You can find anything on the Internet - movies, TV, music, programs, books, photos and more. If you want them, just get them! There are many ways to download all of these things for free, and Torrent streams are undoubtedly one of the most popular alternatives for doing so. This article will show you how to find and download interesting and fun torrents!
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Download a Torrent File
Step 1. Choose a torrent tracker that suits your needs
There are several and some are more reliable than others. There are two main types of torrent trackers: public ones and private ones.
- The public ones are open to anyone. These are the sites you find when you search for torrents. Due to their public nature, many torrents are tracked by rights holders, and by downloading them, you may face legal action from your Internet Service Provider.
- Private ones need an invitation. They are not accessible until you are invited by another member. They often require you to share as much data as you download. It is much more difficult for copyright holders to legally intervene here.
Step 2. Search for the file you need
Most torrent servers contain shows, movies, albums and games available on the market, but also older popular files.
Use the most popular tricks to find your file. For example, if you are looking for the second episode of the third series of a show, search for: s03e02
Step 3. Download a very popular and popular torrent
The speed at which you can download a torrent file is determined by the number of seeders available. A seeder is a torrent user who owns the entire file and makes it available for download.
- Most torrent sites allow you to sort search results by number of seeders. Look for those files that have a high number of seeders. Not only will you download them faster, but it will also be less likely that the file is corrupted or infected with a virus.
- The number of leechers will also affect your download speed. A leecher is a user who is downloading, but who has not yet completed the operation. It will only become a seeder when the entire file has been downloaded. Obviously, if there are more leechers than seeders, the amount of bandwidth you will receive will be lower and the download will be slower.
Step 4. Choose a torrent with a good size-quality ratio
It is especially crucial for video files. Since compression can interfere with quality, a smaller thick file will have significantly lower audio and video quality than the same larger file.
- On the other hand, downloading a larger file can take much longer, relative to your connection.
- Read as many comments as you can to determine if other users think the quality of the file is good and if it's worth spending time on it. Some sites have a rating system that allows users to rate the quality of the file.
Step 5. Download a magnet link, if available
These files are very different from the standard torrent file. They are matched to content based on a unique identifier that can be accessed without the use of a tracker. A magnet link is a simple line of text and you don't need to download a torrent file.
Step 6. Make sure you can read the content
Torrents can be used to transfer files of any type. Because of this, the file you download may be of an unknown type. Read the description of the file and make sure you have the necessary programs to read or view it before you even download it.
- VLC Media Player is a free and open source player that can theoretically view any type of downloaded media file.
- ISO files are disc images and must be burned or mounted to a virtual drive in order to be opened and used.
Step 7. Watch out for viruses
Since torrents are often outside legal safeguards and control, there is no way to control the type of files available. It means that hackers can enter neither torrent nor viruses that they hope to spread among other users. They often cover the most popular searches in order to interest as many victims as possible.
- Check each downloaded file with an antivirus.
- Try downloading the released files from safe sources within the community.
- Always check the comments and ratings to see if anyone else has had virus experience with that particular torrent.
Method 2 of 3: Get the Content
Step 1. Choose a torrent client that suits your needs
The BitTorrent protocol allows you to exchange or disseminate data over the Internet. The exchange does not take place around a central server - the data is downloaded and transmitted via a link with other users. What you need is a client program that connects you to hosts (guest nodes) and manages the download. There are many client programs available, some of the most popular are:
- µTorrent
- Vuze
Step 2. Open the torrent file you downloaded from the tracker site:
it is usually very small, usually a few KB. This file does not contain what you need to download, but serves as a guide for picking pieces of the file from other clients. Use BitTorrent installed in the previous step to open the file.
Your torrent client should already be configured to automatically open torrent files. If yours is not, you can drag the torrent into the clan window you have nothing to join it in the download queue
Step 3. Set the download path
Depending on the configuration of the torrent client, you may be asked where to download the content when you open the torrent file. Select a folder that you will be able to remember.
Step 4. Check the download
You can check how your download is progressing in the torrent client. Most clients will also let you see how many seeders are connected. Torrent clients will automatically try to download at the fastest speed allowed by your connection.
- Downloading multiple files at a time will slow down the overall speed of individual files.
- If you do not want to use all your bandwidth for a single download, right-click on it within the client and select "Band Allocation" (the precise wording depends on the individual client). From here you can limit the download and upload speed. This is useful if you want to watch a movie while downloading the file.
Step 5. Add multiple trackers to the torrent
If you are having trouble connecting to enough seeders to download the file, you can try adding more trackers to the torrent. Don't do this if you are using a private tracker, as you may get banned.
- Find a list of active trackers online. You can find these lists on different websites - copy them to your clipboard.
- Right-click on the torrent in the client. Select Properties from the menu.
- Select the General window. You should see a list of trackers in a box (there may even be just one). Paste the list you just copied here. You must insert a blank line after each tracker you have entered. Press OK and the torrent will try to connect to the new trackers automatically.
Step 6. Access the content you downloaded
Once the download is complete, you will be able to use the downloaded files as normal. If you move or delete them, you will lose the opportunity to seeder.
You will not be able to use the file until it is completely downloaded. For example, you won't be able to start watching a video before it's completed. This is because the file is downloaded in separate parts which are out of order
Method 3 of 3: Seeder with the Torrent File
Step 1. Once you have downloaded the contents of the torrent file, you become a seeder
It means that you are uploading data to other clients connected to the tracker.
The seeding activity is what helps the torrent community to stay active. Without seeders, no one can download the files
Step 2. Maintain a good relationship
If you are using a private community, you will need to maintain a positive relationship with it. It means that you will have to allow the upload of at least an amount of data equal to the amount you download.
Step 3. Leave your torrent client running in the background
Most internet service plans offer slower upload speeds than download speeds. It means it takes longer to upload a certain amount of data than to download it. If you always leave the torrent program running in the background during your daily activities, your upload totals will skyrocket.
Leaving the torrent client open in the background shouldn't affect browser or word processor activity in the least. If, on the other hand, you need to play or watch a streaming video, you'd better close the torrent application first
Advice
- A practical tip is to try to download torrents that have a large user base. This means downloading only those torrents that many other people have already downloaded and uploaded, or that have been active for a long time. The logic behind this is that, for example, no one will seed a torrent that contains a virus, a corrupt file or that is not really the file you are looking for, in this way the torrent will not be very popular and therefore will not be put back again. in upload. Be wary of torrents that are only one or two weeks old and just a couple of users to seed.
- There are other torrent clients (programs) available as well, besides the ones listed here, so do a little research to find the best one for you. The most popular are uTorrent, Azureus and BitTorrent. The uTorrent client is particularly convenient if you are connecting from home, as it contains an automatic port forwarding function.
- There are torrent search engines that also look for the most popular client programs. This can save you some time if you don't feel like searching every single client's website.
- When you are looking for a torrent file, look for one that has many seeders, so that the file downloads quickly. When performing searches, very often you can sort the results by the number of seeds by simply clicking on the button at the top of the seed column.
- You can set your web browser to download.torrent files to a specific folder and then, using the options of your torrent client, enable automatic upload of torrents contained in that folder in the download list. This way, torrents are loaded automatically with minimal effort.
- You can leave the torrent client on overnight so that it continues to download while you are not at your computer, or you can close it and shut down your computer to save power. Most torrent programs have an option in Settings to make the client start when the computer is turned on; this option can be enabled or disabled using the "Run…" command from the Start menu and typing msconfig.
- Most torrent programs resume downloading files automatically when you restart them after closing them. If the download does not resume automatically, there should be an option to start the download, either by right-clicking on the file and selecting Start or with a button somewhere else in the program.
Warnings
- Using torrents to download copyrighted material is illegal in many countries.
- Downloading via torrent can slow down your computer slightly. The requirements and recommended specifications for each client may vary, but in general you should have at least 512MB of RAM and 1GHz of CPU. You will also need memory space to save the files you want to download.
- Keep your antivirus and antimalware programs up to date. Software downloaded from unknown sources over the Internet can contain some rather infamous viruses. There are free antivirus programs, along with top-notch applications such as Microsoft Security Essentials, AVG, Avast, or Avira. If a virus enters your computer, use an antivirus or antimalware to remove it.
- The use of torrents is a bandwidth-intensive activity that is frowned upon by some ISPs (Internet Service Providers), who may try to limit your traffic by slowing down your downloads or blocking them completely.. This problem can be solved with traffic encryption, but it doesn't necessarily work in your specific situation.
- Even simply exchanging material over peer to peer networks and connections such as BitTorrent is illegal in some jurisdictions.
- Like many bandwidth-intensive applications, make sure you know the monthly data transfer fee allowed by your ISP. Remember that downloaded torrents are then copied by others when the program is running and that you may unintentionally exceed the allowed quota.
