While networks like FastTrack have seen steep drops in traffic others continue to become more popular everyday. One of the hottest buzz words in the file sharing world right now is “Bit Torrent”. It is a powerful multi-source, open source, downloading tool.

The popularity of torrent websites and IRC channels devoted to sharing torrent files is a testament to its massive following. #BT averages over 750 people at most times while #TVTorrents usually boasts around 450 users at any given time. Both are located on the legendary EFNet IRC network. Both these channels often serve torrents to new TV Shows before they even air on TV or begin to show up on Usenet.

Bit Torrent has become the standard way files are distributed in many of the big IRC channels that specialize in larger files. Via torrent, you can get a new file to many more people significantly faster then conventional IRC file servers. While these days everything from P.C. games to Hollywood blockbusters end up torrented, TV shows are still the heart and core of the torrent community. Its popularity has even earned a story by Reuters about TV Shows being traded online.

The king of torrent websites Suprnova will have somewhere around 926,591 page views today alone. Suprnova has managed to stay up for a long period of time due to its system of around a dozen mirrors. While some advantages and disadvantages to this system, overall its a well functioning system.

While some networks like Gnutella have made developers think twice about the merits of open source file sharing software, others like Bit Torrent and eMule are shining examples of how well it can work. They both have benefited a huge amount from their open source nature. Whatever the future holds in store for Bit Torrent it doesn’t look like it will be going away anytime soon.

This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
BitTorrent :: Trackers/Indexers

Offical Bit Torrent Home Page

Suprnova Website

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