Usually in the real world, if everyone tries to grab the same thing, it leads to chaos. But in the world of torrents, this basic principle is followed. Let us explain it a little more clearly. When you click on a link to download something, the relationship between you (the downloader) and the source is almost one-on-one. Torrents, on the other hand, work with peer-to-peer sharing.
We talked about downloading torrents on a Mac. In this biggest installment, we’ll go into a bit more detail about what torrents are, how they work, and how to download them on Windows.
The simplest explanation of torrents
Each file in the process of downloading is shared across a large number of users. Each user in these downloaders network is downloading a file and also sharing it with others by uploading part of it. As part of this large, distributed peer-to-peer network, you don’t have to share entire files with others. As soon as you receive a part, you can start sharing it. This two-way upload-download system helps provide you with the complete file bit by bit.
The following Wikipedia illustration may help you see the bigger picture.
Basically, you need two things to download with torrents – Torrent client and torrent file.
You may have come across the word – BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a method (or protocol) download files using a torrent file sharing system. Software that uses the BitTorrent protocol is called a BitTorrent client. You can choose to install any of the following BitTorrent clients to start your download for the first time. Wikipedia has a comparison of torrent clients.
Recommended ones are – µTorrent, Vuze (formerly Azureus) or the default BitTorrent client. All three are free, lightweight and work on all operating systems.
But first you need to search for a torrent file to download.
The .torrent file is not the entire file. It’s a small file that contains data that points to the actual file and the people sharing it. It’s like a master map used by the BitTorrent client to bring together all the different parts of a file. To get the .torrent file for a specific download, you must take the help of specialized torrent hosting sites. Some of the popular ones are:
Torrentz – A good BitTorrent meta search engine.
The Pirate Bay – Very popular site almost synonymous with torrenting.
KickassTorrents – A very neat site with few ads.
IsoHunt – One of the oldest torrent sites out there.
How to download torrents on Windows
The screenshot below shows how you can use uTorrent to download files on Windows. (The complete guide to downloading torrent files on your Mac shows the Vuze software in action.)
1. Download the torrent file to your desktop (or open it with a torrent client like uTorrent).
2. You will get the following screen (or similar screen) when you open the torrent file with your client and the file starts downloading.
3. A few terms here are important because they explain what’s going on in the client’s interface when the download takes place:
Trackers: Trackers are servers that track seeds and leeches.
Seeds: Seeds are people who have downloaded the complete file and are still connected so others can download from them.
Leechers: Leeches are people who are still downloading files. They are often referred to as co-workers because they still log in and share their files even after their own download finishes.
The torrent client connects to the tracker, gets all the seed and downloader information, and starts the download process. Once the download is complete, it’s best to stay signed in for a while to share your complete file with others who are still in the process.
Torrent downloads have been thoroughly tested due to the rampant download of copyrighted files. But it’s a case of blaming the tool and the protocol for someone else’s fault. Torrents are still the most powerful peer-to-peer method for free file sharing.
So, if you haven’t gone down this route, try starting your first torrent download and let us know how it goes.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
