What is a .torrent file?
To download something with BitTorrent, you must have a .torrent file. This file contains in it a location that tells the BitTorrent client where to go to find the tracker that manages the uploading and downloading of the archive. An archive is a complete set for downloading which may include one file or many files. The one .torrent file contains the archive information also. To download on this network it is simply a matter of clicking on the .torrent file in your web browser, then the BitTorrent client kicks in and asks where you’d like to save the archive. That’s it, from there you just sit back and watch the client work it’s magic.
A torrent file is simply a file with a .torrent extension. They are relatively small, usually in the 1-100 KB range (about the size of a Microsoft Word document). Torrent files are not video files, music files, rar files or anything like that. All they can do is tell a BitTorrent client how to download the real files you want (which may be music, videos, etc.). So if someone finds a file with a name like this: “Trailer-Lord of the Rings-Return of the King.torrent”, it is not the movie trailer. But it will tell your BitTorrent software everything it needs to download the trailer for Return of the King.
