TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

The most popular P2P application of current times on its original form.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol designed to transfer files. Users connect directly to send and receive portions of a file, while a central tracker coordinates the action of all peers and manages connections without knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed. With BitTorrent, users upload at the same time they download, so network bandwidth is managed as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better than other file-transfer protocols as the number of people interested in a certain file increases.

The new BitTorrent 6.0 client features:

* Lightweight client
* Local peer discovery
* Multiple simultaneous downloads
* Configurable bandwidth scheduler
* Global and per-torrent speed limiting
* Quick-resumes for interrupted transfers
* RSS Downloader
* Trackerless support (Mainline DHT)

You'll also notice 6.0 comes with BitTorrent DNA, which stands for Delivery Network Accelerator.