File sharing has revolutionized the way people share digital media over the internet. The most common form of file sharing is Bit Torrent. Bit Torrent technology allows you to download a single file form a large group of people, thereby making the download process for large files extremely fast. To download a file using Bit Torrent technology you must first download a .torrent file that will be used by a torrent software such as Utorrent to download a file. To retrieve these .torrent files from around the internet torrent search engines are used. Torrent files allow the torrent software to locate a particular file and the group of people that are currently sharing the file. These .torrent files vary in size anywhere from 15kb to 150kb file size. The following instructions will teach you how to download files using torrents.
How to Download Torrents
1. Download the the .torrent file of your choice to your drive.
2.Run the torrent client of your choice. Many people say the best torrent client is Utorrent.
3.Next you will want to open the torrent file with your active torrent client. Usually, this is as easy as a double-click on the .torrent file icon, and the client software auto-launches. In most cases, this software will even open the Torrent file for you.
4. Now the Torrent client software will communicate with a tracker server for about 2 to 10 minutes, while it searches the Internet for people to pool with.
5. While the tracker finds Torrent users to pool with, each user will automatically be labeled as either a “seed”or as a “peer/leech”. As one would assume, the more seeds your connected to, the faster your download is going to be. Usually, about 10 leeches/peers and 3 seeders is a good pool for downloading one song or movie.
6. The torrent client will then begin the file transfer.
Note: Cable/DSL modem users can expect an average download speed of at least 25 MB per hour, but may be slower if the pool is small with less than two seeders. On an optimal day with a large seed pool the speeds can be very fast though, and it is even possible to download a 5 MB song in less than three minutes, and a 900 MB movie within an hour.
7. Once the file has begun downloading you can leave the torrent client alone to run in the background and it will handle the rest for you. It is recommend that you leave the transfer “active” for two hours after your download is complete. This is done to “seed” the complete file with other users in the “peer/leech” pool. The best way to download torrents is to start your downloads right before you go to sleep, that way when you wake up the download will be done and you will have seeded for a few hours as well
8. In order to play some of the media files you’ll download with torrents, you may need a number of media plugins or a particular media player. Most people use VLC media player as it is freeware and it comes equipped with all of the necessary plugins.