BitTorrent software to be embedded in routers and servers

Asus, Planex, and QNAP all offer BitTorrent download manager

23 October 2006 16:22 GMT / By Amber Maitland

P2P file sharing client BitTorrent has announced that its technology is to be embedded into nine new consumer routers to make file sharing easier.

Asus, Planex, and QNAP are the first three manufacturers to announce their plans to embed the download manager into their wireless routers, media servers and network attached storage devices.

The idea is that users will be able to start a download with their notebook computer, and then take their laptop out of range while the router or device continues to share the torrent. BitTorrent acknowledges its previous veil of illegitimacy in its statement about the new products, pointing out that the growing amount of “legitimate content being made available via BitTorrent” means that there's a growing need for hardware to incorporate the torrent technology.

Three Asus routers, the WL-700gE, WL-500gP, and the WL-500g W, as well as five Planex routers (BRCE-W14VG-BT, 14VG-BT, W14V-BT, HPMM-U, and HPMM-G), and QNAP's TS101 and TS-201 NAS servers all embed the download manager.