Fwd: Bit torrent

[Jamon Camisso]

Daniel Robitaille wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Don and/or Mila Trombley <donmila at shaw.ca>
> To: ubuntu-ca-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
> Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:29:21 -0800
> Subject: Bit torrent
> I once tried to use Bit Torrent in d/líng Xubuntu 6.10 file, interrupted
> the d/l process, and continued the following day, carrying on from where
> it left off, but had trouble in recovering the completed file from the
> torrent (I ended up wasting a whole night d/líng the file the hard way,
> by making sure the computer did not shut down in the middle of
> transmission. Has any one used this protocol successfully, and if so,
> how is it done, and the method of extraction used?

A .torrent file is metadata about the actual file you are downloading, 
in your case xubuntu-6.10-archname.iso

Your torrent program simply gathers pieces of the iso from other people 
running the torrent and then puts them in the proper order--like a 
jigsaw puzzle. Stopping and starting a torrent is perfectly acceptable 
and even desirable sometimes. It should in no way harm the contents of 
the file, as another unique feature of torrents is that every single 
piece has a unique hash value.

Every chunk of the iso (in this case, it could be an avi, tar.gz etc.) 
gets hashed and checked against the known good hash value for that 
piece. If the two match, that piece stays, if they don't your torrent 
program downloads that piece again until it gets a good copy.

I short, if you download an ubuntu iso in torrent form, you don't have 
to extract anything just burn the iso once the download finishes.