Glossary of BitTorrent Terms

Terms used on this site.

Client The software that allows you to download and upload (share) files using BitTorrent. The BitTorrent client opens the .torrent file and allows connections from your peers.

Leech A leech is usually a peer who has a negative effect on the swarm by having a very poor share ratio, however it can also refer to any peer without 100% of the data.

Peer A peer is anyone who is downloading or uploading the file.

Seeder A seeder is a peer that has a complete copy of the torrent and still offers it for upload. The more seeders there are, the better the chances are for completion of the file.

Swarm Together, all peers (including seeders) sharing a torrent are called a swarm.

Torrent A torrent can mean either a .torrent metadata file or all files described by it, depending on context. The torrent file contains metadata about all the files it makes downloadable.

Tracker A tracker is a server that keeps track of which seeds and peers are in the swarm. Clients report information to the tracker periodically and in exchange receive information about other clients to which they can connect.

About WikiTorrents: WikiTorrents is user-created wiki pages of BitTorrent links to movies, music, & more. Pages have a theme, like a category, person, or subject. This site specializes in feature-length videos in "good enough" quality and encoded in XViD / DiVX / MP4 / H.264 / ISO that use public torrents. WikiTorrents links to many trackers and BitTorrent search engines. We welcome links to videos that are mainstream, documentary, artsy, independent, rare, and obscure.

WikiTorrents is not your typical BitTorrent site. WikiTorrents is not a tracker. WikiTorrents does not host torrent files. Torrents are linked in user-created pages that are practical and useful. For example, WikiTorrents links to over 1,000 feature-length documentaries, sorted by category, to assist you in your own personal quest for knowledge and understanding. Our goal is that you will use WikiTorrents for both research and entertainment purposes.

To use a .torrent file requires a BitTorrent app, like uTorrent or Azureus Vuze. To share a .torrent requires a tracker, like OpenBitTorrent. To watch movies requires a media player, like VLC, Media Portal, and ffdshow tryouts.