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by bdby112002 on October 27th, 2005

bdby112002

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Why is it that when downloading files from a P2P, it downloads portions instead of the complete file?

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  • by batfink on October 31st, 2005

    batfink

    Peer to peer networks benefit from being able to slice and dice a file up into smaller chunks, so that different parts of a file can be sourced from many peers. This enables faster more efficient transfers between multiple parties. If for example, you were downloading a 200 MB file, downloading that file in its entirety would limit you to:

    * only one download source
    * no ability to recover if the file transfer was interrupted somewhere in the middle

    By chunking the file into portions, you can:

    * download different parts from multiple parties that also happen to host the file (efficient downloading)
    * can continue downloading at a later time if the transfer is interrupted.

    The peer to peer protocol 'bit-torrent' benefits immensely from this scheme, where the algorithm is literally designed around the ability to chunk up files and request all the portions from wherever it can find them.

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