 BitTorrent 101: Part 1 (The Basics), Lrn2Torrent. Noob. |
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 Aug 26 2008, 10:12 AM
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#1
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 Group: Divine Goddess Posts: -8,388,517 Joined: 16-April 08 Member No.: 2,360  |
Overview
One of the most popular downloading methods these days is the now-infamous BitTorrent. While most people have had some experience using BitTorrent, the steep learning curve and technical words related to using BitTorrent, or "torrenting" as we'll call it, makes it hard to set up and learn to use, especially for people newer to computers and the internet. So, I'm going to break down torrenting for y'all in a tutorial in two or three parts using words that even George Bush can understand (though probably not recite in public). This is Part 1, The Basics, and will include a very brief description of what BitTorrent is and a quickstart guide on starting your very first torrent download. Link to Part 2: Tweaking Your Client & The World of Torrenting Link to Part 3: Speeding Up Your Downloading, Client Plugins & Port Forwarding (not created) Please feel free to post any questions or other stuff in the topic if you want. I will do my best to answer them as I can =). Disclaimer I've set this crash-course tutorial up for educational purposes only. I neither condone the distribution of copyright materials or pirated media. Please be responsible how you apply what you learn here. A lot of (almost all) torrents out there are illegal and can land you in some pretty hot water if you aren't careful. Also, there will be a bit of swearing, probably, so if you are sensitive to grown-up language, I recommend you don't read further. Otherwise, just suck it up and get with becoming an adult. If you are a mod, feel free to edit my posts and censor bad words; I'm sure as hell not going to bother, but if you feel like killing the entire topic, that's your prerogative too and I will likely complain to you bitterly for a week or so and then stop caring. |
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Aug 26 2008, 10:42 AM
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#2
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Group: Divine Goddess Posts: -8,388,517 Joined: 16-April 08 Member No.: 2,360 |
What the fuck is BitTorrent?
Good question. It's always best to start with "what is it?", so let me give you a very simple rundown on BitTorrent technology. In a nutshell, BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing method for large files over the internet. People download bits of the shared files at a time and, as more and more people gather those bits, the more people are able to share those parts they already have in exchange for the parts they don't. Of course, they don't have to just share one file; BitTorrent is used to share many many files at once if the original uploader wants. That's it. Of course, the technical explanation is much more complicated than that, but let's face it: for all intents and purposes, you don't give a shit and neither do I. How a file is shared as a torrent is like this: 1. The original uploader (known as the original seed or seeder) shares a file by creating a torrent file for it. This torrent file catalogs all the files in that torrent batch. THIS FILE is the tiny thing you will download first when you search for a torrent and is responsible for identifying the bits and pieces of data that you will be requesting and sharing later.  2. A few people begin to download little bits and pieces from the original seeder. These guys are known as peers. At first, because of the seeder's upload limits, only a few people can connect to this single source of the torrent and download parts of the torrent they want. But the clever part is; you SHARE what you have already got. So the more you have and the more people that have it, the more people that new peers can download off. A network of a bunch of peers and seeds is known as a swarm.  3. Eventually, the entire torrent is uploaded by the source to one or two peers. These people now have complete versions of the torrent and become seeds. Peers can now use these guys as sources too. More and more seeds will eventually come about as the file is distributed more and more. The best part is, you can download parts you don't have from peers too! As long as there is a complete version of the original torrent batch on the internet when EVERY SEED AND PEER is considered, you will eventually get the entire torrent downloaded to your computer.  That's pretty much all there is to how it works from the average user's point of view. Great. So what do I need to start? Basically, you need THREE KEY THINGS to start pira-...I mean, downloading shit. They're so important I made them bold AND red. The BitTorrent Client This is a program you download. It's job is to read in *.torrent files you download from searching and go look for and download the parts listed in that file. It will download and put all the bits together on the fly. The Torrent Tracker This isn't something you can download and use. It is a service on the internet that "tracks" and registers all torrent files. All torrents must have a tracker in order for peers and seeds to connect and start sharing bits and pieces. Don't worry about this so much, just know that it's there and it's in charge of keeping an eye on distributing and listing torrents. Some torrent trackers are also torrent search sites. I will talk about this more later. The Torrent File This usually-tiny file is what you download and shove into your BT client for it to start downloading. This file pretty much contains a listing of all the parts of the file or files that make up the torrent and allows your client to identify these files in the swarm. When all these listed bits are downloaded, the torrent is complete. You can find torrent files in tracker search engines. My First BitTorrent Client Okay, so now you need to choose a torrenting client. There are *loads* out there and almost all are free. I won't lie to you; a lot of people are going to say one is better than the other. For very hardcore users, this might be true, but for me and you, they're essentially ALL THE SAME. And I'm pretty hardcore, trust me. We aren't looking to create a server farm on some private tracker network blahblahblah..., so just pick one that you like the sound of (or one you tried and liked better than the others) and stick to it. It's all good. Here's a few of the most popular ones: Azureus/Vuze http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ Java-based, works on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, George W. Bush) Notes: I've used this one the most out of all the others and am fairly confident with it. Most of my instructions later on about tweaking your client will be based around settings found in Azureus/Vuze. Just my preference, but it is no better or worse than any other client (you essentially use what you need and forget the other features or plugins). µTorrent http://www.utorrent.com/ Very "lightweight" client. Made for PC platform (Windows). Notes: I have only used this for about a month and it was an older version, 1.5 I think. It's currently at 1.8 as of this posting, so I don't know as much about it as Az. BitComet http://www.bitcomet.com/ Another Windows-based torrenting client. Notes: I've only used this twice in my life and not nearly long enough to say if I liked or hated it. I know of a lot of people who use this though and really think it's user-friendly and customisable for their torrenting needs. So, just go visit one of these (or Google for another client, whatever you want) and download the latest version for your computer. Then, as with all downloaded programs, you install it. Track. Search. Grab. A tracker, for all you care, is a bit of voodoo magic on the internet that "takes care of torrent files and connections". We're only really interested in the part where it lets you search for torrent files to download. All search engines tend to keep tabs on the torrents out there so when you search, the results from one site may be similar to the results on another. Having two or three search engines you use should be enough to get you what you want. Here are a few of my favourite trackers/search engines: isoHunt http://www.isohunt.com/ Very popular search engine, keeps tabs on all the major trackers out there. Usually my first choice when looking for any torrent. The Pirate Bay http://thepiratebay.org Apparently they are the number one biggest and most popular tracker and search engine out there. I don't know for certain, but they *are* very good and have a lot of resources. Mininova http://www.mininova.org Another popular search engine. Torrentz http://www.torrentz.com Metasearch engine; will search *other* search engines and trackers. Usually a last resort for me since I can normally find what I want using the three above. There are, of course, plenty of other ones out there which are just as good. Just Google for "torrent trackers" or "torrent search engines" and you'll be swamped in hits. Anyway, to grab a torrent, run a search for something that you want, perhaps an anime or television episode, movie, music album, or-...I mean...search for a completely legitimate and legal software driver or something >_>... The small file you download will be what your torrent client needs to start making connections with swarms out there and grabbing your files. Something dot torrent (*.torrent) Torrent files themselves usually have the file extension ".torrent". Your client might associate that file type with itself, so you could just download and doubleclick it to start your BT client. You can always also just use the "Add Torrent" function inside your BT client program too. Your choice. There are a few rules of thumb to look out for when you download a torrent file. The More Seeds The Better The more seeds a torrent has, the more COMPLETE versions there are out there in the swarm. This means faster downloading, quicker connections and you are sure to end up with the whole thing uncorrupted. Go for the torrent listing that has the most seeds, then the most peers. Most search engines let you sort your results by seeds, peers, date, download size, etc. The older the torrent, generally, the lesser the seeds. e.g. Torrent File: [SS-Eclipse] Zero no Tsukaima - Princess no Rondo - 06 (XviD) [A23993DD].avi.torrent Potato Potahto Television and anime episode releases come in several flavours; different media formats, file sizes, qualities, resolutions, languages, etc. Most out there are in English, but make sure you grab the one you want. The torrent name will usually spell out the exact thing you are looking at, so make sure to doublecheck. e.g. Torrent File: [SS-Eclipse] Zero no Tsukaima - Princess no Rondo - 06 (XviD) [A23993DD].avi.torrent * Note: Video codecs and that sort of thing are beyond the scope of torrenting tutorials and will be covered some other time if I can be assed. And yes, I know SS-Eclipse is two groups, Static Subs and Eclipse Subs and they regularly do joint projects. Ha. People's Opinions Matter Try to read people's comments about the torrent. These will often tell you if the torrent is a fake, if the quality is any good, if there are any passwords or serial keys that you need to be aware of. Almost all search engines will have a comments section (sometimes with a rating mechanism) so be sure to check those out if you aren't certain about the torrent. e.g. Taisuke posts: Fake. Actually episode 5 *some disparaging remarks about the uploader's mother and/or sister* Once you have downloaded the torrent file, all you need to do is open it with your BT client to start it running. It's usually slow going at first, but things speed up when you have got more parts of the torrent. This is because the more you have, the more parts people want from you, and the more they will trade *their* parts for. This puts what you have in higher demand, so it speeds up the exchanges. The speed you get depends on how many seeds and peers the torrent has in the current swarm, your internet service, your BT client settings (talk about this in later parts), and other niggly little things. Part 1 Summary Okay! So that should give you a basic idea of what torrenting is and what you need to get started. Here's a quick summary of what you should know by now:
That's all for Part 1. In Part 2, we'll take a closer look at the BitTorrent client itself and the general torrenting scene out there these days. Feel free to leave any comments or questions below, I will do my best to answer them. PS: Yes, I did create those images specifically for this. I am that bored at night sometimes. |
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Aug 27 2008, 02:14 AM
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#3
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 Nyappy~! Group: Divine Goddess Posts: 4,879 Joined: 21-July 07 From: And you'd like to know, why? Member No.: 1 |
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