What's Tribler (continued)

Tribler is a social community that facilitates filesharing through a peer-to-peer (p2p) network. A p2p network is different from a centralised service, where every user downloads his files from one central server. With p2p, the user/downloader is also an uploader to another user. This way, there is no central computer required that provides every file to all users.

When the Tribler application program is started it will automatically start searching other users that have Tribler running on their computer. When a connection is established it starts exchanging information. First it exchanges personal information (such as your avatar picture, your friends list, download history, etc.) and information about files that are available in the network. These files can be personal, shared files, but also files that one has received from another person (see image).

The information about the discovered files and persons is available in the Tribler program. By browsing through the files and persons each user can find their prefered files and users. The tribler program helps you by giving extra information about each item (whether it is a file or a person) and also shows what other users think about it. When you find a person you like you can add him as a friend. An interesting file can be downloaded and will be available in your library. When you press download your computer will make an inventory of which computers actually have this file (or a part of it) and then will download the parts from the different computers.