"Mike Knudsen" wrote in message
...
In article EDxcc.83367$K91.181568@attbi_s02, "William Warren"
writes:

A cable modem or DSL is, of course, assumed.

A lot of us don't have wideband net access. So two thumbs down.

Or maybe the DSL is required only for participants actively sharing files,
as
opposed to most of us who just want to download one once in a while?

As I understand Bittorrent, it tries to speed up file transfer times by
dividing files up into small chunks, and downloading different chunks to the
various computers requesting the file(s), with instructions to share the
chunks with each other. A dialup connection is just a thinner pipe, and
dialup could participate along with everyone else. The big deal with the
system is that you get credit for sharing, and you get to set the upload
speed to a reasonable number.

In other words, you can download one, or more than one, and share it while
you're online. A DSL or Cable connection is required only for the node(s)
that contain the file information: I should have said "A cable modem or DSL
is, of course, assumed for prime nodes, since they must be on all the time,
but dialup users can participate too".

Anywa, I likethe idea of a central location, versus a Napster-like
distributed
sharing system. --Mike K. AA1UK

It's not a binary choice: the BAMA site and its mirrors can stay in service,
with Bittorrent providing faster downloads for those who choose to use it.
Since (if I understand the system correctly) Bittorrent files are shared
only amoung computers which request them from the source node(s), I'm asking
if there are enough hams interested in trying it out to make it viable for
BAMA files.

If there are Bittorrent SME's on here, speak up: I probably got some of the
details wrong.

Bill