DNA Client – Description, Platform Support, Operation
Description
BitTorrent DNA is a single 280KB executable file that must be present on the end user’s machine to take advantage of peer network acceleration. It operates in conjunction with a browser plugin which works with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
Platform Support
BitTorrent DNA is designed to run on versions of the Windows platform beginning with Windows 98. Browsers supported include Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and later and Mozilla Firefox 2 and later. For streaming, Adobe Flash 9 and later is supported.
BitTorrent DNA is not yet available on platforms other than Windows. If an application runs on multiple platforms, it must verify that Windows is the current platform before accessing BitTorrent DNA. If the user is not on a supported platform, the application should use standard HTTP for download and bypass using DNA.
Operation
BitTorrent DNA is started automatically upon boot and runs quietly in the background providing peer acceleration of downloads without disrupting other applications on the end user’s computer or network. DNA is designed to always give way to traffic from other sources. DNA’s congestion detection and congestion control mechanisms are critical to ensuring that the end-user’s connection are not compromised by an application that works for the most part in the background. These features constitute advanced technologies that separate BitTorrent’s DNA client from most other implementations of BitTorrent content delivery technology.
Users may control BitTorrent DNA through a control panel, which is accessible through the Windows Control Panel and is shown in Figure 5 below. To uninstall BitTorrent DNA an end-user must simply use the Add/Remove Programs utility from the Windows Control Panel.
Figure 5: BitTorrent DNA Control Panel
The control panel UI presents the following options to end users:
Learn More(about DNA)
Displays a dialog box with additional information about the purpose and operation of BitTorrent DNA, along with an explanation that BitTorrent DNA is not spyware.
Stop/Start
If BitTorrent DNA is running, a ‘Stop’ button displays; clicking it causes BitTorrent DNA to quit. If BitTorrent DNA is not running, a ‘Start’ button displays; clicking it starts BitTorrent DNA.
Recently Accelerated
A list of the websites and files which were downloaded most recently via DNA, which gives the user a sense of how DNA is valuable to them.
