Torrents - Please explain...

[starrylizard]

I know other people torrent things on a regular basis and I understand the basis of how the things work.

However, I'm currently trying to torrent a file that's supposedly 700.69mb.

So far I have (according to BitLord) downloaded 975.02mb and (again according to BitLord) still need to download 3.75mb and I've dled 99.4% of the file. (I've uploaded 689.28mb)

Excuse me , but huh?

Am I missing something here? Why have I downloaded 274.33mb more than the file size and it's still going? I'm so confused. :(

I wanna watch it! *pouts*

Comments

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it's something to do with what parts of the file are available and whilst you may have been downloading at X speed for X time causing a calculation of that downloaded amount you might yet to have downloaded all the bits you need for the file to be complete. I can't say I full understand it but I think there's some amount of redundancy happening on the downloading due to who's sharing what % themselves since not everyone has 100% and it might be you are waiting on someone with 100% having a free connection for you to connect to to get the last few bits you need off them.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Hmm, makes sense I guess. I don't think I've ever had that happen before, though I've only torrented a few things before.

Thanks. I was madly virus checking the final file for added bits of data. I'm paranoid like that. :P

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

Always pays to viruscheck downloaded stuff if there's any chance it might be dodgy. I once got a virus off a seemingly harmless old DOS shareware game I dowloaded.