How to use torrents with Podmailing
This page is for power users who are interested in the use of BitTorrent and Peer-To-Peer in Podmailing. You don't need to know or understand anything about BitTorrent in order to use Podmailing. Just be prepared if you read the explanations below, they are targeted at geeks. A more encyclopedic introduction is available on Wikipedia.
Podmailing is a BitTorrent Client
At the root of Podmailing, you can find the best technology for transferring large files: BitTorrent. This Peer-To-Peer protocol was originally designed by Bram Cohen, who develops it with a few other people, through the company BitTorrent Inc.
So the Podmailing software can open BitTorrent files (extension ".torrent") and Podmailing uses the BitTorrent protocol to download the files of that torrent. In practice the torrents are added to the downloads list:
Consequently, Podmailing can receive data from other BitTorrent compatible clients and upload data in Peer-To-Peer or "P2P" mode. When the Podmailing software sends your large files of folders directly to your recipients and through our relays, it does it using the BitTorrent protocol.
How to download a torrent
Several methods enable downloading torrents with the Podmailing software:
- Either open a ".torrent" file by double-clicking on it and instructing your computer to open it wih Podmailing.
- Or: DragnDrop the ".torrent" file in the main Podmailing window.
- Or: DragnDrop the ".torrent" file on the Podmailing icon.
Podmailing then adds this torrent to the "Received podmails" tab and starts the P2P download, just like it would for a podmail. However, there are a few differences:
- A torrent contains no information about the sender or the recipients, the subject or a personal message. As a consequence, you cannot open them to check this info in a window - well, they are not podmails.
- It is a pure P2P transfer so the torrent transfer rates mainly depend on the other connected users (peers) who share the same data or download them at the same time. Contrary to podmails, you cannot rely on our servers to ensure a minimum transfer rate. Sometimes you will have a great transfer rate, but sometimes a null or average rate, or a variable rate.
Where to find torrents to download?
Here are a few recommended sites to find files to download using BitTorrent within Podmailing:
How to make a torrent / seed a torrent
Contrary to many BitTorrent clients, Podmailing does not propose the "make torrent" feature. We consider this process to be too complex for everyday life and not really satisfying for users.
Send a podmail instead of creating a torrent
We have "replaced" the "make torrent" feature by inventing the Podmailing concept. Indeed, in order to send big files by e-mail:
- we automatically create a torrent, without requiring any configuration,
- then we add information related to e-mail,
- we link to the details of this "super torrent" through a classic e-mail,
and mostly:
- we activate this torrent on our servers operating as relays,
- it allows the sender to start uploading his file immediately,
- and it ensures a fast download for the podmail recipients, even if the sender shuts down his computer or drops his Internet connection - provided that the file has been totally uploaded to our relays (progress bar up to 100%).
So, instead of creating torrents, send podmails!
Hybrid architecture: centralized + Peer-To-Peer
Our system mixes Peer-To-Peer with a centralized architecture, ensuring our service quality. Moreover, our service highly simplifies the use of P2P, for users of all skill levels. That's where Podmailing's beauty lies: a hybrid architecture to profit from the advantages of centralized servers as well as Peer-To-Peer.
Download either with Podmailing or with another BitTorrent client
As Podmailing maintains total compatibility with BitTorrent, we let each podmail recipient choose between downloading with Podmailing or with BitTorrent. This latter may be more adapted in some cases:
- some BitTorrent clients have renowned qualities such as high performance, or low resource usage, - they are "better" than the official BitTorrent client that Podmailing relies on,
- although possible, it is not recommended to use two BitTorrent clients on the same computer simultaneously, and you might not wish to use Podmailing to download all your torrents,
- Podmailing is available only for Windows and MacOS X, whereas BitTorrent software can be found for other platforms such as Linux.
Concretely, the user chooses when he is on the podmails download Web page where we propose a podmail with a ".zed" extension and a torrent with its ".torrent" extension.
Please note that it is possible to open such a ".torrent" file with Podmailing but it is totally useless compared to using the corresponding ".zed" podmail. The advantage of the torrent is to be directly supported by any other BitTorrent client.
Downloading a podmail with another BitTorrent client then benefits from our relay system. However, the BitTorrent client will not be able to display the additional information that we have added into podmails - unless it has been made compatible with Podmailing.
Podmailing compatible BitTorrent clients
The information added to a podmail, compared to a standard torrent, is simple and properly integrated to the torrents standard format. Consequently, it is very easy for a programmer who has created a BitTorrent client to include the additional features added by Podmailing and to become compatible. The necessary technical specifications are detailed in our Wiki.
As a consequence, it is possible and even desirable that the podmailing network extends through compatible software developed by other teams, and through services edited by other companies. We encourage this trend by opening our technical specifications and by requesting developers to react: we are open to any suggestion to evolve the specifications, which is currently essentially based on the BitTorrent protocol.
Automatic seeding and contribution to Peer-To-Peer transfers
Torrent seeding starts when torrents have been 100% downloaded - it is up to you to manually stop them if you with with the "Interrupt transfer" button.
Similarly, if you have sent or 100% received a podmail, it automatically switches to seeding mode. So you can contribute to transmit a podmail even faster if you are connected at the same time as your recipients, and the recipients contribute to delivering it to one another. This is called a Peer-To-Peer swarm: it is the most efficient way to send a large file to a group of people.
Origin and version of BitTorrent
For those who may be interested, the Podmailing software uses the Open Source code developed by the BitTorrent Inc. team in its latest version: "Mainline v5", without any modification.
On our servers, we are using other software comptatible with the BitTorrent protocol.