Difference between downloading from multiple hosts and torrents?

Hi there

A little new to downloading on Limewire and have never downloaded torrents before either.

I was wondering if anyone new what the difference was between downloading a file on Limewire from multiple hosts and downloading a torrent? From what i have read on google, torrents involve downloading smaller bits of the file from different computers but how does this differ from limewire (or regular p2p) downloading a file from multiple hosts? I was just wondering if it was faster to download larger video clips/movies using a torrent instead of using limewire. When i have googled "p2p" it states that you download from just one pc but then i dont understand why you can source a file from several hosts on limewire.

thanks
Aroon

A major difference is that Limewire uses only the Gnutella network; torrents are all over the internet.

I still use LW for music, but I get my movies via torrents. LW will dl a few torrents for you, and that would be a good start. However, after you get your feet wet, you really should use a true torrent client, such as Vuze or uTorrent (both are free).

Good info here: Beginners Guide to torrents.