Need help with bit torrents- quick!

EeneyMinnieMoe

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Feb 11, 2007
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I have no idea what torrents are, except that you use them to download files or something.

Could someone clearly and precisely explain to me what they are and how to download torrents.
 
I use Flashget to download torrents. It's a download manager.

Click on a torrent link and the software opens and starts the download process.

You upload parts of a file to other people after you get them if other people need them, while downloading other parts of the same file from other people. It's a filesharing protocol. You continue until you have the complete file. If you keep on sharing (uploading) the complete file to other people out of the goodness of your heart, you are 'seeding'.

There are other software options out there that may be bittorrent specific. People have their favorites. Flashget is mine.

This is an example of a torrent link.
 
A torrent is just a file that a program needs to use to download the actual file that you want.

Azureus is a Java client and seems to take a lot of CPU power. And I hate Java.

There is an official bittorrent client but you have to run a separate program for every torrent you are downloading which isn't very convenient.

A number of other "downloading programs", such a eMule/eDonkey also handle torrents.

Pipirr's recommendation seems good.

Me? I use rtorrent.
 
strathmeyer said:
There is an official bittorrent client but you have to run a separate program for every torrent you are downloading which isn't very convenient.
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Keeping in mind I'm a relative newbie in this domain, I must say: Uh?! As far as I know, I use the "official" bittorrent client and the settings allow you to download/upload up to three torrents at a time (which is more than enough 99% of the time, in my limited experience).

ETA: Oh, and don't worry EeneyMinnieMoe, torrents are exceptionnally easy to use. Step-by-step guide:

-Download and install a bittorrent client, as mentionned above.
-Download a torrent file (blablabla.torrent). This is a very small file, barely a few kbs.
-Open this file with your client, like you would open any other file with any other program.
-Sit back and enjoy.
 
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Ares now does torrents. Or you can just wait until Saturday when the book comes out. :)
 
Oualawouzou said:
Keeping in mind I'm a relative newbie in this domain, I must say: Uh?! As far as I know, I use the "official" bittorrent client and the settings allow you to download/upload up to three torrents at a time (which is more than enough 99% of the time, in my limited experience).
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Yes, the 'seperate window for each torrent' was back in the stone age of Bit Torrent. The client has been much improved since that.

I prefer Azureus. Someone said it uses a lot of machine resources, but anyone who has a computer from this century should be able to run it with no problem.

Using torrents is easy. Using it well takes some time to learn. The best tips I can give is to make sure you open up a port in your router/modem for your client. Without this, you're not going to get any decent download speeds. Also, try to dedicate only around 75% of your upload speed for torrenting.
 
Thanks a million. I downloaded Flashget and am spectacularly enjoying it. I'm amazed at myself for not finding all this out way before. It always looked like rocket science to me but look how easy squeezy piracy can be.

Oh, the book's great! :D
 
I can highly recommend uTorrent as probably the best BT client around. It's very small, low CPU use, slick and fast.
 
Ryokan said:
Using torrents is easy. Using it well takes some time to learn. The best tips I can give is to make sure you open up a port in your router/modem for your client. Without this, you're not going to get any decent download speeds.
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Easier said than done. I have spent 3 days trying and I am sure my ports are not open.

I am uploading at around 25 and downloading at 4. As the files I am downloading are four and a half gig I have only managed to downloaded half of it in a week !!
 
quixotecoyote said:
careful, that stuff packs a punch. I lost a system to Kazaa.
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Well, Kazaa is Kazaa.

I've been torrenting for around 5 years now, and I've never encountered a single virus or any spyware or fake files.

It's a completely different system.
 
Lothian said:
Easier said than done. I have spent 3 days trying and I am sure my ports are not open.

I am uploading at around 25 and downloading at 4. As the files I am downloading are four and a half gig I have only managed to downloaded half of it in a week !!
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Check www.portforward.com - find out how to open a port on your modem/router.
 
Lothian said:
Easier said than done. I have spent 3 days trying and I am sure my ports are not open.

I am uploading at around 25 and downloading at 4. As the files I am downloading are four and a half gig I have only managed to downloaded half of it in a week !!
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You could try Flashget. It's a download manager - simplifies the whole process for you, little user input required. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation), which, although I don't have the foggiest idea what it is, may make a big difference.

Port forwarding never helped me so much as switching software to Flashget did.
 
Ryokan said:
Check www.portforward.com - find out how to open a port on your modem/router.
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I have been there so much I am expecting an invite to their xmas party.

I don't know what a router is. I don't think I have one. I have a Thompson Speedtouch 330 which it think is a modem. I don't think I need to do anything to this to open a port.

I then use Bittornado and I have set a few ports as ones to use.

I then have Norton 2007 firewall. I set the rules to ignore the ports above and then resorted to turning it off.

When I check to see if the port is open using various internet port check sites it comes back as timed out or port not open.


Pipirr said:
You could try Flashget. It's a download manager - simplifies the whole process for you, little user input required. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation), which, although I don't have the foggiest idea what it is, may make a big difference.

Port forwarding never helped me so much as switching software to Flashget did.
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I tried bit torrent but it was no quicker, however it wouldn't pick up and finish the download started by bittornado.

Would flashget pick up where I am upto or will I have to start again ?
 
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Lothian said:
I tried bit torrent but it was no quicker, however it wouldn't pick up and finish the download started by bittornado.

Would flashget pick up where I am upto or will I have to start again ?
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I don't know - but you can run it at the same time and see if it's faster, or pause your current client and switch to Flashget exclusively. If it's no better, just resume with the current client.

As I understand it, Flashget uses a different approach to torrents than the actual torrent software, so you may see a big improvement.

It worked for me, where port forwarding didn't seem to be the solution but the ports always seemed to be the problem. Worth a try.
 
Splossy said:
I can highly recommend uTorrent as probably the best BT client around. It's very small, low CPU use, slick and fast.
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That's what I use. It does everything I need. It's well organized, runs very quietly in the background, and never has any problems. I've tried BitTorrent, ABC Torrent, and one other one that I forget, but I'll stick with uTorrent.

EMM, I'd also recommended getting a filter file to filter out bogus IP addresses from RIAA watchdogs who upload bad data to ruin torrents. If you find yourself getting stuck at 98% even though there are a lot of seeders and you're getting many megs of wasted data and numerous hashfails, you'll need an IPfilter.dat file. This is especially true if you plan to acquire stuff from open sites like Mininova and the like, but not so much if you stay with moderated sites like Dimeadozen.

Next you'll probably be needing FLAC Frontend and Shorten to uncompress all those .flac and .shn files you're suddenly accumulating. Happy torrenting and be a good sharer! :)
 
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