link.exe is not here

[Benji Smith]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Benji Smith wrote:
>> Have you ever considered using BitTorrent as an alternate distribution 
>> method? Then you'd offload some of the bandwidth expense to the 
>> members of the community rather than absorbing it all yourself.
> 
> I have no idea how to do that.

It's actually pretty simple.

You don't need to run your own tracker (the server that coordinates the 
p2p protocol between BitTorrent peers).

You just need to create a "torrent" file (which is a textual descriptor 
of the file(s) you want to make available as well as information about 
the tracker that will manage the torrent).

Then you post that torrent file to a public tracker, and you provide 
your users with a link to the torrent file.

Conceptually, it'd look like this:

    ftp.digitalmars.com
       /dmd.2.014.zip
       /dmd.2.014.zip.torrent
           -- size: 1234567 bytes
           -- location: http://ftp.digitalmars.com/dmd.2.014.zip
           -- managed by: http://some-third-party-tracker.com
           -- blah blah blah... more technical details

    some-third-party-tracker.com
       /dmd.2.014.zip.torrent
           -- this is the same file you're hosting on your website

I know nothing about the actual syntax of those torrent files. You don't 
author them yourself. There are tools to do it for you.

Anyhoo, if you're interested, here's a link with more detailed info:

http://dessent.net/btfaq/#maketorrent

--benji