXeem network which was shut down in 2005. The software includes the ability to recommend content as well. After a dozen downloads, the Tribler software can roughly estimate the download taste of the user, and recommend additional content.[14]
In May 2007, researches at Cornell University published a paper proposing a new approach to searching a peer-to-peer network for inexact strings,[15] which could replace the functionality of a central indexing site. A year later, the same team implemented the system as a plugin for Vuze called Cubit[16] and published a follow-up paper reporting its success.[17]
A somewhat similar facility but with a slightly different approach is provided by the BitComet client through its 'Torrent Exchange'[18] feature. Whenever two peers using BitComet (with Torrent Exchange enabled) connect to each other they exchange lists of all the torrents (name and info-hash) they have in the Torrent Share storage (torrent files which were previously downloaded and for which the user chose to enable sharing by Torrent Exchange). Thus each client builds up a list of all the torrents shared by the peers it connected to in the current session (or it can even maintain the list between sessions if instructed). At any time the user can search into that Torrent Collection list for a certain torrent and sort the list by categories. When the user chooses to download a torrent from that list, the .torrent file is automatically searched for (by info-hash value) in the DHT Network and when found it is downloaded by the querying client which can after that create and initiate a downloading task.
Downloading torrents and sharing files[edit]
Users find a torrent of interest on a torrent index site or by using a search engine built into the client, download it, and open it with a BitTorrent client. The client connects to the tracker(s) or seeds specified in the torrent file, from which it receives a list of seeds and peers currently transferring pieces of the file(s). The client connects to those peers to obtain the various pieces. If the swarm contains only the initial seeder, the client connects directly to it, and begins to request pieces. Clients incorporate mechanisms to optimize their download and upload rates.
The effectiveness of this data exchange depends largely on the policies that clients use to determine to whom to send data. Clients may prefer to send data to peers that send data back to them (a 'tit for tat' exchange scheme), which encourages fair trading. But strict policies often result in suboptimal situations, such as when newly joined peers are unable to receive any data because they don't have any pieces yet to trade themselves or when two peers with a good connection between them do not exchange data simply because neither of them takes the initiative. To counter these effects, the official BitTorrent client program uses a mechanism called 'optimistic unchoking', whereby the client reserves a portion of its available bandwidth for sending pieces to random peers (not necessarily known good partners, so called preferred peers) in hopes of discovering even better partners and to ensure that newcomers get a chance to join the swarm.[19]
Although 'swarming' scales well to tolerate 'flash crowds' for popular content, it is less useful for unpopular or niche market content. Peers arriving after the initial rush might find the content unavailable and need to wait for the arrival of a 'seed' in order to complete their downloads. The seed arrival, in turn, may take long to happen (this is termed the 'seeder promotion problem'). Since maintaining seeds for unpopular content entails high bandwidth and administrative costs, this runs counter to the goals of publishers that value BitTorrent as a cheap alternative to a client-server approach. This occurs on a huge scale; measurements have shown that 38% of all new torrents become unavailable within the first month.[20] A strategy adopted by many publishers which significantly increases availability of unpopular content consists of bundling multiple files in a single swarm.[21] More sophisticated solutions have also been proposed; generally, these use cross-torrent mechanisms through which multiple torrents can cooperate to better share content.[22]
Creating and publishing torrents[edit]
The peer distributing a data file treats the file as a number of identically sized pieces, usually with byte sizes of a power of 2, and typically between 32 kB and 16 MB each. The peer creates a hash for each piece, using the SHA-1 hash function, and records it in the torrent file. Pieces with sizes greater than 512 kB will reduce the size of a torrent file for a very large payload, but is claimed to reduce the efficiency of the protocol.[23] When another peer later receives a particular piece, the hash of the piece is compared to the recorded hash to test that the piece is error-free.[6] Peers that provide a complete file are called seeders, and the peer providing the initial copy is called the initial seeder. The exact information contained in the torrent file depends on the version of the BitTorrent protocol. By convention, the name of a torrent file has the suffix
.torrent
. Torrent files have an 'announce' section, which specifies the URL of the tracker, and an 'info' section, containing (suggested) names for the files, their lengths, the piece length used, and a SHA-1hash code for each piece, all of which are used by clients to verify the integrity of the data they receive. Though SHA-1 has shown signs of cryptographic weakness, Bram Cohen did not initially consider the risk big enough for a backward incompatible change to, for example, SHA-3. BitTorrent is now preparing to move to SHA-256.In the early days, torrent files were typically published to torrent index websites, and registered with at least one tracker. The tracker maintained lists of the clients currently connected to the swarm.[6] Alternatively, in a trackerless system (decentralized tracking) every peer acts as a tracker. Azureus was the first[24] BitTorrent client to implement such a system through the distributed hash table (DHT) method. An alternative and incompatible DHT system, known as Mainline DHT, was released in the Mainline BitTorrent client three weeks later (though it had been in development since 2002)[24] and subsequently adopted by the µTorrent, Transmission, rTorrent, KTorrent, BitComet, and Deluge clients.
After the DHT was adopted, a 'private' flag – analogous to the broadcast flag – was unofficially introduced, telling clients to restrict the use of decentralized tracking regardless of the user's desires.[25] The flag is intentionally placed in the info section of the torrent so that it cannot be disabled or removed without changing the identity of the torrent. The purpose of the flag is to prevent torrents from being shared with clients that do not have access to the tracker. The flag was requested for inclusion in the official specification in August 2008, but has not been accepted yet.[26] Clients that have ignored the private flag were banned by many trackers, discouraging the practice.[27]
Anonymity[edit]
BitTorrent does not, on its own, offer its users anonymity. One can usually see the IP addresses of all peers in a swarm in one's own client or firewall program. This may expose users with insecure systems to attacks.[19] In some countries, copyright organizations scrape lists of peers, and send takedown notices to the internet service provider of users participating in the swarms of files that are under copyright. In some jurisdictions, copyright holders may launch lawsuits against uploaders or downloaders for infringement, and police may arrest suspects in such cases.
Various means have been used to promote anonymity. For example, the bittorrent client Tribler makes available a Tor-like onion network, optionally routing transfers through other peers to obscure which client has requested the data. The exit node would be visible to peers in a swarm, but the Tribler organization provides exit nodes. One advantage of Tribler is that clearnet torrents can be downloaded with only a small decrease in download speed from one 'hop' of routing.
i2p provides a similar anonymity layer although in that case, one can only download torrents that have been uploaded to the i2p network. [28] The bittorrent client Vuze allows users who are not concerned about anonymity to take clearnet torrents, and make them available on the i2p network. [29]
Most bittorrent clients are not designed to provide anonymity when used over Tor,[30], and there is some debate as to whether torrenting over Tor acts as a drag on the network.[31]
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Private torrent trackers are usually invitation only, and require members to participate in uploading, but have the downside of a single centralized point of failure. Oink's Pink Palace and What.cd are examples of private trackers which have been shut down.
Seedbox services download the torrent files first to the company's servers, allowing the user to direct download the file from there.[32][33] One's IP address would be visible to the Seedbox provider, but not to third parties.
Virtual private networks encrypt transfers, and substitute a different IP address for the user's, so that anyone monitoring a torrent swarm will only see that address.
Adoption[edit]
A growing number of individuals and organizations are using BitTorrent to distribute their own or licensed works (e.g. indie bands distributing digital files of their new songs). Independent adopters report that without using BitTorrent technology, and its dramatically reduced demands on their private networking hardware and bandwidth, they could not afford to distribute their files.[34]
Some uses of BitTorrent for file sharing may violate laws in some jurisdictions (see legal issues section).
Film, video, and music[edit]
- BitTorrent Inc. has obtained a number of licenses from Hollywood studios for distributing popular content from their websites.
- Sub Pop Records releases tracks and videos via BitTorrent Inc.[35] to distribute its 1000+ albums. Babyshambles and The Libertines (both bands associated with Pete Doherty) have extensively used torrents to distribute hundreds of demos and live videos. US industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails frequently distributes albums via BitTorrent.
- Podcasting software is starting to integrate BitTorrent to help podcasters deal with the download demands of their MP3 'radio' programs. Specifically, Juice and Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player) support automatic processing of .torrent files from RSS feeds. Similarly, some BitTorrent clients, such as µTorrent, are able to process web feeds and automatically download content found within them.
- DGM Live purchases are provided via BitTorrent.[36]
- VODO, a service which distributes 'free-to-share' movies and TV shows via BitTorrent.[37][38][39]
Broadcasters[edit]
- In 2008, the CBC became the first public broadcaster in North America to make a full show (Canada's Next Great Prime Minister) available for download using BitTorrent.[40]
- The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) has since March 2008 experimented with bittorrent distribution, available online.[41] Only selected works in which NRK owns all royalties are published. Responses have been very positive, and NRK is planning to offer more content.
- The Dutch VPRO broadcasting organization released four documentaries in 2009 and 2010 under a Creative Commons license using the content distribution feature of the Mininova tracker.[42][43][44]
Personal works[edit]
- The Amazon S3 'Simple Storage Service' is a scalable Internet-based storage service with a simple web service interface, equipped with built-in BitTorrent support.[45]
- Blog Torrent offers a simplified BitTorrent tracker to enable bloggers and non-technical users to host a tracker on their site. Blog Torrent also allows visitors to download a 'stub' loader, which acts as a BitTorrent client to download the desired file, allowing users without BitTorrent software to use the protocol.[46] This is similar to the concept of a self-extracting archive.
Software[edit]
- Blizzard Entertainment uses BitTorrent (via a proprietary client called the 'Blizzard Downloader', associated with the Blizzard 'BattleNet' network) to distribute content and patches for Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft, including the games themselves.[47]
- Wargaming uses BitTorrent in their popular titles World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Warplanes to distribute game updates.[48]
- CCP Games, maker of the space Simulation MMORPG Eve Online, has announced that a new launcher will be released that is based on BitTorrent.[49][50]
- Many software games, especially those whose large size makes them difficult to host due to bandwidth limits, extremely frequent downloads, and unpredictable changes in network traffic, will distribute instead a specialized, stripped down bittorrent client with enough functionality to download the game from the other running clients and the primary server (which is maintained in case not enough peers are available).
- Many major open source and free software projects encourage BitTorrent as well as conventional downloads of their products (via HTTP, FTP etc.) to increase availability and to reduce load on their own servers, especially when dealing with larger files.[51]
Government[edit]
- The UK government used BitTorrent to distribute details about how the tax money of UK citizens was spent.[52][53]
Education[edit]
- Florida State University uses BitTorrent to distribute large scientific data sets to its researchers.[54]
- Many universities that have BOINC distributed computing projects have used the BitTorrent functionality of the client-server system to reduce the bandwidth costs of distributing the client-side applications used to process the scientific data. If a BOINC distributed computing application needs to be updated (or merely sent to a user), it can do so with little impact on the BOINC server.[55]
- The developing Human Connectome Project uses BitTorrent to share their open dataset.[56]
Others[edit]
- Facebook uses BitTorrent to distribute updates to Facebook servers.[57]
- Twitter uses BitTorrent to distribute updates to Twitter servers.[58][59]
- The Internet Archive added BitTorrent to its file download options for over 1.3 million existing files, and all newly uploaded files, in August 2012.[60][61] This method is the fastest means of downloading media from the Archive.[60][62]
As of 2011, BitTorrent had 100 million users and a greater share of network bandwidth than Netflix and Hulu combined.[63][64] In early 2015, AT&T estimates that BitTorrent represents 20% of all broadband traffic.[65]
Routers that use network address translation (NAT) must maintain tables of source and destination IP addresses and ports. Typical home routers are limited to about 2000 table entries[citation needed] while some more expensive routers have larger table capacities. BitTorrent frequently contacts 20–30 servers per second, rapidly filling the NAT tables. This is a known cause of some home routers ceasing to work correctly.[66][67]
Technologies built on BitTorrent[edit]
The BitTorrent protocol is still under development and may therefore still acquire new features and other enhancements such as improved efficiency.
Distributed trackers[edit]
On 2 May 2005, Azureus 2.3.0.0 (now known as Vuze) was released,[68] introducing support for 'trackerless' torrents through a system called the 'distributed database.' This system is a Distributed hash table implementation which allows the client to use torrents that do not have a working BitTorrent tracker. The following month, BitTorrent, Inc. released version 4.2.0 of the Mainline BitTorrent client, which supported an alternative DHT implementation (popularly known as 'Mainline DHT', outlined in a draft on their website) that is incompatible with that of Azureus. Recent measurement shows users of Mainline DHT is from 10 million to 25 million, with a daily churn of at least 10 million.[69] Mainline DHT is arguably the largest realistic DHT in the world.
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Current versions of the official BitTorrent client, µTorrent, BitComet, Transmission and BitSpirit all share compatibility with Mainline DHT. Both DHT implementations are based on Kademlia.[70] As of version 3.0.5.0, Azureus also supports Mainline DHT in addition to its own distributed database through use of an optional application plugin.[71] This potentially allows the Azureus/Vuze client to reach a bigger swarm.
Another idea that has surfaced in Vuze is that of virtual torrents. This idea is based on the distributed tracker approach and is used to describe some web resource. Currently, it is used for instant messaging. It is implemented using a special messaging protocol and requires an appropriate plugin. Anatomic P2P is another approach, which uses a decentralized network of nodes that route traffic to dynamic trackers. Most BitTorrent clients also use Peer exchange (PEX) to gather peers in addition to trackers and DHT. Peer exchange checks with known peers to see if they know of any other peers. With the 3.0.5.0 release of Vuze, all major BitTorrent clients now have compatible peer exchange.
Web seeding[edit]
Web 'seeding' was implemented in 2006 as the ability of BitTorrent clients to download torrent pieces from an HTTP source in addition to the 'swarm'. The advantage of this feature is that a website may distribute a torrent for a particular file or batch of files and make those files available for download from that same web server; this can simplify long-term seeding and load balancing through the use of existing, cheap, web hosting setups. In theory, this would make using BitTorrent almost as easy for a web publisher as creating a direct HTTP download. In addition, it would allow the 'web seed' to be disabled if the swarm becomes too popular while still allowing the file to be readily available. This feature has two distinct specifications, both of which are supported by Libtorrent and the 26+ clients that use it.
Hash web seeding[edit]
The first was created by John 'TheSHAD0W' Hoffman, who created BitTornado.[72][73] This first specification requires running a web service that serves content by info-hash and piece number, rather than filename.
HTTP web seeding[edit]
The other specification is created by GetRight authors and can rely on a basic HTTP download space (using byte serving).[74][75]
Other[edit]
In September 2010, a new service named Burnbit was launched which generates a torrent from any URL using webseeding.[76] There are server-side solutions that provide initial seeding of the file from the webserver via standard BitTorrent protocol and when the number of external seeders reach a limit, they stop serving the file from the original source.[77]
RSS feeds[edit]
A technique called broadcatching combines RSS feeds with the BitTorrent protocol to create a content delivery system, further simplifying and automating content distribution. Steve Gillmor explained the concept in a column for Ziff-Davis in December 2003.[78] The discussion spread quickly among bloggers (Ernest Miller,[79]Chris Pirillo, etc.). In an article entitled Broadcatching with BitTorrent, Scott Raymond explained:
I want RSS feeds of BitTorrent files. A script would periodically check the feed for new items, and use them to start the download. Then, I could find a trusted publisher of an Alias RSS feed, and 'subscribe' to all new episodes of the show, which would then start downloading automatically – like the 'season pass' feature of the TiVo.
— Scott Raymond, scottraymond.net[80]
The RSS feed will track the content, while BitTorrent ensures content integrity with cryptographichashing of all data, so feed subscribers will receive uncorrupted content. One of the first and popular software clients (free and open source) for broadcatching is Miro. Other free software clients such as PenguinTV and KatchTV are also now supporting broadcatching. The BitTorrent web-service MoveDigital added the ability to make torrents available to any web application capable of parsing XML through its standard REST-based interface in 2006,[81] though this has since been discontinued. Additionally, Torrenthut is developing a similar torrent API that will provide the same features, and help bring the torrent community to Web 2.0 standards. Alongside this release is a first PHP application built using the API called PEP, which will parse any Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0) feed and automatically create and seed a torrent for each enclosure found in that feed.[82]
Throttling and encryption[edit]
Since BitTorrent makes up a large proportion of total traffic, some ISPs have chosen to 'throttle' (slow down) BitTorrent transfers. For this reason, methods have been developed to disguise BitTorrent traffic in an attempt to thwart these efforts.[83] Protocol header encrypt (PHE) and Message stream encryption/Protocol encryption (MSE/PE) are features of some BitTorrent clients that attempt to make BitTorrent hard to detect and throttle. As of November 2015, Vuze, Bitcomet, KTorrent, Transmission, Deluge, µTorrent, MooPolice, Halite, qBittorrent, rTorrent, and the latest official BitTorrent client (v6) support MSE/PE encryption. In September 2006 it was reported that some software could detect and throttle BitTorrent traffic masquerading as HTTP traffic.[84]
Reports in August 2007 indicated that Comcast was preventing BitTorrent seeding by monitoring and interfering with the communication between peers. Protection against these efforts is provided by proxying the client-tracker traffic via an encrypted tunnel to a point outside of the Comcast network.[85] Comcast has more recently called a 'truce' with BitTorrent, Inc. with the intention of shaping traffic in a protocol-agnostic manner.[86] Questions about the ethics and legality of Comcast's behavior have led to renewed debate about net neutrality in the United States.[87] In general, although encryption can make it difficult to determine what is being shared, BitTorrent is vulnerable to traffic analysis. Thus, even with MSE/PE, it may be possible for an ISP to recognize BitTorrent and also to determine that a system is no longer downloading but only uploading data, and terminate its connection by injecting TCP RST (reset flag) packets.
Multitracker[edit]
Another unofficial feature is an extension to the BitTorrent metadata format proposed by John Hoffman[88] and implemented by several indexing websites. It allows the use of multiple trackers per file, so if one tracker fails, others can continue to support file transfer. It is implemented in several clients, such as BitComet, BitTornado, BitTorrent, KTorrent, Transmission, Deluge, µTorrent, rtorrent, Vuze, and Frostwire. Trackers are placed in groups, or tiers, with a tracker randomly chosen from the top tier and tried, moving to the next tier if all the trackers in the top tier fail.
Torrents with multiple trackers can decrease the time it takes to download a file, but also have a few consequences:
- Poorly implemented[89] clients may contact multiple trackers, leading to more overhead-traffic.
- Torrents from closed trackers suddenly become downloadable by non-members, as they can connect to a seed via an open tracker.
Implementations[edit]
The BitTorrent specification is free to use and many clients are open source, so BitTorrent clients have been created for all common operating systems using a variety of programming languages. The official BitTorrent client, µTorrent, qBittorrent, Transmission, Vuze, and BitComet are some of the most popular clients.[90][91][92][93]
Some BitTorrent implementations such as MLDonkey and Torrentflux are designed to run as servers. For example, this can be used to centralize file sharing on a single dedicated server which users share access to on the network.[94] Server-oriented BitTorrent implementations can also be hosted by hosting providers at co-located facilities with high bandwidth Internet connectivity (e.g., a datacenter) which can provide dramatic speed benefits over using BitTorrent from a regular home broadband connection. Services such as ImageShack can download files on BitTorrent for the user, allowing them to download the entire file by HTTP once it is finished. The Operaweb browser supports BitTorrent,[95] as does Wyzo. BitLet allows users to download Torrents directly from their browser using a Java applet. An increasing number of hardware devices are being made to support BitTorrent. These include routers and NAS devices containing BitTorrent-capable firmware like OpenWrt. Proprietary versions of the protocol which implement DRM, encryption, and authentication are found within managed clients such as Pando.
Development[edit]
An unimplemented (as of February 2008) unofficial feature is Similarity Enhanced Transfer (SET), a technique for improving the speed at which peer-to-peer file sharing and content distribution systems can share data. SET, proposed by researchers Pucha, Andersen, and Kaminsky, works by spotting chunks of identical data in files that are an exact or near match to the one needed and transferring these data to the client if the 'exact' data are not present. Their experiments suggested that SET will help greatly with less popular files, but not as much for popular data, where many peers are already downloading it.[96] Andersen believes that this technique could be immediately used by developers with the BitTorrent file sharing system.[97]
As of December 2008, BitTorrent, Inc. is working with Oversi on new Policy Discover Protocols that query the ISP for capabilities and network architecture information. Oversi's ISP hosted NetEnhancer box is designed to 'improve peer selection' by helping peers find local nodes, improving download speeds while reducing the loads into and out of the ISP's network.[98]
Legal issues[edit]
Although the protocol itself is legal,[99] problems stem from using the protocol to traffic copyright infringing works. There has been much controversy over the use of BitTorrent trackers. BitTorrent metafiles themselves do not store file contents. Whether the publishers of BitTorrent metafiles violate copyrights by linking to copyrighted works without the authorization of copyright holders is controversial. Various jurisdictions have pursued legal action against websites that host BitTorrent trackers. High-profile examples include the closing of Suprnova.org, TorrentSpy, LokiTorrent, BTJunkie, Mininova, Oink's Pink Palace and What.cd. The Pirate Bay torrent website, formed by a Swedish group, is noted for the 'legal' section of its website in which letters and replies on the subject of alleged copyright infringements are publicly displayed. On 31 May 2006, The Pirate Bay's servers in Sweden were raided by Swedish police on allegations by the MPAA of copyright infringement;[100] however, the tracker was up and running again three days later. In the study used to value NBC Universal in its merger with Comcast, Envisional examined the 10,000 torrent swarms managed by PublicBT which had the most active downloaders. After excluding pornographic and unidentifiable content, it was found that only one swarm offered legitimate content.[101]
In the United States, more than 200,000 lawsuits have been filed for copyright infringement on BitTorrent since 2010.[102] On 30 April 2012, the UK High Court ordered five ISPs to block BitTorrent search engine The Pirate Bay.[103] (see List of websites blocked in the United Kingdom)
Security problems[edit]
One concern is the UDP flood attack. BitTorrent implementations often use µTP for their communication. To achieve high bandwidths, the underlying protocol used is UDP, which allows spoofing of source addresses of internet traffic. It has been possible to carry out Denial-of-service attacks in a P2P lab environment, where users running BitTorrent clients act as amplifiers for an attack at another service.[104] However this is not always a effective attack because ISPs can check if the source adress is correct.
Challenges[edit]
'Leeches', are those users who download more than they share. As BitTorrent is a collaborative distributed platform, there is a section of the community that wants solutions to punish and discourage such behaviour.[105]
Malware[edit]
Several studies on BitTorrent have indicated that there exist files, containing malware, available for download via BitTorrent. In particular, one small sample[106] indicated that 18% of all executable programs available for download contained malware. Another study[107] claims that as much as 14.5% of BitTorrent downloads contain zero-day malware, and that BitTorrent was used as the distribution mechanism for 47% of all zero-day malware they have found.
BitErrant attack[edit]
Due to SHA1 collisions, an attacker can alter the execution path of the executable by serving altered chunks when the victim is downloading the executable using the BitTorrent protocol.[108]
Criticism of BitErrant attack[edit]
Despite the fact that a proof of concept exists, the attack may succeed in very limited cases: such as small chunk size (32kB). By selecting larger chunks (i.e. >256kB) the amount of resources required to find SHA1 collision is tremendous, which makes the attack virtually impossible.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
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Further reading[edit]
- Pouwelse, Johan; et al. (2005). 'The Bittorrent P2P File-Sharing System: Measurements and Analysis'. Peer-to-Peer Systems IV. Berlin: Springer. pp. 205–216. doi:10.1007/11558989_19. ISBN978-3-540-29068-1. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to BitTorrent. |
- BitTorrent at Curlie
- Unofficial BitTorrent Protocol Specification v1.0 at wiki.theory.org
- Unofficial BitTorrent Location-aware Protocol 1.0 Specification at wiki.theory.org
- Czerniawski, Michal (20 December 2009). 'Responsibility of Bittorrent Search Engines for Copyright Infringements'. SSRN. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1540913. SSRN1540913.Missing or empty
|url=
(help) - Cohen, Bram (16 February 2005). 'Under the hood of BitTorrent'. Computer Systems Colloquium (EE380). Stanford University.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BitTorrent&oldid=899108562'
#1The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay (TPB) is the world biggest torrent website wherein each day they provide 10,000 new files and offers free download for audio, video, application, games, and others. Swedish think tank Piratbyran founded it in 2003.FreeEric SantosWritten on February 22, 2017'If you are sad because you can't access kickass torrents anymore The Pirate Bay will do almost everything that kickass did. It doesn't however have the community so all you have is a place to download stuff.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#2ExtraTorrent
Extratorrent is a free website to download and seed torrent files for various electronic resources. Downloadable files include movies, music, software, program, applications, e-books, documents, and many more.FreeHoward GibsonWritten on January 4, 2017'Extratotrent.cc was great to get torrents on! There were so many options. I could get all the movies, music and tv torrents that were up to date. There are also hundreds, even thousand more torrents. It's defiantly a good alternative to kickass torrents. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#3RARBG
RARBG is a website to browse and find torrents for downloading various media resources online such as movies, television shows and series, software, music, applications, books, and so on.FreeLawrence WadeWritten on January 18, 2017'I am so out of the loop when it comes to torrents. I am investigating this site but I have no idea what a good torrent is compared to a bad torrent. So, I guess this is an alternative for kickass torrents. I can find a few things on here but not as much as I hoped. Meh...'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.
Other stuff you might like...
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that a 2017 study claims that the number one reason why people look after torrent sites is that they want to avail and make use of its products for free? In addition, studies also show that people rely on torrent sites because of the unavailability of the item in their region. Meanwhile, entertainment can be experienced in an instant without going out to the hustle and bustle of the city. This is possibly done through downloading motion pictures, music, ebooks, and the likes for free through websites like Kickass Torrents. Studies show that in the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computers that help participants in the system find each other and form efficient distribution groups called swarms. Thus, aside from these comforts, the VPN Guru blog provides advantages of using software like Torrent, as such that even if you are suddenly disconnected from the Internet or your PC shuts down/restarts, you will be able to complete the download once you’re back online. Thus, there is no need to restart from scratch. Furthermore, files are easy to find and download. The most-searched alternative sites aside from Kickass Torrents isThe Pirate Bay, TorrentProject, and RARBG.
#4Torrent Downloads
Torrent Downloads is a BitTorrent download source that allows users to download TV shows, movies, games, music, software, books, anime, and more for free. The site also accumulates the most downloaded, seeded, and leeched torrents.FreeJuan SantosWritten on January 18, 2017'When I added some filters in my router to keep my kids from searching for stuff they shouldn't be looking for, I inadvertently blocked my old go-to Torrent site. Now I can't exactly go compare the offerings head to head right now without having to futz around in my router config again, this alternative does seem to have a lot of stuff I'd be interested in, and that will certainly do for now. It's not like I have anywhere near enough time to watch all of the stuff I download anyway.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#5Dirty Torrents
Dirty Torrents is a torrent and searcher website where you can identify other sites to download lots of games, movies, tv shows, applications, and audio or music. The site also aggregates the most recent and popular torrent downloads.FreeBilly KingWritten on June 25, 2018'Yeah, don't let the name fool you, this torrent site is one of the best. Offers fast and reliable downloads with rarely a virus attached to them. Been using this site for a long time now. Deffo better than that shitehole Kickasstorrents'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#6isoHunt
isoHunt is a BitTorrent and peer-to-peer torrent website to browse and find torrents for downloading various media resources online such as movies, television shows, and series, software, music, applications, and so on.FreeJoshua ChavezWritten on January 14, 2017'isoHunt is honestly not a very good substitute for kickass torrents, especially when looking for music and video files. I did a couple of quick searches for popular content and came up empty handed. There are so many other sites out there to try -- I'd pass on isoHunt. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#7LimeTorrents
LimeTorrents is a verified BitTorrent website where users can download movies, TV shows, music, games, and more for free. It can be accessed without the need to sign up for an account to the website.FreeJessica GilbertWritten on November 29, 2018'Layout Wise, it is no doubt one of the best altermatives to kickass to download movies from. I was recently able to download a 1080p copy of The Nun from here. There are a lot of seeders. My friend gave me a tip to look at the number of seeders and the health bar and I must say they are very useful. NO ANNOYING ADS AT ALL. THIS MUST BE ON MY TOP LIST! 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#8TorrentProject
TorrentProject is a torrent search engine which offers a collection of more than 10 million torrents of movies, games, music, ebooks, and software which can be downloaded with zero restrictions.*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*Jose BakerWritten on March 12, 2017'TorrentProject is a good, if not excellent third party software torrent identification and download site, and has received largely above‐average customer reviews over time. TorrentProject represents one of a number of such website services, and I would use it comfortably in tandem with other similar sites and services to obtain software torrent resource downloads and related information.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#9Torrents
Torrents is a website which combines popular torrent sites from a list composed of 600 torrent sites and invite-only trackers ranked by rating and the traffic numbers.FreeRachel KellerWritten on May 15, 2018'Torrents is a website to download movies and songs from. You can also use things like Kodi, Kazaa, Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay has been along for quite a while and is pretty reliable. There is also Torrent Project which is reliable also. All are similar, you just need to figure out which one meets your needs and is easy to use for you. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#10iDope
iDope is the official torrent search engine. It is safe and untrackable. It offers a free and quick download for anything. iDope has a clean website design that is good for easy navigation.FreeJane DeanWritten on June 25, 2018'Thought this was another one of Apple's attempt to patent something that they didn't come up with due to the torrents name. Thankfuylly I gave it a try despite my biases towards any product that starts with a lowercase i. Sleek interface and easy to use search engine. I daresay it might be better than KaT'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#1101Torrent
01Torrent is a free torrent site where users can download the latest movies, music, television (TV) shows, applications, games, books, animes, software, and many more. This website no longer needs any registration.Freetorr entWritten on July 4, 2018'Download High Quality Movies, Tv-Shows, Application, Games'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#12Vuze
Vuze is a Bittorrent client that is a torrent downloader which works with Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android devices. This software application is ideal for all torrent downloads including movies, songs, games, and so on.Android, Windows, Mac, LinuxFree- with in-app purchasesLawrence JensenWritten on April 4, 2017'I thought this would be the app to end all downloader apps. At first it was great, and I was loving being able to manage all my torrent downloads! It was so much better than any other torrent app I've tried. But with the latest update, I'm finding it'd getting really dodgy getting the WiFi only option to work properly. I'm pretty sure it didn't turn off the background data and I've already eaten through my plan this month!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#13Flud
Flud is a simple and beautiful BitTorrent client for Android. The power of BitTorrent protocol is now in the palm of your hands. Share files with ease from your phone/tablet. Download files directly to your phone/tablet.AndroidFreeAjay SharmaWritten on March 27, 2017'If for some reason you are looking for a p2p client for your android phone this looks like a clean option. It is not a tracker so you will need to search for the torrents through other methods and then put them into this.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#14CatTorrent
CatTorrent allows its users to download, play, and use torrent files straight unto their mobile phones or tablet. This app is developed by Pirate CatsAndroidFree- with in-app purchasesRonald HenryWritten on February 24, 2017'Since I hate having to pay for content online, I am fixated on finding the best alternatives for amazing torrents. Having found CatTorrent, I don't know how I ever lived without it. It is such an easy-to-use platform and it organizes my content in a simple way, and is sleek and highly functional. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#15Opera Free VPN
Opera Free VPN - Unlimited VPN is a free web-browser allows users to block ad trackers and change the user's virtual location. Still in Beta stage, Opera Free VPN - Unlimited VPN, is available for download in Android.*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*Vishal ShahWritten on June 25, 2018'I met a guy on IRC and told him about this VPN site and said verbatim 'You need a VPN before you start using torrent sites to protect your computer.' And he messaged me a few weeks later getting all angry at me for not giving him a torrent site. M8 pls, you need to start listening. Anyway, this might not be the solution for this problem, but since it's already here, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that you NEED a VPN before you start using torrent sites. Protect your PC, protect your IP. Opera has been my go-to VPN ever since I started illegally downloading shit from the internet'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#16Torrentz
Torrentz was founded by flippy in March 2003 that indexes many active torrents from 32 different domains. It doesn't host any magnet links or digital files but redirects users to other sites on the internet.FreeEmma HowellWritten on June 7, 2017'Super easy to use and I like that I don't have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to watch a movie! Haven't gotten any sketchy ads or anything, either, so it's nice to feel safe.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#17Yify TV
Yify.tv is a website for watching free full-length movies online. You can find torrents and watch films online in HD 720p and 1080p quality. The site compiles movies by tags such as popular releases, animations, and more.FreePetra BarriosWritten on September 22, 2017'You can watch movies in so many different genre's it's unbelievable. The site is laid out nicely and easy to use and the quality is excellent. Thanks for saving me 60 bucks at the movie theater to take my family!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#18Bullmask
Bullmask (formerly known as CiniSearch) is a Torrent site that offers free search and download of movies and TV series. Users simply have to put the title of the show on the search bar and hit enter to get results.FreeSophia DaiWritten on November 29, 2018'this is not a torrent site but rather a search engine. I feel so-so about this website. It is like when you search a movie it will display results of different torrent sites where you can download it. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#19Kickass Torrent - Top 10 alternatives
From the YouTube channel of TechSayyer you can see 10 valid alternatives to KickAsstorrents to share files. The video uploaded on August 8, 2016 shares alternatives such as dxtorrent, kickasstorrentsas, extratorrent.cc, and more.*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*Jordan WebbWritten on March 18, 2017'Ever since Kickass Torrent was shut down, I had been looking for a new place to stream content. This video had a great list of different places that I could stream the actual torrent links. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a replacement for Kickass Torrent.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#20Top 5 Most Active Torrent Sites Of 2017
In this video uploaded by Geek Guys on YouTube on January 18, 2017, you can see the five most active Torrent sites of 2017. Some of the solutions this video offers as an alternative are RARBG, The Pirate Bay, and more.FreeEric GilbertWritten on February 9, 2017'This Youtube video lists the top Torrent sites to visit for people missing Kickass Torrents since the site was taken down. It helped me learn where to go to find what I used to download on Kickass Torrents without having to scour the whole internet.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#21Top Alternatives to Kick Ass Torrent
In this YouTube video, you can see how to find new sites to download and share your favorite torrents. The video was uploaded by Alex Denton on November 8, 2016 since Kickass torrents was temporarily taken down.FreeBruce AllenWritten on February 5, 2017'I was so relieved when I was able to use the video explaining how to find alternatives to KickAss Torrent after it was shut down. The video was extremely descriptive of some alternative sites I could use, and even walked me through how to find what I wanted on them, allowing me more ease of use for my transition. The video gave me every instruction I needed and it was overall very helpful and exactly what I was looking for. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#22Kickasstorrent 2019
Kickasstorrent 2019 is a website where users can browse, find, and download torrent files of various music, movies, TV series, programs, ebooks, videos, apps, anime, games and so on.FreeTor DevWritten on October 26, 2018'when i was searching the latest kickass torrent site so I have found it 'Kickass Torrents 2019' the latest site with 'Android App v7.1' best for mobile and desktop users it has live seed & leech checking function as well as the updated 'Torrent Magnet' link generator which is never been launched before 'Kickass Torrent 2019' version. Hope others also like it as i do.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#23MagTors
MagTors is a Torrent hosting website that has over 3 million active torrents. The torrent search tool has torrents for TV shows, movies, games, software, music, and eBooks. It is also categorized by most recent and popular.*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*Elisha VavilovWritten on November 9, 2018'MagTors is a great alternative to KAT. The site is lightning fast, has quality torrents & is totally ad-free.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.