Bit-Torrent Users - Techie help Please!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

I've never had good luck getting Torrents to work, so I deleted whatever program it was I downloaded a while ago... but now I'm ready to try again.

What is the best free Torrent Software, and is there a good online FYI to walk me through the process?

[enigmatic]

1. uTorrent

http://www.zeropaid.com/utorrent/

And I suggest zeropaid.com for any info:

http://www.zeropaid.com/

[cynatnite]

2. I use uTorrent...

http://www.utorrent.com/

Very easy to use, IMO.

[BlooInBloo]

3. I've happily used Azereus for several years with no problems...

... main thing is to forward your ports. There's a lil menu option in the program that'll tell you if you've done this correctly.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Oh - just saw a pure web-based one the other day - I think on lifehacker...

.... requires NO client download - lol. Haven't tried it, but definitely an interesting concept.

[cynatnite]

5. Resource hog...

that's why I don't touch it.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Ah - lol - my torrenting is usually done when I go to bed, so I never noticed!

[cynatnite]

10. I tried it for a while...

just didn't like it because of that.

But for the last month I've been doing the same exact thing because kids have been playing on the computer.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Good to know - thx!

[givemebackmycountry]

6. Look..this is simple

http://www.utorrent.com/

This is the application you need to use to download Bit-Torrents.

Good Sites:

http://www.mininova.org/

Go to Google and type in Bit Torrents..

The world is yours.

[cynatnite]

12. I like this one...

http://thepiratebay.org/

[Bill219]

7. in my opinion

Torrents are a crap shoot now days. Half the stuff is loaded with viruses and spyware and most of the time it takes forever to complete a download if you are lucky to have enough people seeding the damn thing as most of the downloaders are hit and runners

Usenet is the way to go. Much faster than torrent downloading and besides, most of the stuff listed on torrents came from Usenet uploads first

[BlooInBloo]

9. Wow - I've NEVER had a bad torrent download....

... Not knockin usenet tho... Them's my old stomping grounds, back in the days of newsxpress and freeagent.

[cynatnite]

13. Depends on where you go for torrents...

http://thepiratebay.org/

I go to this one and another place. User comments are pretty reliable and I've never had a bad torrent. I've never tried Usenet, though.

And my download speeds kick ass :smoke:

[BlooInBloo]

15. torrentpond is an easy-to-use aggregate search site - I find it convenient.

[cynatnite]

16. I'll check it out :) n/t

[kas125]

14. BitTornado!

I tried several of them and never could get them to work, I suppose because I have no clue about opening ports or any of that stuff. Until I tried BitTornado - it did all that for me. My download speed, and usually upload speed, too, is always faster than almost everyone else on any torrent I connect to. Seriously, try BitTornado, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[JacquesMolay]

17. Is that legal?

...n/t

[kas125]

18. that depends

on what you are downloading. I don't download anything that's copywrited and there is plenty of stuff that's freely available for trade and it's all out there in torrent-land somewhere. The volume of stuff that's out there is staggering and once you start, you will soon be buying another hard drive for storage or amassing quite a collection of discs. I have more music than I'll ever be able to listen to in my lifetime, much of which is stuff I never even knew was available.

[AtomicKitten]

19. Rumor has it this is a good site.

http://www.bitlord.com/

[Crunchy Frog]

20. Hi, I only just figured out how to do this about a week ago.

I didn't know shit when I started out, but I've already managed to download quite a few things, and I'm sort of starting to get the hang out of what's going on.

I got quite a bit of help from this faq. http://www.dessent.net/btfaq/

I've been using Bittornado, http://www.bittornado.com/ but I have no idea how it compares with other programs out there.

Good luck!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. Thanks all!

I'm off and running now! (I hope!)

:D

[ConsAreLiars]

22. Be sure to check regularly with Chomsky Torrents,

now renamed to http://onebigtorrent.org/index.php .

One thing to remember if you are just starting, your download speed will depend in part on how much you have uploaded. So leave the torrent (I also use uTorrent) running for a while even if you are not using it. "In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."

[cynatnite]

24. When I first started...

I didn't realize I needed to leave the torrent going for a while. Later on I did and whether I'm downloading or not, it goes on every night before I go to bed. I was a bad girl. :)

[ConsAreLiars]

29. Good for you. That is the right attitude, to share freely.

I don't use torrent software often, and when I get reminded to use it for one thing or another I do leave it running for a good while. Better, since what I have is legitimately (or at least morally justifiably) redistributable, would be to have it running whenever the machine is running. Thanks for the reminder that running it is a public service, and not a really really hard job.

[Aptastik]

23. This guide will be VERY helpful to you

First, before you download ANYTHING, download PeerGuardian2

http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

It blocks all those gov't and recording industry IPs from sniffing you out.

Then read this article

http://gtmcknight.com/log/archives/2005/01/29/bittorrent_for_my_mother.php

After you read that, read Port Forwarding For My Mother, which is linked at the bottom. Port Forwarding is necessary to allow other users to connect to you.

Then, PM me and I will give you some invites to private trackers. Private trackers are better than the public trackers mentioned on this thread because they require everyone to put in what they take out, allowing for better seeded and faster torrents, and no spyware, malware, trojans, and any other bad stuff you don't want.

But in order to use the trackers, you must be "clever", or connectable, so be sure to read the port forwarding tutorrial posted above to learn how to become "clever"

Oh, and happy downloading!

EDIT: And if you're using anything besides utorrent right now, uninstall it and download utorrent. Seriously, it's leaps and bounds beyond the rest.

[BlooInBloo]

25. Can I resume dl started with azereus if i ditch it and run with utorrent?

[Aptastik]

26. yes

but its complicated and im drunk.

I'd just download it and ditch azureus after, unless you're using a Mac, utorrent only runs on windows.

[BlooInBloo]

27. k - I'll see if I can figure it out...

... prolly somethin like pointing utorrent to those .torrent, and telling it to recheck the download, waking it up to the current partial dl or something. Surely someone on the inet knows.

[cynatnite]

28. Maybe this'll help...

http://www.utorrent.com/migration_guide.php

[BlooInBloo]

33. Aren't you just Ms. Answers today? lol - thx!

[ConsAreLiars]

30. LET ME SHOUT a YES for the advice to install PeerGuardian2.

There are nasties out there trying to watch everything you do, including but not limited to file sharing. This program will let you see who is out to get you, mainly by looking through the open ports commonly used by torrent software, and keep them out. You will be appalled by the number of probes going on without that important defense running security for you.

I'll have to re-read the "clever" port forwarding part tomorrow, to see if I can follow that advice, but thanks in advance.

[Aptastik]

31. It's pretty straight-forward

That's why I recommend that guide, walks you right through everything. If you're having trouble, just PM me and I'll see if I can help.

[Vidar]

32. I use Burst, though it's outmoded, because it's simple & it doesn't

screw up like the other three I tried.