That’s the question really. I hear the terms metadata and torrents thrown around all the time when talking about internet and privacy, but I don’t really understand them and when I tried googling torrents I was just confused. Can someone explain one or both like I’m 5?
What is the difference between a magnet link and a torrent file?
For actually getting torrents loaded into the client software, there’s basically no difference. They both contain the information needed to start downloading the content.
A torrent file just has the information needed to start the download, kind of like a text file.
A magnet link is similar to any other link, like
http://example.com/SomeFile.torrent. They’re a bit more complicated because the websiteexample.commight remove or change the location ofSomeFile.torrentand then any of the existing links won’t work. Magnet links aren’t affected by that sort of thing. I say this with the caveat that I honestly don’t really know or understand them fully because, like I first said, it doesn’t really matter.