What is BitTorrent?
BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, there is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers. The tracker only manages connections, it does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed, and therefore a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth. The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (transmit outbound) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound.) In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better as the number of people interested in a certain file increases, in contrast to other file transfer protocols.
Where can I download the BitTorrent program?
There are several choices here, because unlike some peer to peer applications (such as Kazaa), the BitTorrent implementation is open source. This means that programmers are free to take the source code to the program and modify it, if they feel there is something they'd like to change. Here are the various clients:
A very nice Java client that incorporates a full-featured GUI with extensive visualizations/statistics about the transfer. You will need JAVA installed to run this, which can be obtained from this link.
Utorrent. Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in µTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT.
The Shad0w's experimental client - This client incorporates the codebase of the official version as well as all the improvements of the experimental version, below. Additionally, there are some misc. bug fixes, improvements from the latest development CVS sources, a user preferences feature that remembers its settings, and more. I highly recommend this version!
I've installed BitTorrent, now what? There's no program to run!
BitTorrent is not like other peer-to-peer applications (such as Winmx, Kazaa, Gnutella, etc.) in that it does not have its own "universe." Put another way, BT lives on top of the Web, which means that all of the searching/listing of available files is done on the web. When you find a file you want to download, you click on it and the BitTorrent client program will run and ask you where to put it, and then start downloading. See the links section for some starting points on the web if you're new.
I just installed BitTorrent but whenever I click on a link I just get a small file and nothing happens?
Try closing and restarting your web browser. When BitTorrent installs, it registers a new MIME-Type (application/x-bittorrent) and this change will not take effect until the next time the web browser is opened.
What do all these words mean? (seeding, uploading, share rating, etc.)
Here is a brief list of words associated with BitTorrent and their meanings.
torrent: Usually this refers to the small metadata file you receive from the web server (the one that ends in .torrent.)
Metadata: here means that the file contains information about the data you want to download, not the data itself. This is what is sent to your computer when you click on a download link on a website. You can also save the torrent file to your local system, and then click on it to open the BitTorrent download. This is useful if you want to be able to re-open the torrent later on without having to find the link again. In some uses, it can also refer to everything associated with a certain file available with BitTorrent. For example, someone might say "I downloaded that torrent" or "that server has a lot of good torrents", meaning there are lots of good files available via BitTorrent on that server.
peer: A peer is another computer on the internet that you connect to and transfer data. Generally a peer does not have the complete file, otherwise it would be called a seed. Some people also refer to peers as leeches, to distinguish them from those generous folks who have completed their download and continue to leave the client running and act as a seed.
seed: A computer that has a complete copy of a certain torrent. Once your client finishes downloading, it will remain open until you click the Finish button (or otherwise close it.) This is known as being a seed or seeding. You can also start a BT client with a complete file, and once BT has checked the file it will connect and seed the file to others. Generally, it's considered good manners to continue seeding a file after you have finished downloading, to help out others. Also, when a new torrent is posted to a tracker, someone must seed it in order for it to be available to others. Remember, the tracker doesn't know anything of the actual contents of a file, so it's important to follow through and seed a file if you upload the torrent to a tracker.
tracker: A server on the Internet that acts to coordinate the action of BitTorrent clients. When you open a torrent, your machine contacts the tracker and asks for a list of peers to contact. Periodically throughout the transfer, your machine will check in with the tracker, telling it how much you've downloaded and uploaded, how much you have left before finishing, and the state you're in (starting, finished download, stopping.) If a tracker is down and you try to open a torrent, you will be unable to connect. If a tracker goes down during a torrent (i.e., you have already connected at some point and are already talking to peers), you will be able to continue transferring with those peers, but no new peers will be able to contact you. Often tracker errors are temporary, so the best thing to do is just wait and leave the client open to continue trying.
downloading: Receiving data FROM another computer.
uploading: Sending data TO another computer.
share rating (ratio): If you are using the experimental client with the stats-patch, you will see a share rating displayed on the GUI panel. This is simply the ratio of your amount uploaded divided by your amount downloaded. The amounts used are for the current session only, not over the history of the file. If you achieve a share ratio of 1.0, that would mean you've uploaded as much as you've downloaded. The higher the number, the more you have contributed. If you see a share ratio of "oo", this means infinity, which will happen if you open a BT client with a complete file (i.e., you seed the file.) In this case you download nothing since you have the full file, and so anything you send will cause the ratio to reach infinity. Note: The share rating is just a number that is displayed for your convenience. It does not directly affect any aspect of the client at all. In general, out of courtesy to others you should strive to keep this ratio as high as possible, of course.
Now how do I watch these movies???
Some movies are archived, so you have to unrar it, download winrar (www.rarlab.com) to unrar them!
To watch these movies on your computer you need a media player and codecs for it.
There are several movie players that you can download for free, but we prefer Videolan.
This one plays almost every media file, even .bin files! It's free and easy to use! So if you downloaded a movie which is in .bin format then you can easily watch it with Videolan, or burn it with a imageburner like Alcohol 120% to watch on your dvdplayer!
If you prefer an other media player here are some codecs:
Another good way is to buy/get a divx/dvd player. Just burn the downloaded file onto a cd/dvd as data, add subs if you like, shove it in the player and enjoy the movie!!!
