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Is torrent any safer than direct download?


dedwards

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Posted

This is a random question, but I was just thinking about it. I don't think it is because the file being torrented itself could have an embedded something... but I don't know, just wanted to ask someone who knows these things1 :)

Posted

I'm not sure what you mean by safer. If you mean it doesn't have malware, then no, torrents aren't neccesarily any safer. If you mean that data is less prone to corruption, then yes, it's safer.

Posted

It's a lot safer than doing a direct download from some third party, especially if the original author doesn't even provide you with a checksum to verify yourself. It really amazes me when companies like Opera Software refer me to a bunch of different oddball third parties to download their software. Who the HECK is making SURE the security on all those third-party systems is top notch so the software can't be replaced with malware???

What it boils down to is you gotta be able to trust the system you do a direct download from and you gotta be able to trust the system you download a .torrent file from. That means trusting the people *and* trusting their system security is solid.

Posted

They're getting pretty big on the whole BitTorrent thing, actually. They've integrated it into the browser in the latest technical previews/betas (though I don't think it's in a final version yet).

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