06/24/2013- BitTorrent is a protocol that supports peer-to-peer file sharing. It allows very fast transmission speeds for large files and is one of the most common protocols used on the Internet to share files.

BitTorrent’s approach on file sharing is different than from classic downloading. It makes use of a so-called swarm rather than downloading from a single source. The swarm consists of several hosts that hold the desired file and a user can get the file from all available hosts simultaneously. With that technique it is possible to reduce the traffic from every single host, while ensuring a high download-rate for the downloader. With this system in place a large server can be replaced by several smaller computers such as conventional home computers and still achieve a server-like performance.

To make a file available, a so-called Torrent-file has to be created and transmitted to a BitTorrent node in order to “register” the file online. The nodes are interconnected with each other, so that a worldwide network of nodes is registering all available files. The provider of the file is acting as a seed and every user that has the torrent-file can connect to his nearest node and start beginning with the download. While downloading the user registers the torrent file to the node and starts acting as a seed himself – in other words: every part of the file that has been downloaded is usually being made available for other users as well.

A file is always being broken down in several smaller pieces so that it is not necessary to download the file in a pre-determined sequence. This permits simultaneous downloads from multiple pieces from multiple sources and also due to the separation into the pieces the download can be suspended and resumed at any time. The user’s torrent client is taking care of the correct sequencing of the pieces with the help of the torrent-file as the correct order is being saved within the file.

 

Intelligent NAS (which is compatible with Thecus® N2520 and Thecus® N4520) developed by Thecus® includes a torrent-client that downloads your torrent files directly to your NAS. It offers an easy to use interface to manage your downloads. As soon as the download has been started via Intelligent NAS, it takes care of it itself, so that you can shut down your computer and your NAS is downloading the file autonomously.