What is BitTorrent exactly?

[zaax]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16/virgin_bittorrent/page2.html

I down load a fair bit using Orbit download manager. Which I understand is not BitTorrent, though is does look for other sources of the files and does open more than one down load path but just between the same places.

Will I be hit but the 'Virgin Media to dump neutrality and target BitTorrent users' or will I be better off for it?

[downquark1]

Bittorrent is a peer to peer file transfer protocol. i.e. you can have programs that use bit torrent even if they aren't called bittorrent.

Basically there is a tracker which keeps track of everyone who either has or is interested in a file. When you want the file the program connects to the tracker to learn about the other people. It then connects to the others and asks for the parts that they have. Given enough time everyone gets a full copy.
A bittorrent file (.torrent) is something that contains the address of the tracker and a "hash" of the files it wants, this allows it to verify its the correct file.

[Stuart]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16/virgin_bittorrent/page2.html

I down load a fair bit using Orbit download manager. Which I understand is not BitTorrent, though is does look for other sources of the files and does open more than one down load path but just between the same places.

Will I be hit but the 'Virgin Media to dump neutrality and target BitTorrent users' or will I be better off for it?

The final details of what Virgin will be throttling have yet to be worked out, but unless your download manager uses a P2P network (looking at the web page, I don't think it does), you are not likely to be affected.

P2P is being targetted because of the way it works. If you download a file via normal means, you are using a lot of download bandwidth, and a little upload bandwidth.

P2P works differently. You are using bandwidth to download, but your P2P client also shares your downloads with other users, so is using an awful lot of upload bandwidth as well.

[pabscars]

The final details of what Virgin will be throttling have yet to be worked out, but unless your download manager uses a P2P network (looking at the web page, I don't think it does), you are not likely to be affected.

P2P is being targetted because of the way it works. If you download a file via normal means, you are using a lot of download bandwidth, and a little upload bandwidth.

P2P works differently. You are using bandwidth to download, but your P2P client also shares your downloads with other users, so is using an awful lot of upload bandwidth as well.


Will this effect online gaming then?

[webcrawler2050]

Well.. hmm.. its "nothing" :D

[Druchii]

The final details of what Virgin will be throttling have yet to be worked out, but unless your download manager uses a P2P network (looking at the web page, I don't think it does), you are not likely to be affected.

P2P is being targetted because of the way it works. If you download a file via normal means, you are using a lot of download bandwidth, and a little upload bandwidth.

P2P works differently. You are using bandwidth to download, but your P2P client also shares your downloads with other users, so is using an awful lot of upload bandwidth as well.
It does indeed use P2P, using "Orbitnet" as it's guise.

[moroboshi]

I'm pretty stunned there is anyone on the internet who doesn't know what bittorrent is. As others have said it's peer to peer sharing, and allows anyone to share anything with anyone as long as there is somewhere to host the tracker.

BitTorrent is used mostly, but certainly not exclusively to pirate TV shows, movies, games, books, and music. In fact I think it's fair to say that one of the biggest and most popular sites on the internet is a torrent sharing site. (The Pirate Bay)

[Horace]

Orbit looks like a download manager similar to FDM albeit with some P2P functionality (I'm guessing Gnutella). I'm not surprised an Orbit user wouldn't recognise Bittorrent since it downloads from pretty every other source except torrents and so would never need to venture into the world of torrents.

[Druchii]

Orbit looks like a download manager similar to FDM albeit with some P2P functionality (I'm guessing Gnutella). I'm not surprised an Orbit user wouldn't recognise Bittorrent since it downloads from pretty every other source except torrents and so would never need to venture into the world of torrents.
Just uses http/ftp mirrors AFAIK.