For all the people who know people that download cool stuff but never knew how to do it yourself, here's a guide.
First of all there are a few terms your going to have to learn because these terms are crucial, if you don't learn them and what they mean your download will take months!... Read on.
seeder?...What's That?
A seeder is a computer on the global Torrent network who has 100% of a particular file. For a Torrent to download fully there must be at least one seeder, to download this file from. There can be many seeders and the more seeders there are the faster the file will download. If the file you are trying to download is very large (20GB or more) having lots of seeders is a safety net because the last thing you want is a 25GB file to reach 96% completion and the last seeder to disappear. A seeder will disappear when the person either turns off there computer or removes the file from there torrent client. There are occasions where you will be able to download a file even with no seeders, if there are a good number of leechers (see below) If collectively there are all the pieces of the puzzle then you can gather these pieces from each leecher to build the final file. This cannot be relied upon and isn't worth trying unless it's a very small file. Once you yourself has reached 100% you will stop being a leecher and become a seeder. It is appreciated to seed the file (leave it open in your torrent client program) for at least an equal amount of time it took to download, this ensures the that particular torrent will live on and others have a chance to download it. When a torrent reaches 0 seeds it is considered dead and is generally avoided.
Leecher? What On Earth Is A Leecher?
A leecher is a computer that is downloading a file and doesn't yet have 100% of it. As soon as you've downloaded your .torrent file and opened it in your torrent client you are a leecher and will remain a leecher until you have the full 100% then you become a seeder. The term leeche isn't completely correct, this implies the computer is downloading but not uploading (taking without giving) but this is untrue as while your downloading data from others you are uploading whatever percentage you already have. If you are downloading a huge file that only has 1 seeder but has 100 leechers it is worth downloading because the chances are even if the seeder disappears there will collectively among the 100 leechers be all the parts to make up the file, in this case the leechers will slowly swap pieces of the puzzle until they are all synchronized, in the process lots of new seeders are created.
.torrent File? What The Hell Is One Of Those?
A .torrent file is a file that points to the tracker, a tracker is a server that manages the global downloading/uploading of a file, holds the I.P addresses and port numbers for every seeder and leecher for that file it also contains information about the file(s) your downloading. When you want to download something you go to your favourite torrent site, search for what you want then download the .torrent file. It's tiny and only takes a second or two to download, then it's simply a case of double clicking that file which will then open in your torrent client, which then commences downloading/uploading using the information in the .torrent file.
What Is A Torrent Client?
A torrent client is simply a program that communicates with thousands of trackers and peers (peer: the collective noun for seeders/leechers) and manages your downloads. There are many of these available and people have their favourites for different reasons, usually advanced reasons but if your reading this then your not advanced enough to need to know the differences between them. A couple of good ones will be suggested near the bottom of the page.
Tips For Spotting A Good Torrent From A Bad Torrent
Armed with an arsenal of knowledge about this subject you can now proceed to a .torrent download site (list below) to download your favourite things. But how do you spot the good ones from the bad ones? a torrent called "a pretty red rose" doesn't necessarily contain what the title suggests. It could be a virus or just a really rotten red rose. First thing you need to look for is a good seeder/leecher ratio if it is a good torrent its likely to have a good number of each. a bad torrent will be deleted from peoples computers and generally won't have many seeders. Second thing to look out for is comments, a lot of torrent download sites employ a comment system where users leave comments of the torrent once they have finished downloading it. If it has comments read them! The comments give a good indication of the quality of the torrent, similar to the eBay feedback system. Third, look at the size of the file the torrent will download, if its a 2 hour movie and its only 2.8MB its not a 2 hour movie!. Additionally if there is more than one of the same thing, same two hour movie and both have good seeder/leecher ratios and good comments its worth downloading the larger file. This has a good chance of having a better quality image (more picture information present)
What's In The Name?
Here is a list of common tags in the torrents name and what they mean.
My personal favourite has always been Bitlord, I have tried the vast majority of them and feel free to do so yourself but Bitlordalways shines for me.
Here is a list of the top five, Find your favourite.So Where Do I Go For A Torrent?
Here is a list of the top torrent sites, You will over time find some are better than others for different content. So try them all for the same thing and soon you'll get the feel for it.Here Is A Typical Torrent Client Download Window ( Mine ;-)
When Is It Best To Download?
Look at that image above, there are 21 downloads at once, each of those can be connected to around 50 peers (seeder or leecher) each, for each of those 50 peers there could be 2 or 3 simultaneous connections each. That's 3150 simultaneous connections your computer is making to the internet (Plus any inbound connections from people downloading from you) and each of those has overheads and lost data that has to be retransmitted. This is Very Very heavy on your internet connection and you will probably download nothing during the day (other people locally using the internet), Night time is the best time for most people, but experiment see when you get your best speeds. If your planning any serious downloading like me in the image above this will really consume the vast majority of your internet connection so everyday web browsing will be much more sluggish. Another point is that one thing wireless connections are
not good at, even if you have a fast wifi connection is lots of simultaneous connections because the amount of overheads in wifi are huge, Wifi and mass torrent downloading do not go well together, if you plan to replicate the above screenshot, Use A Cable!. ;-)
There you are folks, everything you need to know about torrents and file sharing. Happy downloading and remember, Stay within the law! Don't download copywritten material!
First of all there are a few terms your going to have to learn because these terms are crucial, if you don't learn them and what they mean your download will take months!... Read on.
seeder?...What's That?
A seeder is a computer on the global Torrent network who has 100% of a particular file. For a Torrent to download fully there must be at least one seeder, to download this file from. There can be many seeders and the more seeders there are the faster the file will download. If the file you are trying to download is very large (20GB or more) having lots of seeders is a safety net because the last thing you want is a 25GB file to reach 96% completion and the last seeder to disappear. A seeder will disappear when the person either turns off there computer or removes the file from there torrent client. There are occasions where you will be able to download a file even with no seeders, if there are a good number of leechers (see below) If collectively there are all the pieces of the puzzle then you can gather these pieces from each leecher to build the final file. This cannot be relied upon and isn't worth trying unless it's a very small file. Once you yourself has reached 100% you will stop being a leecher and become a seeder. It is appreciated to seed the file (leave it open in your torrent client program) for at least an equal amount of time it took to download, this ensures the that particular torrent will live on and others have a chance to download it. When a torrent reaches 0 seeds it is considered dead and is generally avoided.
Leecher? What On Earth Is A Leecher?
A leecher is a computer that is downloading a file and doesn't yet have 100% of it. As soon as you've downloaded your .torrent file and opened it in your torrent client you are a leecher and will remain a leecher until you have the full 100% then you become a seeder. The term leeche isn't completely correct, this implies the computer is downloading but not uploading (taking without giving) but this is untrue as while your downloading data from others you are uploading whatever percentage you already have. If you are downloading a huge file that only has 1 seeder but has 100 leechers it is worth downloading because the chances are even if the seeder disappears there will collectively among the 100 leechers be all the parts to make up the file, in this case the leechers will slowly swap pieces of the puzzle until they are all synchronized, in the process lots of new seeders are created.
.torrent File? What The Hell Is One Of Those?
A .torrent file is a file that points to the tracker, a tracker is a server that manages the global downloading/uploading of a file, holds the I.P addresses and port numbers for every seeder and leecher for that file it also contains information about the file(s) your downloading. When you want to download something you go to your favourite torrent site, search for what you want then download the .torrent file. It's tiny and only takes a second or two to download, then it's simply a case of double clicking that file which will then open in your torrent client, which then commences downloading/uploading using the information in the .torrent file.
What Is A Torrent Client?
A torrent client is simply a program that communicates with thousands of trackers and peers (peer: the collective noun for seeders/leechers) and manages your downloads. There are many of these available and people have their favourites for different reasons, usually advanced reasons but if your reading this then your not advanced enough to need to know the differences between them. A couple of good ones will be suggested near the bottom of the page.
Tips For Spotting A Good Torrent From A Bad Torrent
Armed with an arsenal of knowledge about this subject you can now proceed to a .torrent download site (list below) to download your favourite things. But how do you spot the good ones from the bad ones? a torrent called "a pretty red rose" doesn't necessarily contain what the title suggests. It could be a virus or just a really rotten red rose. First thing you need to look for is a good seeder/leecher ratio if it is a good torrent its likely to have a good number of each. a bad torrent will be deleted from peoples computers and generally won't have many seeders. Second thing to look out for is comments, a lot of torrent download sites employ a comment system where users leave comments of the torrent once they have finished downloading it. If it has comments read them! The comments give a good indication of the quality of the torrent, similar to the eBay feedback system. Third, look at the size of the file the torrent will download, if its a 2 hour movie and its only 2.8MB its not a 2 hour movie!. Additionally if there is more than one of the same thing, same two hour movie and both have good seeder/leecher ratios and good comments its worth downloading the larger file. This has a good chance of having a better quality image (more picture information present)
What's In The Name?
Here is a list of common tags in the torrents name and what they mean.
- [dopeman], [paradox], [aXXo] , [KLAXXON]These are the torrent uploaders (person who initially released the file via torrent) alias. You'll get to know the good big names in time and look out for these because they are proud of their name and rarely release a bad quality torrent. A good name on a torrent will usually be treated as gold dust and will have good seeder/leecher ratios.
- [CAM], [SCREENER], [TELESYNC], [TELECINE], [DVDRIP] These generally only apply to illegal torrents, this is where a movie isn't available on DVD yet so a pirate has to sit in the cinema with a camcorder and records the whole film with the camera pointed at the screen. The Quality is usually quite bad but these are for very impatient people. The terms Telesync and Telecine mean the camera was in the projection booth and the audio was recorded from the original source, via a cable. The quality of these is usually better than a [CAM] or [SCREENER] where the person is usually sat in the audience with a much cheaper camera and the audio is mono (or near enough) and simply recorded with the internal camera microphone. A [DVDRIP] is better quality as this has been copied directly from an official DVD.
- [XVID], [DIVX], [AVI], [MPG] These are the format the film is in. [DIVX] and [XVID] are preferable having better picture quality for file size but need special codecs in order to play, and if burned to a DVD once you've downloaded it keep in mind that not all DVD player play these formats and conversion will be required.
- [ENG], [ESP], [FRE], [ITA], [GER] This should be self explanatory, if it isn't then ask the person who looks after you what they mean.
My personal favourite has always been Bitlord, I have tried the vast majority of them and feel free to do so yourself but Bitlordalways shines for me.
Here is a list of the top five, Find your favourite.So Where Do I Go For A Torrent?
Here is a list of the top torrent sites, You will over time find some are better than others for different content. So try them all for the same thing and soon you'll get the feel for it.Here Is A Typical Torrent Client Download Window ( Mine ;-)
When Is It Best To Download?
Look at that image above, there are 21 downloads at once, each of those can be connected to around 50 peers (seeder or leecher) each, for each of those 50 peers there could be 2 or 3 simultaneous connections each. That's 3150 simultaneous connections your computer is making to the internet (Plus any inbound connections from people downloading from you) and each of those has overheads and lost data that has to be retransmitted. This is Very Very heavy on your internet connection and you will probably download nothing during the day (other people locally using the internet), Night time is the best time for most people, but experiment see when you get your best speeds. If your planning any serious downloading like me in the image above this will really consume the vast majority of your internet connection so everyday web browsing will be much more sluggish. Another point is that one thing wireless connections are
not good at, even if you have a fast wifi connection is lots of simultaneous connections because the amount of overheads in wifi are huge, Wifi and mass torrent downloading do not go well together, if you plan to replicate the above screenshot, Use A Cable!. ;-)
There you are folks, everything you need to know about torrents and file sharing. Happy downloading and remember, Stay within the law! Don't download copywritten material!
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