On Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:32:39 -0400, 98 Guy <
98@Guy.com> wrote:
>Full Quoter
letterman@invalid.com wrote:
>
>> OK, I got to ask......
>>
>> Windows-98-Second-Edition-Full-Bootable-CD + CD-Key.torrent
>>
>> What the heck do you do with that?
>>
>> And what is a torrent client?
>
>For the past, oh, 6 or 7 years, there's been this thing you can do on
>the internet called "file sharing". It's more technically known as p2p
>(peer to peer). Ever heard of something called Napster? Gnutella?
>Kazaa? eMule? eDonkey? They all implimented a form of peer to peer
>file sharing.
>
>The most common form of file sharing today uses the BitTorrent protocal,
>also known simply as BT or just torrent. Detailed info about BT:
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)
>
>There are two dozen, maybe more, BT client software, a popular one being
>uTorrent (micro-torrent):
>
>
http://www.utorrent.com/
>
>The latest version (1.8.2) is fully compatible with win-98 (and even
>win95).
>
>When you have a BT client installed, and you want something (a movie, a
>music CD, a piece of software), then you just fire up google and enter
>the search term and just throw the word "torrent" at the end.
>
>Say, I want to download the Beatles White Album. In google, I'll enter
>this:
>
>Beatles White Album torrent (no quotes).
>
>You will see hits from:
>
> - thepiratebay
> - torrentreactor
> - torrentz
> - isohunt
> - torrentbox
>
>And others. Those are tracking websites. They have the .torrent files
>that you'll need in order to join the p2p network. They don't actually
>contain or host the material to be downloaded. Think of them like a
>card catalog in a library. You go to the catalog to find out where a
>specific book is by finding it's card in the catalog.
>
>Lets look at the link from torrentreactor.net:
>
>
http://www.torrentreactor.net/torrents/ ... hite-Album
>
>We're told that the torrent size is 129 mb. When you click the download
>link, your browser will probably ask you if you want to download the
>.torrent file or open it with your installed BT client. So I choose
>"open with uTorrent". uTorrent is started, and I get a window showing
>me the structure of the torrent (directories and files). If I don't
>want some of the files or directories, I can de-select them, or
>(usually) I want them all. I click OK, and then the P2P process starts.
>
>There are 65 seeders (people that have 100% of the torrent or
>set-of-files) and 18 peers (or "leachers") - people who are in the
>process of downloading the torrent. I can see that this is a 2-cd set,
>and can see all the names of the tracks. Also included are scanned .jpg
>files of the album covers, inlays, looks like even a scan of the album
>itself. It's common to also get a .txt file or two, which contains
>information about how the .mp3 files were encoded, information about the
>artist, etc. So far, in the time it's taken me to type this paragraph,
>I've downloaded 51% of the 128 mb of this torrent. My download speed is
>445 kb/sec. uTorrent is also uploading from my computer to the other
>peers. I've uploaded about 3 mb of the torrent to 3 peers that I'm
>connected to.
>
>Most BT clients will, by default, begin sharing (uploading) what you
>download (as it's being downloaded) immediately with others who are also
>downloading the same torrent.
>
>Ah, I see that I'm done. I'm now a "seed" - I have 100% of the torrent
>and I'm one of 60-odd computers providing it to others. But at this
>point I will change that by stopping the service. I'm looking at the
>files now, and I've double-clicked on "Revolution", and it's playing
>now. It's 5 mb in size, and has been encoded at 414 kb/s (an odd rate,
>and probably way higher than needed given the spectral content of the
>original source material). High quality mp3's are usually recorded at
>320 kb/s.
>
>This torrent was downloaded very fast, but that's because it's popular
>and there were lots of peers. If you're into other types of music (less
>popular) it's more common for there to be only 2 or 3 peers for a given
>album, and it might take 8 hours, or even 1 or 2 days to download the
>entire album.
>
>One final note about p2p downloading is that it's probably a good idea
>to also run a program called "Peer Guardian". It's basically an
>out-bound firewall, but it's been customized to prevent your torrent
>client from communicating with IP addresses that have been flagged by
>others as being, well, being someone you don't want to communicate
>with. Such as the RIAA, or entities that like to see who is downloading
>what.
>
>During the time I was downloading the Beatles White Album, Peer Guardian
>blocked an entity called "Hightower Systems Management" and
>"Oversee.net". Those entities or organizations will know that I was
>listed as being a peer or seed for that torrent, but because their
>communication with me was blocked by peer guardian, they have no
>concrete proof that I was acting as either an uploader or downloader for
>this torrent.
>
>In order to use a torrent client, you'll have to modify your NAT-router
>(if you have one, and you should have one). You'll have to forward or
>open up a port so that external connections can be made to you on that
>port. Some ISP's are doing funny things with torrent traffic (like
>throttling, traffic shaping, etc) and there are whole coversations, web
>sites, forums, etc, devoted to which ISP's are doing exactly what, and
>how to get around it.
>
>And that is the thumbnail sketch of p2p aka filesharing.
Thanks for the info. I learned something new. I did use Napster
before they went pay. I recall having to use their own software.
I dont know how much I could do with being on dialup, but for smaller
files it might work.
By the way, if I can find a torrent, or some freeware to use my CD
burner for burning, what can I get that will work on 98 and is small
enough to DL? Prefer EASY to use....
Thanks
LM