FoxTorrent - Advanced File Sharing Client for Firefox

The Firefox extension FoxTorrent allows you to stream torrent files while they are downloading, that is, you can watch video and listen to audio as the files are transferred from the Internet to your computer. Early versions of the BitTorrent file sharing system made streaming difficult since the transfer speeds were uneven. This has changed with newer systems like FoxTorrent.

FoxTorrent is easy to set up, in fact it is configuration free, and allows you to manage your torrent downloads from the browser. However, file downloads are completed even if the browser window is closed.

BitTorrent is a file sharing system that minimizes the role of the central server, thereby enabling many more users to share or acquire large files. Instead of the central server connecting with each client computer and sending out the files, the client computers themselves become file servers, so that file sharing becomes completely decentralized, except for the bookkeeping process that keeps track of where the files are.

Distributed file sharing thus avoids the problems often encountered when popular files are downloaded through FTP or HTTP protocols, namely that the servers become overloaded, slow down, and refuse connections. BitTorrent clients are available for Linux, Windows, and OS X. For more information on installing the BitTorrent client on Linux see here. Information on installing and using FoxTorrent can be found here.