All about BitTorrent
BitTorrent = not your traditional P2P. BitTorrent works in a totally different way than all of the other file sharing programs out there. BT is a program that you install on your computer which allows you to open "torrents". You download "torrents" from other websites and open them with BT and that will download your certain file (music, movie, etc).
BT is very unique from other P2P like Kazaa, WinMX, etc because it isn't connecting to a big large server and then trying to get the file. What BT does is it connects to the file through the site which you are using and downloads parts of it from many different sources (people) who have the same file until the download is complete. During and after (unless you close) as you yourself download parts of the file, you are uploading to other people as well.
Because the content available for download is not limited to a specific server, range of servers, or program, there are many torrent sites where you can get what you're looking for. My favorite and most used BT download site is Suprnova.org. It has a wide range of content and many seeds for good downloading speeds. There are many more out there, some that require registration, just do a Google search on torrents to find more.
As far as the actual BitTorrent program, there are a few now: 1) The original 2)BitTornado [my personal fav.] 3)Azureus. BitTornado is very similar to the original but has a few more options to cuztomize downloads, uploads, speeds etc. The also have a red/yellow/green light system which relates to your download speed. Green light is the best speed. If you have a firewall you will get a yellow light until you open port 6881 and above on your router. Make sure to open both ports on your hardware firewall and software firewall if you have both. For more information or help, check out the BitTornado forums.
Torrenting is most definitley my favorite way of downloading media and content from the internet due to its reliability and fast downloads. Check it out!
-jw