What are BitTorrent Magnet Links?
BitTorrent magnet links are hyperlinks which lead the end-user directly to the torrent file/s which one wishes to download. Like actual torrent files, magnet links need P2P client software capable of opening them and work just like torrents, except that they are dependent on the data in the file and not the filename, allowing more people to share them. Unlike torrent files, which are actually small files themselves containing information about the constituent larger files, magnet links are essentially hyperlinks containing just plain hash codes of the torrent, which the torrent client identifies enabling it to lead to locations on peer computers which store those files. Torrent files are stored within the magnet link and this property prevents loss of any of the constituent files even if a particular website hosting them goes down. Magnet links do away with the need for downloading a separate file leading to the download as they directly lead the torrent client to the download locations on the internet. This makes downloading a torrent a matter of one click for the end-user. The BitTorrent indexers do not need to host the torrents themselves on their servers, saving them from legal hassles. Magnet links contain just the hash code which allows the BitTorrent client to lead the user directly to peers’ or computers hosting the desired files.
