Editing BitTorrent (section)

=== Web seeding ===
{{Further|Torrent file#HTTP seeds}}

Web "seeding" was implemented in 2006 as the ability of BitTorrent clients to download torrent pieces from an HTTP source in addition to the "swarm". The advantage of this feature is that a website may distribute a torrent for a particular file or batch of files and make those files available for download from that same web server; this can simplify long-term seeding and [[Load balancing (computing)|load balancing]] through the use of existing, cheap, web hosting setups. In theory, this would make using BitTorrent almost as easy for a web publisher as creating a direct HTTP download. In addition, it would allow the "web seed" to be disabled if the swarm becomes too popular while still allowing the file to be readily available. This feature has two distinct specifications, both of which are supported by [[Libtorrent]] and the 26+ clients that use it.

The first was created by John "TheSHAD0W" Hoffman, who created BitTornado.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bittornado.com/docs/webseed-spec.txt |title=HTTP-Based Seeding Specification |format=TXT |publisher=BitTornado.com |access-date=9 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040320142756/http://www.bittornado.com/docs/webseed-spec.txt |archive-date=20 March 2004 |url-status=dead|df=dmy }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0017.html|title=''HTTP Seeding'' – BitTorrent Enhancement Proposal № 17|author=John Hoffman, DeHackEd|date=25 February 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213074432/http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0017.html|archive-date=13 December 2013|access-date=17 February 2012}}</ref> This first specification requires running a web service that serves content by info-hash and piece number, rather than filename.

The other specification is created by [[GetRight]] authors and can rely on a basic HTTP download space (using [[byte serving]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.getright.com/seedtorrent.html|title=HTTP/FTP Seeding for BitTorrent |publisher=GetRight.com|access-date=18 March 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091228072458/http://getright.com/seedtorrent.html |archive-date = 28 December 2009| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0019.html|title=''WebSeed – HTTP/FTP Seeding (GetRight style)'' – BitTorrent Enhancement Proposal № 19|author=Michael Burford|date=25 February 2008|publisher=Bittorrent.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213074337/http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0019.html|archive-date=13 December 2013|access-date=17 February 2012}}</ref>

In September 2010, a new service named Burnbit was launched which generates a torrent from any URL using webseeding.<ref name="tf-article">{{cite web|url=https://torrentfreak.com/burn-any-web-hosted-file-into-a-torrent-with-burnbit-100913/|title=Burn Any Web-Hosted File into a Torrent With Burnbit|date=13 September 2010|publisher=TorrentFreak|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809053857/http://torrentfreak.com/burn-any-web-hosted-file-into-a-torrent-with-burnbit-100913/|archive-date=9 August 2011|access-date=9 July 2012}}</ref> There are server-side solutions that provide initial seeding of the file from the web server via standard BitTorrent protocol and when the number of external seeders reach a limit, they stop serving the file from the original source.<ref name="web-seeders">{{cite web|url=http://php-tracker.org/ |title=PHP based torrent file creator, tracker and seed server |publisher=PHPTracker |access-date=9 July 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131219084439/http://php-tracker.org/ | archive-date = 19 December 2013| url-status=live}}</ref>