I'm sure every now and then you heard the word "torrent" or "torrenting". Torrent is a file that stored data use for BitTorrent protocol. This protocol made file sharing possible among computers, and allows you to download and upload files quickly and efficiently. It is a peer-to-peer protocol, which means, you can download from a source the same file that other people are downloading. BitTorrent is the fast and cheapest way to get any big file over the net. To download bit torrent, all one need to have is a torrent client install to your computer. There are many free torrent client for download available in the net. They are μtorrent, bitcommet, Limewire to name a few.
The most commonly use is μtorrent. Now let's have μtorrent download and install to your PC. The best way to fine a freeware for download is at
FileHippo. All you need to do is just find μtorrent from the site, click on it download button to start the download. Once the download finished, you will be asked to save the μtorrent installer file by a popup wizard shown in figure 2. Just save it on your desktop where it is easy to find.
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| Fig1. Free μtorrent downloadable from HippoFile.com |
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| Fig2. Just save this .exe file on your desktop |
Now, all you need to do is to run the "μtorrent.exe" file you just saved on your desktop to start installing μtorrent to your computer. Upon clicking on the "μtorrent.exe" icon on your desktop, you'll get pop up box shown in Fig3 below. It is a security warning from window alerting you that you are about to install some application which you downloaded from unofficial source which might impose malicious threat on your PC. But, on our case, the file publisher is BitTorrent Inc, thus put your worry aside. It is save to run the program. Once you click the run button, you will be asked to comfirm where you want μtorrent to be saved on your PC, as shown in Fig4. Usually one just follow the defaulted path, and it is recommended to check all 3 of the check-boxes.
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| Fig3. Security warning box appear when you click μtorrent on icon |
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| Fig4. Confirming where you want the application to be saved |
It will take a few minutes for the installation to run, and once completed, you'll find μtorrent icon on your desktop. Open the μtorrent by clicking on the μtorrent icon on your desktop. Fig5 below shows how the μtorrent interface looks like. This interface does not shows anything yet. It is still empty because we have not started to download anything yet.
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| Fig5. μtorrent interface |
Now that we have a μtorrent installed and ready to be the window for our file sharing journey. Next task is to find torrent files of anything that you want to have. Says now, I would like watch XXX.
First, what we need to do is, open internet browser and go to any torrent index portal. They are a lot in the internet either free and with some fee for file download. There are
Isohunt,
Mininova,
BT Junkie,
TorrentPortal to name a few. You should download from some index portal that supplies legally copyrighted file with some fees. I usually use Isohunt, because so far, it never fail me in finding anything I want. In Fig7 below, I key-in "Thor" an the search field, and Isohunt give me a list of torrent tags that I can download this movie from. By the way, you might wonder whether it is legal to download a copyrighted movie file, right? Well, the answer no, it is not legal. I chose this file is just for the sake of example for this tutor only. Will immediately remove it afterwards.
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| Fig6. List of Thor torrent tag available |
Now, here is the important point. In the table in, uou can see S and L. S means Seeder, and L means Leecher. Seeder is a person who has the whole file, in our case "Thor" movie, downloaded and keeps it client open so that others can download it. Leecher is a user that is downloading the file. The many seeder it is, the faster you can download the file. But, you have to check comments from other who has downloaded the file before you for because, they usually will share with you their opinion on the file quality, whether it is good, watchable, fake or infected with virus. In this example, I choose the first one on the list, because most of the comments left are good reviews.
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| Fig7. Check the file format and comment from others about the file |
In fig7, notice the sentence "You need BitTorrent software for this cached to work" sentence when you hover your mouse over the "Download Torrent"? Well, we need not to worry about this, cause we already installed the software, the μtorrent.exe already waiting on your desktop. Below popup box will appear once you click on the download button. It ask you to confirm where you want your movie saved to. Here, I just follow the suggested path. But, I only select the movie file. The other 2 file are only info and a small portion of the movie for some who like to download this first to check on the file quality. After confirm path and file you want to download, then click OK button to start download the movie file.
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| Fig8. Confirm what files you which to download from this torrent and where to download to. |
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| Fig9. We monitor our downloading activity using μtorrent |
The download completed in less than 5 minutes. This speed depend s on the number of seeder sharing the files and your connection bandwidth. I am using unify in this example. Notice the movie file is in avi format. You need an avi file player installed in your PC to watch the movie. I use VLC media player to watch movie in my PC. This player can play almost any movie files. If you still don't have any player, you can install VLC player from
HippoFile.com too.
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| Fig10. Watching using VLC player on PC |
Torrenting is not all about downloading movies. You can download anything as long as there are people who share the files. You can download ebooks, songs, games, software, comics and many more. But, you have to pay extra careful when downloading any files from the internet. Always read the torrent comments first and run a virus scan on the downloaded file too.
Enjoy torrenting!
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