British Expats - Complete Torrent Guide

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- The Sand Pit (https://britishexpats.com/forum/sand-pit-116/)

- - Complete Torrent Guide (https://britishexpats.com/forum/sand-pit-116/complete-torrent-guide-579773/)

Complete Torrent Guide

What is BitTorrent?
BitTorrent (often abbreviated to 'BT') is a protocol (a set of rules and description of how to do things) allowing you to download files quickly by allowing people downloading the file to upload (distribute) parts of it at the same time. BitTorrent is often used for distribution of very large files, very popular files and files available for free, as it is a lot cheaper, faster and more efficient to distribute files using BitTorrent than a regular download.

µTorrent is a BitTorrent client. A 'client' in this case is a computer program that follows the rules of a protocol. For example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used to download web pages and other content - like this page - and your HTTP client (or browser) is the program you use to get those web pages. Some popular browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera. To an extent, they all work the same way because they follow the same set of rules.

Just as there are multiple HTTP clients, there are multiple BitTorrent clients, and µTorrent is one such BT client.

How do I download files using BitTorrent?
Just like you need a URL like 'www.google.com' to go to a web site and download content, you need a 'torrent file', a small file that tells the BitTorrent client the necessary info to download the content you want. This is generally obtained from a torrent website. Many websites offer torrents as one method of downloading files. For example, OpenOffice.org, a free alternative to Microsoft Office, can be downloaded using BitTorrent. Other sites, like legaltorrents.com, offer torrents of all kinds of things - these sites are just repositories of torrents and usually don't actually create any of the content available. They're known as indexes or trackers - there is a subtle difference between the two. (The Wikipedia article on BitTorrent trackers explains the difference.)

Once you've obtained the torrent file from wherever, you simply need to import it into µTorrent. There are several ways of doing this.

Click File then Add Torrent in µTorrent (or press CTRL+O) and locate the torrent file.
Double-click the torrent file. (Only works if you've associated .torrent files with µTorrent - µTorrent asks you if it should do this the first time you run it. If you clicked 'No', you can do this by going to Options, then Preferences in µTorrent, then clicking Associate with .torrent files under Windows Integration.)
(advanced) Click File then Add Torrent from URL in µTorrent (or press CTRL+U), and enter a URL from which the .torrent file can be obtained.
But before you start downloading, make sure you've followed the µTorrent Setup Guide. It doesn't take long and will help ensure that your torrent experience is faster and more consistent.

µTorrent finished downloading, but now it says it's Seeding. What does that mean?
Seeding is where you leave your BitTorrent client open after you've finished your download to help distribute it (you distribute the file while downloading, but it's even more helpful if you continue to distribute the full file even after you have finished downloading). Chances are that most of the data you got was from seeds, so help give back to the community! It doesn't require much - µTorrent will continue seeding until the torrent is removed (right click the torrent, then hit Remove). Proper practice is to seed until the ratio of upload:download is at least 1.00.

But I don't want to download software, I want to download other files!
Most people use search engines, such as Google, and add the term "torrent" to their search. BitTorrent can be used to deliver any type of file. BitTorrent is purely a content distribution method and (just like a web browser) does not incorporate any technology to differentiate between content that is legitimately shared and content that is pirated. Remember, anybody can see your IP address when using peer to peer clients (like µTorrent), which identifies your computer on the internet. Take care to follow your country's laws concerning copyrighted content.

How do I know that someone isn't sending out viruses on BitTorrent?
In short, you don't. You should treat something downloaded with BitTorrent just like any file downloaded from the internet - that is, if you don't trust the source of the file, then you should use caution when opening it. If the torrent site you obtained it from offers comments, be sure to read those first. But regardless of the comments, running a virus scan on the downloaded files is usually a good idea. µTorrent guarantees that the content you download is not altered from when the torrent was originally created, but if the source files used to create the torrent were already infected, this will provide no protection!

Where can I find out more?
There is a lot of BitTorrent reference information available on the internet, and searching for "bittorrent" on Google is a good start. The following sites are particularly useful:

Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide - a great resource to all things BitTorrent, with far more info than this page, though some of it is a bit technical.
µTorrent FAQ - Provides a list of common questions and answers and solutions to a number of common problems.
µTorrent manual - The main documentation for µTorrent. Explains everything related to the client. Press F1 while viewing the µTorrent window, or go to Help -> µTorrent Help.
The BitTorrent specification - Technical information on the way BitTorrent works.

http://www.utorrent.com/beginners-guide.php

What Torrent program to use?

http://www.bittorrent.com/
BitTorrent (official client)
BitTorrent, also known as the "Mainline" client, is developed and distributed by the company of the same name. It was written in python by Bram Cohen, who invented and developed the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. Because it truly is "official," all the optimizations and updates to the original BitTorrent code will be reflected in the official client first.

Good: It's cross-platform, with builds for Windows, Mac OS X, Unix and Linux. Bandwidth management, queuing and network optimization features are all excellent and easy to use. An integrated torrent search field pulls results from the engine hosted at BitTorrent.com.

Bad: The official BitTorrent client stops at the basic feature set. No plug-in support, no advanced file management within torrents, no pretty 3-D visualizations, no remote control through the browser.

Overall: Best bet for new users or power users looking for that Zen approach. Read the full review.

http://www.vuze.com/app
Vuze: (AKA:Azureus)
If you're looking for a slew of features -- and really, I mean a ton of features -- then Azureus is for you. I often call Azureus the "kitchen sink" of BitTorrent clients. It supports plug-ins, so what it doesn't have can be slapped on after the fact. It's built in Java, which hurts the user experience and brings up some compatibility issues, but it also means that Azureus can run on any platform where Java can be installed.

Good: Java means cross-platform; Azureus runs anywhere. Built-in features include advanced bandwidth management, an embedded tracker, management of files within torrents, support for trackerless torrents and a connection optimizer that can traverse firewalls with ease. Support for plug-ins. In a word, powerful.

Bad: Java. You need to have the latest JRE installed in order for Azureus to operate correctly. The sluggishness problem becomes a nightmare under heavy traffic loads. Also, Azureus is so piled with standard features that new users may not know where to begin.

Overall: Bloat and the Java requirement are downers, but is there anything Azureus can't do? Read the full review.

http://www.utorrent.com/
µTorrent
The µ is for micro, and "microTorrent" is a very, very tiny BitTorrent client. The entire application is 170 KB, and it packs enough features into that small package to compete with beefier applications like Azureus. The memory footprint is also ridiculously small. Even so, the client is responsive, fast and can handle a large workload without choking.

Good: µTorrent has extensive bandwidth-management tools, support for UPnP and trackerless torrents, and users can limit downloads to specific files within torrents. µTorrent also has support for multiple trackers, so you can download the same torrent from two or more trackers at once. Torrents can be launched directly from the built-in RSS reader. And it looks nice, too. The user interface is uncluttered and skinnable.

Bad: Windows only. That's really the only thing µTorrent has working against it

How to get torrents?

How to Speed up my torrent client

Some users of the BitTorrent client or any other Torrent Clients report experiencing slow downloads when downloading or uploading. This is most likely to occur on computers behind a home router or software firewall.
A router is either you Linksys or Belkin wireless router or the Thomson wireless modem and router given by Etisalat.
Being behind firewalls, the BitTorrent client may block incoming Bit Torrent network connections. Given the load balancing and "swarming" nature of the BitTorrent network, clients unable to take incoming requests for uploads will naturally be allowed less bandwidth for downloads.
To solve this problem, consider the following:
• When a user starts a BitTorrent client, the client sets up a network resource called a "port" to allow other Bit Torrent clients to connect ot it. Each port possesses a unique number called the "TCP port number."
• A BitTorrent client normally associates the TCP port number 6881. However, if this port is busy for some reason, the client will instead try successively higher ports (6882, 6883, and so on up to a limit of 6999). In order for outside BitTorrent clients to reach this one, they must be able to connect to the correct port.
• When connecting to another BitTorrent client, the requesting client will first try port 6881, then 6882, and so on. However, if the computer is on a firewalled network, the incoming request may not reach these ports. On the other hand, if these requests succeed, the accepting client will be able to download faster.
• Firewalls can block nearly all of the ports used by P2P clients. To ensure the BitTorrent ports are made available to requesting clients, a home router or firewall can be manually configured to accept them. Most home routers possess a feature called "Port Range Forwarding" to do this. This feature allows the administer to tell the firewall where traffic for a given port number should be directed.
• For BitTorrent, many home users set up port forwarding on the TCP range 6881-6889. These ports must be directed to the computer running the BitTorrent client. If more than one computer on the network may run BitTorrent, a different range such as 6890-6899 or 6990-6999 can be used for each. Remember that BitTorrent uses ports in the 6881-6999 only.
• Many people don't realize that Windows XP computers include the built in Windows Firewall. If port forwarding is set up on a home router, but Windows Firewall is running on the BitTorrent client computer, incoming requests may still fail to reach the client. Ensure the Windows Firewall is either disabled or is set up to allow the appropriate BitTorrent ports to pass through. The same recommendation applies to other software firewalls.
• On home networks without a router, the software firewall (Windows Firewall, ZoneAlarm, or other) must be set up to provide the equivalent forwarding or pass-through capability as needed.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/b...rrentports.htm

http://www.portforward.com/english/a.../Utorindex.htm

Port Forward: Step by step guide on how to forward the ports for diffrent types of routers