[bf1942] Status update 2003-06-02

[Kenneth Porter]

--On Tuesday, June 03, 2003 8:48 AM -0400 "JiF at mike3d.net" <jif at mike3d.net>
wrote:

> Any chance of giving an advance notice to those of us who are willing to
> host it on our web sites so there's more than one or two sources to start
> with.  I'm not talking a day or anything, just like 15-30 minutes would
> suffice I imagine.  If not no biggy, I was just wondering.  :)

With BitTorrent, you don't really need that. There's an initial surge on the
first server as many clients pull random pieces of the same file and then
report back to the tracker that they've got a whole piece. Then you've got a
web with many servers each serving their small piece and the main server's
load falls off. Each client gets a server list from the tracker which includes
previous clients now serving the pieces they've collected so far.

Unlike other file sharing systems, BT signs the pieces, so you can trust the
stuff you get from unknown peers as much as you can trust a tarball for which
you have an MD5.