Torrents file sharing system is a revolutionary way to share any file with anyone you choose over the internet. But not everybody is comfortable using this concept of file sharing, as most people still feels that torrents are only meant for the geeky wizards. WRONG! allow us to introduce you to the world of torrents.
INTRODUCING TORRENTS
Torrent is a small file (around few kilobytes) with the suffix .torrent, which contains all the information needed to download a file the torrent was made for. That means it contains file names, their sizes, where to download from and so on. You can get torrents for almost anything on lots of web sites and torrent search engines.
Torrent is the most popular way of downloading large files, including movies and games (remember legality of downloading)
Downloading with a torrent is advantageous especially when downloading files, which are momentarily very popular and which lots of people are downloading. Because the more people download the file, the higher speed for everyone (see torrent principle).
torrent is a file
with torrents you can download almost everything on the net.
every file (or set of files) need to have an unique torrent file to download it
to download anything through a torrent you need a torrent client
You probably already tried another ways of p2p sharing - torrent is just another method. The original BitTorrent client was written in Python and it has been made open-source. Thanks to that, we have a large variety of torrent clients today. Just choose which one you like.
TERMS YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND FOR USING TORRENTS
TORRENT CLIENT - A torrent client is an application which allows you to download files using a torrent. There is a lot of free client software available, the most popular being BitTorrent.
SEED - A seed is a computer that has the complete copy of the file you are downloading. Generally, the more seeds a download has, the quicker it will download. Your computer will become a seed once you have finished downloading, if you don't close your client. You should always try and seed for as long as possible so that others can finish their downloads.
PEERS / LEECHES - A peer (or a leech) is a computer that is downloading the same file as you. Generally, the more leeches a download has, the slower it will download.
RESEED - If all seeds stop uploading the file, the leeches are left with an incomplete file. In order for the leeches to obtain the missing parts of their file, someone with the complete file must start uploading. This is known as reseeding.
DISTRIBUTED COPIES - A distributed copy is made by two or more peers who each have a different part of the file, though when added will make a full file.
TRACKER - A tracker is a server that connects your computer to the necessary seeds and peers. If you cannot connect to the tracker, you will not be able to download the file.
SWARM - A swarm is the total number of peers and seeds.
CHOKED - A connection becomes choked usually when the seed's client has reached its maximum upload rate.
INTERESTED - A leech is interested in a connection with another computer if it has a part of the file the leech does not have. A leech is not interested in a connection with a computer who has the same parts of a file as himself.
SNUBBED - If nothing arrives over a connection for over 60 seconds, the clients snubs the connection, as it is deemed inactive.
HOW TO SET UP AND INSTALL A TORRENT CLIENT
http://www.bittorrent.com/download.html
Choose the download that fits your environment. BitTorrent is a multi-platform client, so you must choose your Operating System version to download (Windows, Linux, or OS X). This article assumes you know your operating system type.
Install BitTorrent, run the EXE, and follow the prompts. Upon installation, BitTorrent should be in your Programs directory, in Start > Programs > BitTorrent.
Launch the "Downloader" application, which is a shortcut to bittorrent.exe.
Go to the Settings, to set your options.
Choose not to launch BitTorrent when Windows starts, for faster startup and to avoid possible security risks.
Minimize to system tray - if you don't like it on your taskbar when it's minimized, send it to the systray area over by the clock.
Progress bar text is black - this seems to work best.
Saving: Save new downloads in.... - self explanatory, many users have a set folder where they store their downloads, this is a folder you set, and BitTorrent will always store new downloads here. Ask where to save each download could be unchecked....
Downloading: When starting a new torrent - set this item to "ask" each time. BitTorrent can easily maximize bandwidth use, and many users advise that it's best to have only one torrent running at a time (as in the earlier versions of the program). If you have a low-speed connection, it's best to set the "Stop another running torrent" option to make room. This will stop your other transfer in order to start a new transfer.
Seeding: this refers to giving back your download to the community once you are done downloading a torrent, and it's BitTorrent etiquette to seed at least to 100% (often called 1:1 ratio). This means you should upload (give back) just as much data as your download (receive). Set the first field to no less than 100 (percent). If "Seed Indefinitely" is enabled, the option boxes are greyed out, and it will seed until you stop it. Adhere to the same policy with "Seed last completed torrent until".
Networking: Set your BitTorrent communication port under this tab. The application will accept any port from 1024 to 65535, but it is recommended to use any port greater than 10000 (10 thousand). Disable Enable Automatic Port Mapping (UPnP), since some users indicate security risks and/or vulnerabilities with this setting. This port you have set here, is necessary to allow incoming data, if you use a router/firewall (NAT) of any type, you will need to open (more often called "port forward") this individual port through your router browser configuration (that's a whole different how-to). Ignore "IP to report to tracker" - this is only if you are running the tracker on your same computer (seeding and tracking a torrent from the same computer or network) and is not related in any way to "proxying" or otherwise "hiding" your IP.
Language: Choose your language here, it may be auto-set to English.
You are now ready to search for, and download .torrent files.
Install a protective program to keep snoops such as the RIAA and MPAA out. Highly recommended is Peer Guardian (http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/). This is like a firewall except a bit more extensive protection when using p2p programs.
If behind a network, be sure your bittorrent port is forwarded/open to the outside world.
Don't download copyprotected content, no IP blocker, or proxy software offers 100% protection.
Stay away from 0-day (zero day)/brand new releases, only download torrents with many seeds so you have a good chance of file completion.
Note that the BitTorrent program is only one of several applications that have been developed to use the BitTorrent protocol.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD A TORRENT FILE
Find a torrent program that will suit your needs, the most common clients are uTorrent, Azureus, BitTorrent, or Opera. You can also download torrents without the need to download any software, which actually works through any firewall or school, ISP, company or third party throttling. There are plenty of other clients available as well.
Follow the instructions on downloading and installing your chosen client.
Go to a torrent site and search for a file you want to download (Isohunt, Torrentz, Pirate Bay) is an example). You can however search on Google for many more, just add the word Torrent to your search.
Once you have found the desired file on the torrent site, click the "Download This Torrent" (or however they word it). Usually, the web browser's file download manager will ask what to do with this file. You want to open the file with your torrent program.
If it doesn't open that way, just save the .torrent file to an easy to locate place. Then open your torrent client and use the "Open Torrent" feature.
The download will start automatically. You may now go and do something to pass the time, because torrents do not require your attention and will download in the background.
You can close your torrent program and turn off your computer when you need to. Most torrent programs will resume download process automatically when you start them backup. If the download doesn't resume automatically, there should be an option to startdownloading, by either right clicking on the file and choose "Start" or a button somewhere in the program.
There are other torrent clients (programs) that can be used so do your research on these also. The most popular torrent programs are uTorrent, Azureus and BitTorrent.
When looking for torrent files, try to find ones with plenty of Seeders. When searching for torrents, you can often sort the results by seeds, simply by clicking on the seeds column header.
KNOW HOW TO CREATE/SHARE TORRENT
Torrents are great, they are the best way to share large files with your friends, or even with people you don't know at all. But surprisingly enough, not many people create torrents when they need to share something. I have "a lot of" friends who know how to download torrents, but when they need to send me their latest 200MB vacation picture collection, they ask me to "get on msn".
It's not that I have anything against msn (although the file transfer sucks), but why don't just use BitTorrent? Especially if you want to send something to more than one person, or if you want to share high quality HDTV files, because then you can share the bandwidth.
So how do you do this? Well it's very simple. Open your favorite BitTorrent client and do the magic trick:
File > Create new Torrent (or CTRL + N)
Select the files and or directories
Trackers: This is probably the hard part for most people. But it's pretty easy, just put in one of the popular public trackers. You can use one or more trackers, but in general one is enough.
Here are some good trackers you can use:
http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
http://www.torrent-downloads.to:2710/announce
udp://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
http://www.sumotracker.com/announce
Put one of these in the tracker box
Do NOT tick the private torrent box (unless you're using a private tracker)
Save the torrent and send it to your friends
INTRODUCING TORRENTS
Torrent is a small file (around few kilobytes) with the suffix .torrent, which contains all the information needed to download a file the torrent was made for. That means it contains file names, their sizes, where to download from and so on. You can get torrents for almost anything on lots of web sites and torrent search engines.
Torrent is the most popular way of downloading large files, including movies and games (remember legality of downloading)
Downloading with a torrent is advantageous especially when downloading files, which are momentarily very popular and which lots of people are downloading. Because the more people download the file, the higher speed for everyone (see torrent principle).
torrent is a file
with torrents you can download almost everything on the net.
every file (or set of files) need to have an unique torrent file to download it
to download anything through a torrent you need a torrent client
You probably already tried another ways of p2p sharing - torrent is just another method. The original BitTorrent client was written in Python and it has been made open-source. Thanks to that, we have a large variety of torrent clients today. Just choose which one you like.
TERMS YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND FOR USING TORRENTS
TORRENT CLIENT - A torrent client is an application which allows you to download files using a torrent. There is a lot of free client software available, the most popular being BitTorrent.
SEED - A seed is a computer that has the complete copy of the file you are downloading. Generally, the more seeds a download has, the quicker it will download. Your computer will become a seed once you have finished downloading, if you don't close your client. You should always try and seed for as long as possible so that others can finish their downloads.
PEERS / LEECHES - A peer (or a leech) is a computer that is downloading the same file as you. Generally, the more leeches a download has, the slower it will download.
RESEED - If all seeds stop uploading the file, the leeches are left with an incomplete file. In order for the leeches to obtain the missing parts of their file, someone with the complete file must start uploading. This is known as reseeding.
DISTRIBUTED COPIES - A distributed copy is made by two or more peers who each have a different part of the file, though when added will make a full file.
TRACKER - A tracker is a server that connects your computer to the necessary seeds and peers. If you cannot connect to the tracker, you will not be able to download the file.
SWARM - A swarm is the total number of peers and seeds.
CHOKED - A connection becomes choked usually when the seed's client has reached its maximum upload rate.
INTERESTED - A leech is interested in a connection with another computer if it has a part of the file the leech does not have. A leech is not interested in a connection with a computer who has the same parts of a file as himself.
SNUBBED - If nothing arrives over a connection for over 60 seconds, the clients snubs the connection, as it is deemed inactive.
HOW TO SET UP AND INSTALL A TORRENT CLIENT
http://www.bittorrent.com/download.html
Choose the download that fits your environment. BitTorrent is a multi-platform client, so you must choose your Operating System version to download (Windows, Linux, or OS X). This article assumes you know your operating system type.
Install BitTorrent, run the EXE, and follow the prompts. Upon installation, BitTorrent should be in your Programs directory, in Start > Programs > BitTorrent.
Launch the "Downloader" application, which is a shortcut to bittorrent.exe.
Go to the Settings, to set your options.
Choose not to launch BitTorrent when Windows starts, for faster startup and to avoid possible security risks.
Minimize to system tray - if you don't like it on your taskbar when it's minimized, send it to the systray area over by the clock.
Progress bar text is black - this seems to work best.
Saving: Save new downloads in.... - self explanatory, many users have a set folder where they store their downloads, this is a folder you set, and BitTorrent will always store new downloads here. Ask where to save each download could be unchecked....
Downloading: When starting a new torrent - set this item to "ask" each time. BitTorrent can easily maximize bandwidth use, and many users advise that it's best to have only one torrent running at a time (as in the earlier versions of the program). If you have a low-speed connection, it's best to set the "Stop another running torrent" option to make room. This will stop your other transfer in order to start a new transfer.
Seeding: this refers to giving back your download to the community once you are done downloading a torrent, and it's BitTorrent etiquette to seed at least to 100% (often called 1:1 ratio). This means you should upload (give back) just as much data as your download (receive). Set the first field to no less than 100 (percent). If "Seed Indefinitely" is enabled, the option boxes are greyed out, and it will seed until you stop it. Adhere to the same policy with "Seed last completed torrent until".
Networking: Set your BitTorrent communication port under this tab. The application will accept any port from 1024 to 65535, but it is recommended to use any port greater than 10000 (10 thousand). Disable Enable Automatic Port Mapping (UPnP), since some users indicate security risks and/or vulnerabilities with this setting. This port you have set here, is necessary to allow incoming data, if you use a router/firewall (NAT) of any type, you will need to open (more often called "port forward") this individual port through your router browser configuration (that's a whole different how-to). Ignore "IP to report to tracker" - this is only if you are running the tracker on your same computer (seeding and tracking a torrent from the same computer or network) and is not related in any way to "proxying" or otherwise "hiding" your IP.
Language: Choose your language here, it may be auto-set to English.
You are now ready to search for, and download .torrent files.
Install a protective program to keep snoops such as the RIAA and MPAA out. Highly recommended is Peer Guardian (http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/). This is like a firewall except a bit more extensive protection when using p2p programs.
If behind a network, be sure your bittorrent port is forwarded/open to the outside world.
Don't download copyprotected content, no IP blocker, or proxy software offers 100% protection.
Stay away from 0-day (zero day)/brand new releases, only download torrents with many seeds so you have a good chance of file completion.
Note that the BitTorrent program is only one of several applications that have been developed to use the BitTorrent protocol.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD A TORRENT FILE
Find a torrent program that will suit your needs, the most common clients are uTorrent, Azureus, BitTorrent, or Opera. You can also download torrents without the need to download any software, which actually works through any firewall or school, ISP, company or third party throttling. There are plenty of other clients available as well.
Follow the instructions on downloading and installing your chosen client.
Go to a torrent site and search for a file you want to download (Isohunt, Torrentz, Pirate Bay) is an example). You can however search on Google for many more, just add the word Torrent to your search.
Once you have found the desired file on the torrent site, click the "Download This Torrent" (or however they word it). Usually, the web browser's file download manager will ask what to do with this file. You want to open the file with your torrent program.
If it doesn't open that way, just save the .torrent file to an easy to locate place. Then open your torrent client and use the "Open Torrent" feature.
The download will start automatically. You may now go and do something to pass the time, because torrents do not require your attention and will download in the background.
You can close your torrent program and turn off your computer when you need to. Most torrent programs will resume download process automatically when you start them backup. If the download doesn't resume automatically, there should be an option to startdownloading, by either right clicking on the file and choose "Start" or a button somewhere in the program.
There are other torrent clients (programs) that can be used so do your research on these also. The most popular torrent programs are uTorrent, Azureus and BitTorrent.
When looking for torrent files, try to find ones with plenty of Seeders. When searching for torrents, you can often sort the results by seeds, simply by clicking on the seeds column header.
KNOW HOW TO CREATE/SHARE TORRENT
Torrents are great, they are the best way to share large files with your friends, or even with people you don't know at all. But surprisingly enough, not many people create torrents when they need to share something. I have "a lot of" friends who know how to download torrents, but when they need to send me their latest 200MB vacation picture collection, they ask me to "get on msn".
It's not that I have anything against msn (although the file transfer sucks), but why don't just use BitTorrent? Especially if you want to send something to more than one person, or if you want to share high quality HDTV files, because then you can share the bandwidth.
So how do you do this? Well it's very simple. Open your favorite BitTorrent client and do the magic trick:
File > Create new Torrent (or CTRL + N)
Select the files and or directories
Trackers: This is probably the hard part for most people. But it's pretty easy, just put in one of the popular public trackers. You can use one or more trackers, but in general one is enough.
Here are some good trackers you can use:
http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
http://www.torrent-downloads.to:2710/announce
udp://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
http://www.sumotracker.com/announce
Put one of these in the tracker box
Do NOT tick the private torrent box (unless you're using a private tracker)
Save the torrent and send it to your friends
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