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P2P programs have a bad reputation because of the content they're often used with. But P2P technology is legal and useful for legal purposes as well.
My son installed Torrent on the house computer. This of course, without asking first as is the rule. This program slowed my computer down so much that I could not get online. I found out that as it was downloading, it was also uploading with unlimited bandwidth. I could not find any information on what it was uploading. I dislike P2P because of past experience with them, virus, spyware and the feeling I am stealing from the programmer, this program was promptly uninstalled. Is there any legitimate use for P2P programs?
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This is a very sad case of some very amazing technology getting smeared with a bad reputation because of how some people choose to use it.
Absolutely, there are many legitimate uses for peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs like BitTorrent.
In fact, I wish it were used more.
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In a traditional download there is one "master" server on which a file is placed, and then everyone wanting that file downloads it from that server:
Traditional File Download Using a Single Server
Now, as you might expect, if a lot of people want that file, then the server can quickly become overloaded.
One solution is to "mirror" the file on several servers, and then somehow distribute the download requests across those servers:
Traditional File Download, Using Multiple Mirrors
This is still a "master copy" model; only a handful of servers hold the master copy of a file, and you must go to one of those servers to get it.
P2P does away with this distinction. The fundamental concept is this: given that many machines have downloaded a file, they each then make the file available to others directly from their machine. There is no "master" distinction, all the computers are equal "peers", and any that have a copy of the file can offer that to any other computers looking for a copy of that file:
Peer-to-peer File Sharing
The advantages over normal file downloads are many. If a master file server goes down, you can't get the file. If one of the peers in a P2P network drops off, you keep on getting the file from another peer. The bandwidth usage, rather than being focussed on a single master server is distributed across all peers, often resulting in faster downloads.
In addition, the P2P protocols add some additional optimizations. For example, rather than downloading the file from start to finish on one connection, as you would in a traditional server based download, a peer may open connections to several other peers, each downloading separate parts of the file all at once. This typically makes much better use of bandwidth than a straight download. The moment any part of the file has been downloaded, that part can be immediately shared with other peers who don't have it yet. Yes, this means that a machine could be sharing and uploading parts of a file that it hasn't even completed downloading yet.
But hopefully by now you can see that peer-to-peer file sharing is just a technology designed to optimize how bits (files) get distributed on the internet. Nothing more, nothing less.
The fact that much of what is being shared might be in violation of someone's copyright doesn't alter the fact that the technology being used is valid and valuable.
For example, that same peer-to-peer software can be used to fetch the latest copies of many open source projects, such as Ubuntu Linux, other Linux distributions, and applications like OpenOffice. Since P2P works well for truly large downloads of things like entire CD or DVD images you'll often find it as an option for these types of files.
By the way, my expectation is that the program slowed your internet connection down, not your entire computer. BitTorrent is designed to make the maximum, most efficient use of the internet connection that it can, often leaving it difficult for other computers or applications trying to share that internet connection. The good news is that almost all P2P file sharing programs have "bandwidth throttles" built in. This means that you can instruct them to limit their upload and/or download speeds to something less than your full connection speed, leaving bandwidth over for anything else you might like to do while files are being transferred.
Article C3625 - January 18, 2009
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Except Vuze is written in Java.
Posted by: Mark at January 20, 2009 8:14 PMActually, there are 2 ways that your internet may slow to a snails pace when using bittorrent..
1. You are maxing out your upload speed. (easily fixed by capping your upload in your bittorrent client).
2. You are surpassing window's maximum allowed # of connections controlled by the tcpip.sys in your system32/drivers folder. (this is a precaution implemented by Microsoft to pretend the spreading worms from machine to machine post sp2)
If indeed your upload isnt being maxed out, you might want to think of getting a cracked tcpip.sys file if you're thinking about continuing with bittorrent. You will know if you are surpassing the max number of connections if you see Event ID 4226 in your Event Viewer.
Posted by: Chris A at January 21, 2009 11:05 PMOne has to be careful when using bittorrents. Every search includes infected files, usually with different names, but similar sizes. After some experience a careful user can tell which ones are suspicious. My antivirus and firewall software have very good P2P shields and so far haven't let one infected file pass through.
Posted by: O.A. Orcan at January 21, 2009 11:14 PMP2P programs have to be configured to access only a dedicated folder otherwise private information can also be accessed by others. Copyrighted contents should also be avoided to be included. Legal action has been taken in some P2P sharing instances. Bandwidth U/D load limits, number of simultaneous uploaders permitted, chat options, search permits for other sharers should all be configured. Some of the P2P software programs can be still active even after exiting. Ctrl+Alt+Del window will usually indicate such a process in the process window, if not, in the network window. I have tried almost all of the bittorrent software and observed malicious behavior in one or two. If a user selects a good P2P software and configures it wisely, with P2P shields included, P2P file sharing is safe and sometimes invaluable.
you can also limit your torrent uploading and downloading to avoid slower internet connection.
Posted by: hitesh agarwal at January 23, 2009 11:11 AMI am an avid torrent user. One of the best things I did to speed up, or I should say, to manage, my bandwidth and stop the torrent client slowing down everything else was to install a program called CfosSpeed. this program gives you prioritising control over any Internet using software. You can allow certain protocols to have a higher priority on your bandwidth than others. for example, torrent programs are put on the lowest priority. this does not slow them down, it just means that, if another program like a web browser suddenly needs to use the bandwidth, then, as web browsers are set to the highest priority then the browser will always be able to just cut in and display pages as fast as it ever could, instead of what can happen if you have torrents going: The page cannot be displayed.
Posted by: FaeGiN at February 1, 2009 8:29 AMYou can set up the priorities yourself and so have complete control over what protocols and or programs have the most or least bandwidth.
I don't want to sound like I am trying to sell the program so let me just say there are now loads of similar programs out there and, I am sure I read there are also freeware ones too. I use CfosSpeed as it was one of the first of its kind and I have just stuck with it.
If you googled for speed up torrents or packet control you may well find something else like it. Download.com or a big site like that is bound to have a freeware option.