Everyone these days is most likely familiar with the term TORRENT. Though we all use it, I'm fairly sure that not everyone understands the dangers of using them on a LAN. Hopefully I'll provide a little info to help us learn and manage traffic and downloads that take place on our LAN.

We will call you A, me B, a torrent tracker C, and people D.

A = you
B = me
C = tracker
D = seeds/peers

SCENARIOS
-----------
1.
--
Here we go. A has a file and B wants it. A uploads the torrent to C. C points B to the file(s) on A's machine. Because A is the only one with it, B will get it slow.

2.
--
A has a file that he had uploaded to C and D is currently utilizing it with a high seed to peer ratio (meaing more people have the complete file than incomplete). B wants the file, and since there are a lot of seeds, he will get the file fast. (most people who download Naruto and Bleach will know what I mean).

3.
--
A has a file which has been seeding for some time, but D only has the file up to 70%. B will get the file very fast up to 70%, and then join the wait on how fast A can upload to everyone.

In all 3 situations, C (the tracker) is monitoring and administering the bandwidth allocation and statistics of the transactions. Now, in all of this, let us say we have a person connecting who just downloads the file and doesn't seed it back. This is considered an offence, and the tracker will take note of it. Constant doing of this, till the ratio threshold on the tracker has been reached will result in one of two things (or one then the other):

1 - The person will forever get slow transfers until his ratio is at an acceptable value

2 - The person will be banned from downloading from the tracker.

These things are implimented to ensure that people have good ettiquete when online, and encourages sharing. Please be careful from now on, and remember that if someone comes on your LAN and messes up your ratio, it's your fault. You IP address is not 10.0.0.x or 192.168.0.x. Those are internal addresses, and your external address (the address of your DSL modem or whatever your connection medium is) is what will be affected. Cheers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent
Reading Maketh A Full Man............

very insightful. and to be honesti really cant stand torrents most times i'm a mirc man mirc man.. :D but i often have to resort to torrents for a few things.

IRC and FTP are the true underground. I still use them, but these days more things are available on file sharing, gnutella networks, and upload sites (megaupload / rapidshare etc). As an IRC man, you should know that things like movies come out first on IRC before anywhere else (you can get a movie within 2hrs of showing in a theatre). Torrents are nice, and allow for good file sharing and netiquette. But, to each his own. Hope the NFO was helpful, and should explain to some people why they can't download from some trackers, or are getting much slower speeds than their bandwidth offers.

FTP days were great.. but we must admit they are not what they used to be. The only way u can get a decent FTP site is being a OP or being voiced ona channel.
aahhhh..... those FXP days were just sooo grand *sigh*
I luv irc BUT i must admit soemthimes to keep track of what server and channel a certain group has gone to after awhile because dem server was klined or soemthing gets tiring. So yeah i'll admit it.. torrents have me for now.. BUT for recent stuff there area few irc channels i still visit :D

I get my "stuff" from a site that uploads all their crap to free file hosts
Very soon i feel i'll be downloading from AoL (5gb's free disk space)

i use all of them, they all have their purpose. private torrent sites are great, i get my max download speed 95% of the times

decent torrent guide but one thing u dont really gatta upload...u should but dont its really a choice...never usually upload on public trackers or some private trackers[need to log in a site before download starts]...only time i see uploading necessary is for exclusive private trackers [need invite to become a member n ray ray] cuz these usually have wat u want n some users with sick upload speeds[= sik dl rate]...i rarely use torrents still is mainly if i want a ps game or a quick app or some series i cant find else where...ma advise is not 2 cop a torrent as u see if try find alternative sources if anyting cuz shit is all ova da web [ddlz/forums/file hosting sites/p2p] ftp koolhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/scizdott/Emoticons/hsughr.gif but irc http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/scizdott/Emoticons/nono.gif wtf is up with the queue thing i swore one time i said i was at number 40 for dis 1 episode n i wud need like 20 a dem plus its not da eazyst ting 2 use...
major tip wen using torrents...

always try get a decnt description[comments r good also] of wat ur dln cuz fags like 2 rename stuff esp wen its a new release

if ur on a private tracker n u gatta upload jus set ur ul rate to sumtn like 3 - 5kbs so ur get da file asap n at a decent speed...wen its finish jus upload it at ur max... -_- others tend to try balance their upload n download speed wen they are transfering the incomplete file<---- http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/scizdott/Emoticons/nono.gif...ppl like me mess up da system but there r some good pplz out there...we good http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/scizdott/Emoticons/ugh2.gif

It is a choice. If you choose not to you will affect the decorum and principle of the matter. If you choose not to, some trackers may ban you or your IP. If you choose not to, you'll be contributing to those torrents that reach 90%-99% and can't go anywhere because the seeds die. Think about it.

Not everyone can use IRC, and most people are computer users. Even though Jamaicans are resourceful and everyone can fix their machine till they muck it up and need to call a technician.........but anyways, not everyone knows about how to hack file hosting sites or how to search through warez without getting spyware/viruses. So for the average man, P2P and Torrents are a lifesaver. Not only is it easy, but its "safe" for the most part.

Torrents - Comments and detailed NFO help when available.
P2P - Never know what you may be getting till its done.
FTP - If you can find the right ones, TX rates are usually good.
IRC - The only true underground left, but too many requirements to get a DL.
HTTP - If you know where to look, you may actually find it.
FREENET - Difficult to get on, but has rare stuff.

Each has their purpose, each is good, and you may find things in one place that you wouldn't find in another. It's all a matter of your patience, and how experienced you are. Use what works for you.

PeAcE.

... but irc http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v713/scizdott/Emoticons/nono.gif wtf is up with the queue thing i swore one time i said i was at number 40 for dis 1 episode n i wud need like 20 a dem plus its not da eazyst ting 2 use...


IRC isn't for the faint of heart.. alot of u guys hav been set with a gold spoon inna yuh mouth.
As khat17 explained though... they have their pros/cons. I have to agree with khat also.. IRC is basically the only real underground left, I think becasue of its complexities at time it will stay that way for a good time. Alas like everything else.. sooner or later all good thing must come to an end.

IRC? Maybe never come to an end, lol. You can require people to be voice opd before being able to chat in a room, or being able to see anything in a room. So if someone needs to prove their loyalty before being allowed in, that can be done. IRC has been around for a long time, and I think it will still stay. As far as getting stuff is now concerned, FTP is dying and online storage (rapidshare/megaupload etc) is being more heavily used. IMHO.....

U remember a few years ago why the feds took down a big CHUNK of Centropy, DoD, Razor 1911 (RZR) (to name the top ones) off of Dalnet/Efnet???? Being op'd/voiced never helped them when the Feds and what not got through with them.... those servers were down for a good damn ass time YES it came back... but it hasn't been the same ever since.

IRC has been there from the inception of the internet.....even before flippin WWW BUT if they really want they can crippple the scence like they did a few years ago. I will always be for IRC and i'm glad alot of ppl don't have the paitience or even skill to use it.... that way it'll stay the way it is for a long as time.. WOOOT WOOOOT!!!!!!

yay khat, educate the masses, in any case, i'm not an IRC user, utter newb when it comes to computers, khat can verify that, with little bandwidth and physical sources providing music/movies/games i stick primarily to torrent sites, always make sure to upload at least for a day after dling a torrent, hehe, cuz i mea...doesn't really affect your browsing speed

IRC? Maybe never come to an end, lol. You can require people to be voice opd before being able to chat in a room, or being able to see anything in a room. So if someone needs to prove their loyalty before being allowed in, that can be done. IRC has been around for a long time, and I think it will still stay. As far as getting stuff is now concerned, FTP is dying and online storage (rapidshare/megaupload etc) is being more heavily used. IMHO.

And for those who don't know what internet abbriviations are, you can use this example (http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=define:+imho&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8) to find out what they are.

Google is nice :D

Also, some trackers do not support DHT (http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/DHT), and as a result of being a member of some sites where they monitor your share ratio you may have your ratio not being updated by having DHT enabled. To disable this you need to disable DECENTRALIZED TRACKING with AZUREUS and PEER EXCHANGE with UTORRENT.

PeAcE.

DK thought me how to use IRC. I was into in for awhile but ...nah I found myself drifting toward torrents.

It's not a secret, IRC has been around long before Napster and all the other P2P appz. IRC was the main source for downloading exclusive content on the web. But since the easy to use Bittorrent sites started to pop up, a huge amount of users have started to utilise this service.

More users and more torrent sites means more content, faster downloads and less IRC users. I used to exclusively use IRC but now i just browse any popular torrent site and i'm able to get almost anything i'm searching for.

I think as time goes by, torrent sites are gonna become more popular and grow in size. As long as i can get what i need there, i wont want to use IRC anymore...

I thought the same thing until i hear the creators of Bittorrent sold out to the 'big guys' (http://tutorialninjas.net/2007/02/11/bittorrent-clients-gone-sour/)
Read it and slowly weep.... (until something better comes along)