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Knowledge: Does p2p clients like Tixati automatically scan inter

by Guest on 2021/04/04 12:45:16 AM    
Hi
I know nothing much about how p2p works, just looking for knowledge, if it is Tixati that scans net to get relevant seeds or these seeds information embedded in the magnet link (Torrent) I provide as input.

Is there a good source of links, material that explains all the terms, options & technology used in the Tixati applications?
wondering what is the difference between Tixati and others say Utorrent which I had used years ago, before I discovered the beautiful Tixati
by notaLamer on 2021/04/04 08:06:04 PM    
This is a very broad topic, your strive to learn is commendable but I would have to lie if I said I know of a good source that explains it all from simple terms to in-depth inner workings.

Tixati and all other Bittorrent clients operate on the open protocol, called (as you can guess) Bittorrent. The original client was also called BitTorrent. It still exists today, run by the company who bought uTorrent years ago.

In a broad sense, 'scanning the internet' is part of how Bittorrent operates. It used to rely on trackers - these are servers that relay metadata and say who is connected to a certain transfer at the time. However due to insatiable legal trolls, the technology moved away from centralized trackers to DHT, the Distributed Hash Table. Now all the metadata is stored in there by users of Bittorrent. One downside: it's public and easily surveiled. However it is fully decentralized and cannot be brought down.

Modern transfers work like this:
1) You get a magnet-link or .torrent file.
2) The magnet-link is nothing but a tiny unique 'name' for your transfer. The torrent file is essentially the same but it carries some additional metainfo
3) To find seeders (users who upload previously downloaded content to you), your client looks up the metadata present in the DHT. It uses the unique name (infohash) to search.
4) If it finds someone, you first download the metadata for this transfer (file names, file integrity checks, size...)
5) Then you connect to other users and request to download tiny file pieces.

DHT involves a lot of work under the hood and your computer talks to many many other computers along the way. It operates over the internet, but not the World Wide Web, where your usual websites are.




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