"Bittorent" and/or IRC, mIRC

[RoyalWing]

Hello! ^v^ I hope it's in the right place!

I want to know, what is Bittorent? What is IRC/mIRC? I'm guessing they are programs used to download scanlations. But where do I find them? How do they work? Are they dangerous to my computer? I am very curious about them! Because so many websites offer what I want, but only through these programs. (T o T);; And scanlation is often how I figure out if a comic book is worth buying! I read... and then if I like it alot, I go to buy it!

Can any one answer my question? Thank you! *^-^*

[Ashley]

Hey RoyalWing--

Bittorent, IRC and mIRC are all pretty similiar--they work in the same Peer to Peer (P2P) way that Winmx and Kazaa do. IRC/mIRC works by haivng you log into a "channel", then searching that channel for a server and directly downloading from the server--I've used it before and I hated it because it was so confusing and complex. Bittorent is a little different--you have to find a "torrent" (which is kind of like a zipped (.zip) file) and wait for someone with the same torrent to get online and let you download from them. You're expected to stay online as long as possible with both of these programs to maximize the number of servers available.

While I cannot tell you exactly how they work, my cousins run a computer repair shop and they have told me that a lot of hackers use IRC/mIRC, so I would be EXTREMELY cautious. If you're looking for scanlations, I would try to find a site with direct downloads, or a yahoo briefcase network (those are much safer). However, if you do want to go with mIRC or BitTorrent, I'd suggest BitTorrent--it's a lot simpler to use.

On a side note, I'm also moving this to the tech forum--also, everyone please keep the discussion away from the morality of scanlations and p2p file systems.

[RoyalWing]

Oh, thanks! ^-^ I didn't know if it went there or not. Thank you for the information too!! ^v^

[Kaligraphic]

IRC is a chat protocol (RFC 1459 (protocol) and RFC 2810 (architecture)), which many people use for ordinary conversation. Most people on IRC are not hackers, crackers, or any of that. Most of those who say they are really aren't. It can be a great method of communication.

Bittorrent is a technology that allows you to upload a file as you're uploading, to decrease the load on the originating server.

Either one can easily be used for warez and such, but their purpose is much more benign.

[LorentzForce]

Remember that 99% of those who say they are hackers are script kiddies. Those who says they hack and their goals for the good (usually) actually are proper 'hackers', also known as programmers.

They most likely don't even know difference between a normal cookie and a syn cookie, let alone security flaws in various systems in detail.

[edit] Now, to explain how IRC and Torrent works.

IRC, AFAIK, works by asking a person on another server to give you the file, on a chatting server. DCC needs to be enabled; most IRC chatting programs allow this. It is fast because it's a single connection between the other person and you.

Torrent works by downloading a torrent file that describes a file. It's like sitting on a table with lots of people with different pages of a single book. If you don't have a certain page, you copy it from others who has it, communicating to eachother who has what part of the books. Eventually everyone will have the whole book. It's not as quick, depending on the seeds and such, but it distributes bandwidth and is suitable for very big files.

[shooraijin]

Lorentz, that's one of the most excellent descriptions of BitTorrent I've heard.

[LorentzForce]

I always try my best shooraijin Thanks.

[Fireproof]

I have a question about BitTorrent. My dad says that BT give others our CPU time, so they could do anything with our computer. Is this true?

[LorentzForce]

No. BitTorrent (at least right now) has no security flaw. People can't even give you false data via fake files because it's md5 checked.

[Fireproof]

That's good. He let me go on with my downlaod too. ^^ (Naruto Epsidoe 1, DVD Edition, YOU WILL BE MINE!)

[Kenchii]

Well it seems all the questions were answered. *moving along..*

[Xeno]

Bit Torrent is my preferred download agent, I use it for just about everything I download (everything is unlicensed in America of course). I do use IRC though, but only for chatting, IRC was not made with the intent of downloading files in mind, it was originally created as a chat room program. I run the Nexgen Acidmax script with mIRC, but I have only used IRC's DCC program for sending/receiving files, and even then, it's just between me an one other chatter.