How does bit torrent work?

I suggest reading the Wikipedia article (select the Protocol one, the direct link doesn’t work since it has brackets) which goes into a lot of detail. There’s a really handy animated gif showing how bittorrent data spreads.

instead of downloading a file from a single source (eg: server), you are downloading from different computers who are also downloading the file. that is why you have Uploads. when downloading a file using bittorrent, you are also actually uploading pieces of it (these pieces go to the other users who are downloading it). so there are no files store on… let’s say piratebay’s server… at least that’s what i understand after years of using it. Bittorrent FTW!

Pretty much summed it up wenbert, its great for downloading Linux Distro’s…. yeah that’s right Linux