! Copyright © 2018 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! The Torrent Guide for Everyone Written by Saikat Basu Published April 2018. Read the original article here: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-torrent-guide/ This ebook is the intellectual property of MakeUseOf. It must only be published in its original form. Using parts or republishing altered parts of this ebook is prohibited without permission from MakeUseOf.com. Copyright © 2018 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! Table of contents BitTorrent: Just a Simple Way to Share Files 4 Understanding Common BitTorrent Terms 5 BitTorrent Isn’t Illegal: Understanding Copyright Laws 6 Getting Started With Torrents 6 Finding the Right Torrent Software 6 Installing the Torrent Client 7 Optimizing Your Torrent Client for Speed 7 Downloading Your First Torrent 8 How to Search for Torrents to Download 9 How to Be a Good Member of the Torrent Community 10 Torrent Safety Rules: Be Careful What You Download 10 The Best Software for Torrenting 10 How to Speed Up Your Torrent Downloads 11 1. Check Your Bandwidth 11 2. Use the Right Torrent Client 12 3. Choose Healthy Torrents 13 4. Allow Torrents Through the Firewall 13 5. Change the Default Port 14 6. Don’t Cap Your Max Upload or Download Speeds 15 7. Set the Number of Connections 16 8. Prioritize Specific Torrents 17 9. Update Torrent Trackers 18 10. Use the Scheduler to Manage Your Torrent Downloads 19 11. Set a Good Share Ratio 19 12. Prevent ISPs From Throttling Your Traffic 20 13. Use a VPN to Stay Safe 21 How to Create and Share Your Own Torrents 22 Conclusion: The Wonders of Peer-to-Peer Sharing 24 Copyright © 2018 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! You aren’t necessarily a pirate if you use torrents. Using torrents is not illegal if you are not downloading or sharing pirated content that is copyrighted. In all the ruckus about the ban on torrent sites, we forget that there are many more legal uses for torrents than illegal ones. Still not convinced? • Go to BitTorrent Now to see how creatives used torrent files to distribute their work to you. • Amazon S3 supports the BitTorrent protocol so that developers can save costs when they want to transfer large amounts of data. • Sites like Academic Torrents and even the Internet Archive use the BitTorrent protocol to help you download educational and historical files. Like cars or your butter knife torrents are simple to use. It’s your responsibility how you use them. Although it’s fairly simple, many people experience difficulties at the start. Even those that would call themselves “advanced users” often don’t know even half of what’s possible. This guide aims to guide you through the first steps and also present some cool tricks so that more experienced users get their fair share of worth as well. BitTorrent: Just a Simple Way to Share Files Most of us are more familiar with more conventional forms of file sharing, such as email and FTP. BitTorrent is just another file sharing method we can use. BitTorrent introduces a major difference. Whereas email and FTP rely on one computer hosting the file and transmitting it to connected computers, BitTorrent files are spread out over many computers using a technology called peer-to-peer networking. We can use BitTorrent to share or download any type of files: EXE, MP3, AVI, JPG, DOCX, etc. Copyright © 2018 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! Let’s use the analogy of book sharing to illustrate how BitTorrent works. There is a book you want to read but you only have one chapter with you. You look around and find a friend who has a few more chapters. It still isn’t a complete book, so both of you search for few more guys around the block who might have the remaining pages. There are a bunch of guys and though nobody has the complete book yet, you can share the chapters among each other till all of you get a copy of the complete book one by one. On the internet, the “book” becomes the file you want to download. The file is broken up into little pieces or bits. Each of you has at least one piece so you start to download and share these “bits” until everyone has the entire file. Each piece that you (or someone else) downloads are available to all the others. At the same time, you are downloading some pieces while uploading others. Thus, you can all share rather than placing the onus on one computer to host the file and distribute it. Understanding Common BitTorrent Terms These key terms will further explain how each part of the protocol works. Torrent: At the beginning of all this is the torrent file itself. This is the file you search for when you want to download something. Usually, the torrent file name is descriptive enough. For instance, an Ubuntu release can have this file name: ubuntu-17.10-desktop- amd64.iso.torrent Remember, the .torrent file is not the entire file. It is extremely small and it just contains the information that points to the actual file and the people who are sharing it. It is like a map which is used by the BitTorrent client to assemble all the pieces together. BitTorrent client: A BitTorrent client is your downloader. It is the piece of software which takes the .torrent file, reads the information in it and starts the download. Torrent clients are available for all platforms including Android and iOS. On the iOS, you may have to jailbreak the phone. Peer: A peer is any computer participating in the download and upload of a torrent file. Seeder: A seed (or seeder) is anyone who has a complete copy of the file being shared across the torrent network. Leecher: A leech (or a leecher) is the person who does not have the complete file yet but has joined the network to download it. A leecher becomes a seeder when he downloads the entire file and then shares it across the network. Swarm: The swarm is the sum total of all the leechers and seeders (i.e. all the computers) participating in the torrent process. Index: An index is, as the name implies, a searchable list of .torrent files, hosted on a website. Share ratio: The ratio is the amount of data a user has uploaded divided by the amount of data they have downloaded for a particular torrent (UL÷DL). A share ratio greater than 1has a positive effect on the user’s reputation because it means that the user has sent more data to other users than he has received. Conversely, a share ratio under 1 has a negative effect. Copyright © 2018 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! Tracker: The tracker is a server which has the information of who has what files and who needs which ones, thus acting as a bridge between seeders and leechers. Some trackers are private requiring a registration where most are public. Before we get into the process and get our hands dirty, let’s pause and review the legality of torrents again. Even though the torrent protocol is technically legal, its abuse is at the core of the fight against digital piracy. Big Brother is watching your every move, so stay aware and stay clean. BitTorrent Isn’t Illegal: Understanding Copyright Laws “Season 7 of Game of Thrones exceeded 1 billion illegal downloads and streams across piracy channels by the 3rd September 2017.” — MUSO.com Peer-to-peer file sharing is completely legal, but using it to obtain copyrighted content is not. When you are dependent on downloads for your creative work or education, take the time to understand copyright laws. In some countries it’s okay to download (use) material for personal use, but distribution makes it a punishable offense. With torrents, the water gets a bit muddied because the protocol makes everyone both downloader and distributor. There have been numerous cases where torrent trackers which index the torrents available have been shut down for infringing some country’s laws. Organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have become proactive against many of them because it represents a source of piracy. Remember, downloaders can be pinpointed by their IP addresses, so the cloak of anonymity is not there to hide behind. The safest course of action is to follow the copyright laws as laid down. Browse to the copyright policy link of the respective tracker website; the better ones have it. Getting Started With Torrents A torrent client is a piece of software that is designed for peer to peer file sharing with the BitTorrent protocol. A good torrent client should be safe, reliable, and user-friendly. Here’s how easy it is to grab a solid torrent client, set it up, and download our first file. Finding the Right Torrent Sofware A simple Google Search will throw up some popular names. BitTorrent was the first torrent client and it is still going strong after 16 years of solid service. But you might want to look at the larger field and a few more options for your operating systems. Copyright © 2018 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! A good place to get acquainted with the whole shebang is Wikipedia’s Comparision of BitTorrent clients. Or you can check out our articles on the best torrent clients for Windows, best torrent clients for Mac, and best torrent clients for Linux. Chromebookusers can try tools like JSTorrent and Bitford. There are many free and lightweight software available. Some clients are ad-supported (including BitTorrent’s official client) and you have to pay to remove the ads.