Re: What's the skinny on Comcast and torrents?
Posted by:
Wrinkle
()
Date: February 17, 2008 01:39PM
sarah54 Wrote:
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> Would I have any problems if I got some software
> and explored? Would Comcast give me any trouble?
Very unlikely unless you starting hitting the bandwidth real hard (Gb's per day).
> From what I understand, if I get a file then my
> computer would also send it to others if I'm not
> mistaken.
Torrents have "seeders" and "leechers" (usually denoted S and L on websites such as btjunkie, isohunt, pirate bay, etc). When you start downloading (leeching) a torrent, most bittorrent applications will, by default, make you a seeder. That is, your downloaded parts of the file will be available for all other leechers. However, once the download is complete, you can stop the torrent if you choose to and no one will leech from you any more.
> I'm not into bootlegging, but if I go
> looking at stuff I can't know what it is until
> I've got it
Oh, come on now... If you start downloading a torrent named "Meet_the_spartans_movie.torrent", you know pretty much what you're getting. And if you start downloading mystery torrents from online... well, you're asking for viruses, etc. No one in their right mind downloads random files just for the fun of it.
> Is it a bad idea to use torrent programs,
> or is it fine, or what? I'm out of touch, so I
> don't whether torrents are something everyone uses
> or if they're the province of outlaws or
> something.
Predominant usage appears to be for bootlegging, etc, but that shouldn't stop you from using it. Just be careful what you torrent. If you start downloading the latest music or movie releases, you run a higher risk of getting into trouble. Stay away from downloading movies altogether, in fact. If you stick to older music and tv shows then you're pretty much in the clear. Even bootleg software is generally "safe" to download -- just do a really thorough virus check before installing anything.