What is the difference between torrent magnet and download?

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. What's the difference between a torrent file and a Magnet link? Instead of downloading the. The biggest advantage is that you might be able to download the content of the torrent, even if the tracker is down or closed for registration. A torrent client then calculates a torrent hash a kind of fingerprint based on the files it relates to, and seeks the addresses of peers from a tracker or the DHT network before connecting to those peers and downloading the desired content.

Sites can save on bandwidth by calculating torrent hashes themselves and allowing them to be downloaded instead of. Given the torrent hash — passed as a parameter within a Magnet link — clients immediately seek the addresses of peers and connect to them to download first the torrent file, and then the desired content.

It is worth noting that BitTorrent can not ditch the. A Bittorrent magnet link contains all the information needed to start downloading the files from peers directly. It is a server-less way of retrieving the right information to start downloading the requested files.

A magnet link therefor is theoretically all that is needed to download files from other peers in the Bittorrent network. Magnet links can be distributed by email, messaging and other forms of communication but are most often found on the torrent sites that usually offer both torrent and magnet links to their users.

The full magnet link would look like this: magnet:? Detailed information about additional Magnet Link parameters are listed on Wikipedia. This speeds up the process of finding the first peers. The main advantage for Bittorrent indexers is that they do not have to store the torrents on their servers anymore which could be beneficial for them in several ways.

It could reduce the pressure from the media creation industry and reduce hardware infrastructure expenses thanks to less tracking and downloading. The end users on the other hand benefit from Magnet Links as well. All they need is the link to start downloading the files which makes them independent from torrent indexers. It also allows them to distribute the information more easily. Torrent indexers remain on the other hand the main source of information for new files that are available for download.

A tracker less environment should raise a question of identification. How can a download be initiated ff there is no tracker to inform the Bittorrent user about other users who download and seed the file?

The answer is DHT, Distributed hash tables. DHT is enabled by default in popular clients such as uTorrent or Vuze. Without going into to much detail, the hash of the magnet link is used to find peers using DHT. Both torrent file and Magnet links perform the same task, that is, download files via BitTorrent.

A Magnet link will display the "letters and numbers" until the contents have been retrieved - only then will you know what you can download. A magnet link is a link that contains all the info your bittorrent client needs to download the. With a regular torrent file , you download the. With a magnet link, you never download the torrent file from a server specified by the tracker site. Start new topic. Recommended Posts.

JLo Posted December 11, Posted December 11, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Posted December 12, Here's some reading regarding the differences between. PiusX Posted December 13, A torrent establishes a connection between the user's torrent client and the web server somewhere.

The mentioned file is retrieved from the web server and made available to the user. Both magnet links and torrent files are used to share content with others through torrent services like uTorrent or BitTorrent. The extension for torrent files is. As the name implies, these files take up space and must be stored somewhere.