Wednesday, December 30, 2009

How to download Valued bits and bytes via Torrents? (Step by Step)

What is Torrent?

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounts for approximately 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009. (Source: Wikipedia)

BitTorrent is commonly known as Torrent.

The main advantages in Torrent downloads are,
  • Reliable downloads (Download won't be corrupted after downloading).
  • Large files can be downloaded easily.
  • Ability to stop, pause downloads.
  • Efficient way of sharing files over the internet.
Below are the major steps you should follow in order to download a file using Torrents.
  1. Find a torrent program that will suit your needs, the most common clients are uTorrent, Deluge, Azureus, BitTorrent, and Opera. There are plenty of other clients available as well (Clicking one of the above links will bring you to a torrent client site).
  2. Follow the instructions on downloading and installing your chosen client.
  3. Go to a torrent site and search for a file you want to download. The Pirate Bay is a popular site. Below websites are also popular as torrent search engines.
  1. 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.
  2. 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(Most torrent clients support click & drag).
  3. 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.

~Tips for you~
  • 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 back up. If the download doesn't resume automatically, there should be an option to start downloading, 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.
  • There are Torrent search engines that search the popular torrent clients (programs). This saves you time by not having to search each individual torrent client site. The most popular torrent search engines are TorrentReactor.net, Nowtorrents.com and Qtorrents.com .
  • 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.
  • Seeders (Seeds): Are people who have a complete copy of the torrent's files and are only uploading (sending) data to the people who are downloading (peers).
  • Leechers (Peers): Are people who have a portion of the torrent's files while they are downloading they are actively uploading to help others download more quickly.

Bits submitted for this post by EMP kiddies.... :)