Is BitTorrent the next great P2P app, or?

[rastagard]

Is BitTorrent the next great P2P app, or is it destined to be swept aside.


I love this app. but I have some concerns about it that leave me wondering. The total lack of anonymounity is of major concern to me. I know that most other apps. can't totally mask IP's, but it seems like anyone with a pencil and pad can get them from BT. As if that isn't bad enough, some BT forums are taking steps in the hopes of reducing hit and runs that further erode the privacy of users. This program is set up in such a way that the filesharer must actively advertise the file they wish to share. No longer can we merely point the program to our shared folder and let it do the rest, we must "release and seed" files, which in most cases means advertising on a forum that you wish to share a specific file.


All the privacy issues aside, another problem I see with this program which may hinder it in the future is the limited way in which files are shared. As I said above, it is no longer possible to share a large group of files at once, each shared file must be independantly put forth for sharing and then it must be further shared by those who have downloaded it. Anybody who has used this program knows about the "hit and run" problem.


Of course, I am playing the Devil's Advocate :evil: here, I really do love this program. BUT, I do see problems down the road for it.


What's you opinion?

[Lazy Dog]

I see what you mean Rasta...I love BT too.As for security...well...we know that if someone wants to intrude your privacy will probably do whatever firewall or other preventative measure we use. We cannot be 100% secure...:argue:
At the moment I use Azureus with Safepeer and PeerGuardian:type:
I think too that in the future BT community will go through rough times.....we just have to wait and see:rolleyes:

[AlienChld7]

I like BT, but I feel as if it is going downhill. Just months ago, I could find just about any file i wanted and download it at amazing speeds. It was God's gift to filesharing. however, speeds have seemed to slow down recently for me as popular programs decide to meddle with various queue systems. Also, some torrents take a while to start up. When I first tried BT, downloads started immediately and finished within an hour (even very large files, since i have a pretty fast dl rate). Perhaps this is just the case for me, but I don't like where BT is headed. I can't pinpoint the problem exactly, but it's just not as reliable as it used to be IMO.

On the issue of privacy, BT scares me the most. It is the only network in which a company has tracked me and sent a letter to my ISP (even though i cancelled the download because i no longer wanted it and never even got the file!!!). I now use extra measures to help secure my privacy, but i'm still somewhat uncertain of how protected i really am. In all honesty, the direction of BT right now is forcing me to head back to IRC and newsgroups.

/end rant

[rastagard]

I have to say that one thing I absolutely love about this program is the next day availability of TV shows. I am not sure why this program has become the TV source, but it is a dimension to filesharing that I find exciting. It gives me the option to watch one show, tape another, then download a third, fourth or ?. (you know how it is,most nights when there is nothing on at all, then you know other nights will have all yer favorite shows on at the same time.....)


I hope this is a trend which continues with all p2p programs.

[Fister]

Some girl in my building got roasted by MGM for uploading off of BT. From what I got outa campus security (for us anyway) is that right now Kazaa has had the most people caught, BT is number 2 and Piolet is #3. This is what Campus Po told me what programs they have to ask people not to use (specifically for my school).

[rastagard]

Not too surprised about BT and Kazaa, but I always thought Piolet was pretty secure...........