Hence the expression “P2P” (peer-to-peer) which is often used instead of “torrenting” - both terms essentially mean the same thing. direct connections) with other users on the network that are sharing the file you’re looking for. Once you open the file in your torrent client, you’ll establish peer-to-peer connections (i.e. The torrent file only contains metadata about the file you want to download as well as network information about the its locations (the other peers) on the network. In order to download a file using BitTorrent, you first need a torrent file.Ī torrent file acts as an “index” to the file you’re looking to download over BitTorrent. When torrenting, you’re actually downloading different bits of the file from various users (called peers) on the BitTorrent network, who have either the entire file or a part of it on their system.Īnd while you’re doing that, you’re also sharing out the portion you’ve already downloaded with other users on the BitTorrent network. You establish a connection to that server and download the entire file from there. Normally, when you download a file from the internet, you’re getting content that sits on a server somewhere. The definition of torrenting is quite simply: to download a file - any file - over the internet, using the BitTorrent protocol. In this post, we’ll go over the basics of torrenting and answer the above questions and more. What it is, is it legal, and whether or not it’s safe. There’s quite a bit of confusion surrounding torrenting or P2P file-sharing.

Is tunnelbear safe for torrenting