Scatter-gather network file transfer
BitTorrent is a tool for distributing files. It's extremely easy to use - downloads are started by clicking on hyperlinks. Whenever more than one person is downloading at once they send pieces of the file(s) to each other, thus relieving the central server's bandwidth burden. Even with many simultaneous downloads, the upload burden on the central server remains quite small, since each new downloader introduces new upload capacity.
- How to install bittorrent on Woody?, 25/11/03
Tips & Tricks
To enable the auto-start of BT when clicking on .torrent files, set your MIME preferences (in your browser) as follows:
set a MIME type for application/x-bittorrent and an action that points to the btdownloadprefetched.py script.
Install
In 2003:
aptitude install bittorrent
In 2020, there are several bittorrent clients, e.g.:
sudo apt install transmission