Why is it seemingly faster to torrent?
In: 0
Torrents generally rely on many sources contributing to the download while standard downloads don’t necessarily have more than 1 source.
If there’s only 1 source any single slow down from that source to you will affect the progress a lot.
While if you have many sources if one drops another will take its place
On a regular website the file resides on a single server file structure.
With torrents the file is ‘chopped’ into little chunks that reside on multiple ‘servers’, clients in this case, so you are not dependent on that one server being available for the download.
Torrent is peer-to-peer file sharing, while regular downloads are server-client. For a regular download, you’re asking a server to send you the entire file. This can take a lot of time because the server, its network, your network, and your computer can only process so much data at a time. The slowest part is usually the networks, since they have to send the data across however many intermediates to reach you.
For torrents, you’re asking for pieces of the file from anyone else who happens to have it. So instead of getting the file from one server, each of your peers who is “seeding” the file acts as a mini-server for parts of the file. Instead of clogging up the one pathway from a single server to your computer with your download, you can use multiple pathways, one for each peer. That makes it a lot easier to get the data, because you can download multiple parts at the same time and combine them on your computer as they finish.
Torrents work via P2P, which means peer to peer. How it works is that your torrent client doesn’t talk to a single server. For example, on youtube, a video is hosted at the youtube servers in some building owned by google, that keeps logs and statistics, etc. When you want to watch that video, you have to connect to youtube’s servers. With P2P, everyone shares the responsibility of serving the content. Instead of you downloading from one computer, you’re downloading from a bunch of different people. All these people share the brunt of giving you the content you want, and when you’re done downloading, your client then contributes in serving it to other people who are downloading.
Regular downloads: a single server (remote computer somewhere) sends you the file piece by piece. If the server doesn’t have enough speed (for example, it’s overloaded or just doesn’t want to send the file at full speed until you buy premium), the speed will be limited by that.
Torrents: many computers in the network send you different pieces of the file at the same time. If there are enough people who have the required parts and are connected to you, the download speed will only be limited by the speed at which you can receive anything.
A download from the web connects to one server and requests all data from it. The torrent system connects to multiple download sources that have the same file set. It is broken down into fragments and requests for them are spread out.
The closest source with the most free bandwidth will automatically settle at the highest speed and deliver the most data, which reduces the load on distant overseas links. Usually a single connection cannot reach the full speed of an internet plan because of latency and packet loss. Several simultaneous connections overcome this limitation. The torrent automatically checks the received data against control sums and ensures that it is complete. A web browser might interrupt a download without notification.
You need a blueprint a cabinet.
Download: You go to a manufacturer, which will give you the blueprint.
Torrent: You get a list of a bunch of people that have made the same cabinet (torrent), then you call each of them “Hey, could you give me the blueprint for the cabinet?” And everyone goes “Sure, I’ll send it to you in parts though cause I don’t have big enough envelopes”. And every single person on the list start sending pieces of the blueprint until eventually you have a giant puzzle of a blueprint that you can put together.
Why is it faster:
There are 2 limitation on how fast you can receive something sent to you: How fast you can receive (Your Download speed) and how fast it can be sent (their Upload speed).
When you download from somewhere, You’ll download your file as fast as the lower of either your download speed or their upload speed. Sometime they can throttle their own upload speed to incentivize you to pay to remove the throttle.
For a torrent, you ahve the same limitations, but 1) most people have really bad Upload speed and 2) you have more than 1 person that can upload. So assuming enough people have the file you’re looking for, When they reach the limit of their upload speed, you just ask someone else to send other parts at the same time. So this time, you’ll download as fast as the lower of either your download speed or their COLLECTIVE upload speed.
You can download a file faster from 150 people at 10k each per second than from a single source at 1M per seconds. Torrent is about quantity of uploaders rather than quality of uploaders.
It is worth noting that even if you don’t know it, when you download a torrent, you eventually become an uploader when you’re done with it. So you give back to others the files you’ve taken.
In the same way turning your tap on is different to a major storm.
The tap provides you a good flow of water but needs a central provider.
If rain is heavy enough (a torrent) you can collect the drops almost as fast.
Latest Answers