A Concise Guide To Using BitTorrent
What is BitTorrent?
BitTorrent is a file sharing protocol that allows files to be broken up into much smaller pieces. When you begin downloading a file using the BitTorrent protocol you are considered a ‘peer’. A peer is a client that only has a portion of the file available for upload since they haven’t completed the download yet. A seeder is a client who has the entire contents of a file available for upload. A torrent file holds all the information necessary for your BitTorrent client software to to find the different parts of the file or files being distributed. A swarm is the group of seeders and peers sharing the same torrent file.
History Of BitTorrent
The BitTorrent protocol was designed by Bram Cohen in 2001. In 2004 Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin formed BitTorrent, Inc. This company is responsible for maintaining the BitTorrent protocol and development of the original and popular BitTorrent client. In 2004 Ludvig Strigeus developed a client called uTorrent which is the most popular BitTorrent client used today. uTorrent has won praise from the BitTorrent community primarily because of it’s small footprint and speed. In 2006 BitTorrent purchased uTorrent from Ludvig and in 2007 version 6.0 of BitTorrent’s own client was released as a re-branded version of uTorrent. It’s not rocket science – uTorrent is the client of choice for the majority of Torrent users.
Install And Configure uTorrent
Visit utorrent.com to download and install the latest version. Open up uTorrent and goto: Options > Preferences > Connection. Make sure you have the three check boxes shown here checked off and write down the port number used for incoming connections.
For faster transfer speeds you will need to configure port forwarding on your router. In this example I am using a Linksys WRT54G2 since it is one of the most common routers. Log into your router and goto the Applications & Gaming tab >Port Range Forward.
Under application you can enter ‘uTorrent’ or anything descriptive or meaningful to you since this is just for reference. Now enter the port number you wrote down in the previous step into the start and end fields. Enter your computers IP address in the IP field and check off enable. IMPORTANT: For security reasons be sure to log into your router and uncheck the enable option when you are not using uTorrent (or any application that has port forwarding enabled)
When you have completed this step be sure to click save settings and logout of your router.
Downloading Torrents
This is where some people become confused about using BitTorrent. Since a Torrent file only contains data necessary for the BitTorrent client to find the file or files being downloaded you need to download the torrent file first – then open the file using uTorrent or any other BitTorrent client. I’ve compiled a short list of some popular torrent sources.
Verified torrents are torrents who’s origin has been verified. These torrents are considered to be much safer (virus and malware free) than downloading torrents from unverified sources. These sources offer verified torrents.
You can even find torrents using Google by adding ‘filetype:torrent’ after your search phrase or by using Google custom search!
After downloading the torrent that you want just double click the torrent file and uTorrent should open up, load the torrent, and begin downloading automatically.
Keep It Safe
Before using any type of file sharing network you should always be sure to have up to date antivirus software. Also, make sure your firewall is enabled and configured correctly. Avast! has an awesome antivirus software available for download – and it’s FREE for personal use.
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you understand BitTorrent. It was written to be as concise as possible – explaining the how’s without the why’s so that you can be up and running as quickly as possible. If you found this article helpful please share it!
