BitTorrent is a
peer-to-peer (P2P)
file distribution protocol. The protocol was originally designed and created by programmer
Bram Cohen, and is now maintained by
BitTorrent, Inc.
BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of
data widely without the original distributor incurring the whole of the corresponding costs of
hardware,
hosting and
bandwidth resources. Instead of the distributor alone servicing each recipient, under BitTorrent the recipients each also supply data to newer recipients, thus significantly reducing the cost and burden on any given individual source as well as providing
redundancy against system problems, and reducing dependence upon the original distributor.
Source -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent
Basically, you can stop/start downloading whenever you want to and not loose any d/l progress. I use a small program called uTorrent -
http://www.utorrent.com/. This will just sit in your task bar working away without bothering you.