How-To Geek Forums / Geek Stuff
what are torrents?
(7 posts)
Torrents can be bad because illegal downloads can contain malware.
Some reading below will give you an idea as to how torrents work.
Torrents can store a large amount of files such as music, a movie etc. The things you download can be illegal such as movies that are out in theaters still, and music that has been copyrighted. But using a torrent isn't illegal. They can contain malware or viruses if you don't be careful what you download. I used them when i was younger but got in a little bit of trouble with them my ISP and stopped before anything serious happened.
torrents are great way to get maximum speeds for a download. I use it when I want to download a new Linux distro. A lot of distro's have this option like Ubuntu. How they work is people (like you and me) will already have the file downloaded and they will have there torrent program set to allow it to upload to other people. With everyone sharing this file it allows you to use there upload connection to download to you. The more people that are sharing it the faster the speeds can get. Of course you can only go as fast as your ISP alows but it sure beats HTML of FTP connections IMO.
ProstheticHead gives good advice. There be dragons out there!
Seriously, unless you're into heavy downloads of music and video, AND as PH said, you know what you're doing, best to stay away from these things. Yes, it is "legal" to use torrent software (it comes packaged in Ubuntu), but it's often a nest for malware.
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