My friend was trying to explain something to me about "torrent files." What are they and how do they work?

Answer 1

A torrent file is a small file that contains information on where the file you want is. (For example a music video) You need a torrent client (Such as utorrent at http://www.utorrent.com/ ) to download your file. When you download, it is getting the file from the central server where the file is located (Called a "Leecher") , plus other computers which the file has been downloaded to. (Called "Seeders") While the file is downloading, you are seeding the file to other people that are downloading the file as well. So basiclly, the video will download in parts, and when you get the file it is put together, and it continues to seed to other computers. You can stop this though once your file is done downloading.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

A "torrent" file is part of the bit torrent system. This is a way to download a file from multiple sources instead of the usual single source. The is a community of torrent servers and users.

Answer 3

Torrent files are used by bittorrent. Bittorrent is a program like limewire or edonkey. It works by you downloading a file from multiple places, then other places download the file from you.

While this is a good concept for large downloads, it is abused by people who download music and videos illegally. There are a few legal downloads, but most are illegal.

Answer 4

they are used with bittorrent a file sharing program. To open a torrent file you need a bittorrent client like utorrent.

more info:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/bittorrent.htm

Answer 5

well torrent files are translated by bittorrent which you can download from download.com
once you have that downloaded
you can go to many different websites like bittorrent.com and download videos legal and illegal
applications also legal and illegal