BitTorrent clients allow the use of torrents and the BitTorrent protocol. Completed torrents are typically published on websites or elsewhere, and registered with a tracker. The tracker performs the function of online arbitrator, maintaining a list of the clients – the computers – that are either downloading or have already downloaded the files specified in active torrents.

In November 2006, BitTorrent Inc. introduced its “Publish Torrent” service, which creates and hosts torrents (seeded from an existing web-hosted media file) and tracks the downloads.

Files that work with torrents allow users to optimize upload and download rates of the files they are receiving or sharing. The way the client receives files depends entirely on its implementation and is not dependent on any set rules or procedures relating the BitTorrent protocol. It is entirely conceivable (though certain not useful) for torrents to be treated exactly like a HTTP download: sequentially downloading each segment in turn rather than attempting to obtain the ‘rarest’ files in a set.

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