This will teach you how to use and download a torrent file.
Step 1
Find a torrent program that will suit your needs, the most common clients are uTorrent, Azureus, BitTorrent, or Opera. There are plenty of other clients available as well.
Step 2
Follow the instructions on downloading and installing your chosen client.
Step 3
Go to a torrent site and search for a file you want to download (Search & Download or Torrent Scan are two popular sites).
Step 4
Once you have found the desired file on the torrent site, click the "Download This Torrent" (or however they word it). Usually, the web browser's file download manager will ask what to do with this file. You want to open the file with your torrent program.
Step 5
If it doesn't open that way, just save the .torrent file to an easy to locate place. Then open your torrent client and use the "Open Torrent" feature.
Step 6
The download will start automatically. You may now go and do something to pass the time, because torrents do not require your attention and will download in the background.
Tips
- You can close your torrent program and turn off your computer when you need to. Most torrent programs will resume download process automatically when you start them back up. If the download doesn't resume automatically, there should be an option to start downloading, by either right clicking on the file and choose "Start" or a button somewhere in the program.
- There are other torrent clients (programs) that can be used so do your research on these also. The most popular torrent programs are uTorrent, Azureus and BitTorrent.
- There are Torrent search engines that search the popular torrent clients (programs). This saves you time by not having to search each individual torrent client site. The most popular torrent search engines are TorrentReactor.net, Nowtorrents.com and Qtorrents.com .
- When looking for torrent files, try to find ones with plenty of Seeders. When searching for torrents, you can often sort the results by seeds, simply by clicking on the seeds column header.
- Seeders (Seeds): Are people who have a complete copy of the torrent's files and are only uploading (sending) data to the people who are downloading (peers).
- Leechers (Peers): Are people who have a portion of the torrent's files while they are downloading they are actively uploading to help others download more quickly.
Warnings
- Downloading torrents can slow your computer down depending on how well your computer performs. Recommended specs for each client vary, but on average you should have at least 512 MB of RAM and a 3 GHz CPU. You will also need space for the files you want to save.
- In certain jurisdictions it is illegal to download content through peer to peer networks such as bittorrent. There is a program which blocks certain IP addresses from communicating with your computer and can help protect you while downloading. PeerGuardian can be found at: phoenixlabs.org/pg2or [1]
- Keep your anti-virus program and its definitions fully up-to-date, downloaded software from 'sharing' sources carries a high risk of infection.
- Downloading torrents can slow your overall internet connection down if you don't properly tweak your upload rate. DSL and Cable modems have problems downloading if you're uploading at your maximum rate. Set your clients maximum rate to 80% of your maximum upload rate if you can adjust it. If you set your upload rate too low, your downloads will slow to a crawl.
- It's important to know about bittorrents so that you know the risks, consequences, and best practices.
