If you have download large files, or pirated content before chances are you have ran into a torrent file.  Basically a torrent is a file which will tell a torrent client where the file actually is.  I personally recommend using Vuze (formerly Azureus) as it will work on any operating system, which lets me answer any question.  Also it has many many features, if you want a torrent client to do something it can do it!

There are many torrent sites, the most popular being ThePirateBay.org.  There are a few items you should know before you begin your quest to download torrents.

• Seeders: Normally has a arrow pointing up as an icon.  This is the most important thing about a torrent, this is the number of people sharing the full file.  If no one is sharing it, your download won’t go fast: trust me.
• Leechers: Normally has an arrow pointing down as an icon.  This is the number of people downloading the file at this time, to ensure good download speeds you want to make sure this number isn’t incredibly higher then the seeders(like 10x).  Unless you are on a private tracker there is a good chance you will not get a good speed.
• Peer: Person you are connected to, it can be either a leecher or seeder!
• Tracker: The server that keep track of who has what.  None of the actual files are stored here, it simply tells your client where to go to get a file.
• Seeding: After downloading you will share the file with everyone.  You may stop seeding at any time, however it is common courtesy to seed atleast half of what you downloaded.  If you are on a private tracker you will be banned for not seeding.

If at any point you run into a snag you can ask us here, we generally have a very fast response time.

1. Download & Install Vuze.
2. Open Vuze
3. If you have a firewall it will probably ask if you want to add an exception… Allow it
4. Once Vuze is opened we should ensure we are not using ports 6881-6999 , those are the default torrent ports ans ISP’s have a tendency to slow down traffic there.
   

   1. Open Vuze Prefernces. On Mac click on “Vuze” in the title bar and “Windows/Linux” click on File, then Preferences.
   2. You should already be on the connection section, if not click connections on the left.
   3. Change the “Incoming TCP Listen Port”, I changed mine to 1100

5. Once we verified we are on a different port, ensure Vuze is able to listen.  (your local ip may change from time to time; if you notice torrents going slow in the future, run this test again)
   

   1. Go to Help > NAT / Firewall Test
   2. Click Test, if it says OK you are good to go. If you have issues scroll down to Network Issues.

6. Download and open a torrent file, Vuze should open and begin downloading it.

Network Issues

The problem most people have with torrents is they claim they go “slow”; which can be the case sometimes, however most of the time it is going slow due to the network not being configured properly.  You will need to log into your router and set up port forwarding to get optimal speeds, there is a guide here.  If you have problems you can always ask a question here, I do my best to answer all questions within a day.  You will still be able to download without the port forwarding set up, however it will be slower.

Related Posts

• BitTorrent, the future of downloading
• Automatically Download TV Shows with Vuze

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 6:05 PM and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.