What are magnet links? (2024)

There are times when you have the need to download a file from the internet, such as an open source file, for example, a Linux distro. These files tend to be quite large, often multi gigabytes in size, and a server hosting them would tend to get overloaded fairly quickly. After all, multiple simultaneous downloads off a single server can easily overload the resources of even a powerful server, and fast internet connection. It is also frustrating to get halfway into a download, to have it get interrupted, the downloaded file not completed, and to have to start the process all over again.

Rather than keeping the file to be downloaded on a single server, the approach has been to distribute the load across many servers. This has been the basis of a peer-to-peer network which has the file across multiple servers, and therefore uses a widespread distribution network. Downloading a file via this method usually involves a “.torrent” link. This is not the easiest to deal with as it then needs dedicated software to work with to get the file over the peer-to-peer network.

This is also needed as the file to be downloaded gets divided into multiple, in some cases thousands of smaller pieces that are easier to download. Realize that the files are often not in a single central location, but on multiple computers. The torrent software then interfaces with the trackers that control what is the next file to download, and also to upload back to others pieces that are complete after download.

What is a magnet link?

A magnet link, also known as a magnet URI, is a method to make downloading a torrent file an easier activity. Prior to this, the files to be downloaded needed to be assigned hashes to prevent corrupt files from being traded out for the real files to be downloaded.

With a magnet link, the link for the download is a simpler process. It does not require a special .torrent file, but rather is a simple text hyperlink. With this hyperlink, the user can then download the files and data from a peer-to-peer network, including a torrent network. An additional advantage is that it works in a server-less environment. Perhaps the most important advantage of a magnet link over a torrent file is that it obviates the need to locate the tracker file, and also to locate the uploading peers. One more advantage would be that the torrent file does not need to be downloaded to then start the file download as these are not usually corrupted.

Overall, the reason that magnet links were created was to reduce the overhead of hosting files for download. The advantage would be that there would be no additional work from the torrent hosting.

What does the magnet link contain?

The actual magnet link is a hyperlink, and it has some parts to it. It is designed to contain the magnet identifier, the name of the file, and cryptographic content hash- this last part is important to understanding how this works. This content hash comes from the actual file, is based upon a mathematical algorithm, and serves as a unique identifier to the file across multiple hosts. As this hyperlink contains so much data, they tend to be quite long. You can tell that it is a magnet link as it must start with the prefix ‘magnet:.’

Another advantage of the magnet link is the origin of it. Unlike a torrent, any user that has the file is able to generate the magnet link. There is no central authority involved in creating the magnet link, and this then pays dividends in file sharing searches as “Guaranteed” search terms.

An additional advantage is that the link does not actually contain the file data. Rather, it indicates where the data is hosted as the link, via the hash code, can locate where the data to be downloaded is to come from.

How to use a magnet link?

So next time you find a magnet link, what is there to do? These magnet links are designed to work with your favorite torrent download program, such as uTorrent. Using this or another free torrent program, the magnet link can be pasted in, and the download can happen.

While Torrent software has been the traditional method to access a magnet link to download the file, it is not the only possible method. Some users prefer the simplicity of downloading the magnet link via the browser. A limitation of Google’s Chrome browser is that it does work directly with magnet links. Alternatively, the FireFox browser does perform better on this task, and can download the file from a magnet link directly like any other download via the browser.

Some users prefer to download the file to a Google Drive account via their Chrome browser. This method relies on an intermediary cloud download service, such as MultCloud, or Bitport. This type of service frequently has a free limited tier, and a more robust paid tier of service. These services also let you host a file from your cloud account, and are felt to be generally more secure as the files are in the cloud, and not local on your computer.

Conclusion

So the next time you encounter a magnet link, realize that a lot of work has been done over the last several years to make improvements to peer-to-peer networking. With improvements in security, no need to have to locate the trackers, and less computing overhead, it should not be surprising that these magnet links have become, and remain popular to this day. Therefore, grab your method of choice, as detailed above, and download your file with the ease of which a magnet link was designed to provide.

We've featured the best free download managers.