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Bit torrent


soongmak

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I am just warming up to this phenomenon, as I was able to download one of Natt Chanapa's educational vids :up: last night. Bit torrent seems like the way to go to download the bigger files, like movies, software and albums.

 

I could use some help though to make the most of it, so here are some questions:

 

- I am using the official bit torrent client. Is there a better one out there? And if so, why do you prefer that one?

 

- Besides the client, are there other software applications out there to enhance your downloading capabilities?

 

- Do any of you have other tips and tricks to share?

 

- What are your favourite sites to find music, software or movie torrents?

 

Thanks for sharing!

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Hi,

 

"- I am using the official bit torrent client. Is there a better one out there? And if so, why do you prefer that one?"

 

I'm using Azureus now and am quite happy with it. User interface is much better than that for BitTorrent. Loads of stats and options (for instance it allows you to decide not to download certain files in a torrent)

 

"- Besides the client, are there other software applications out there to enhance your downloading capabilities?"

 

Not that I know.

 

"- Do any of you have other tips and tricks to share?"

 

If using a firewall, make sure to open TCP ports 6881-6889. Supposedly this improves the download speed (although I must admit that I didn't really notice any difference)

 

"- What are your favourite sites to find music, software or movie torrents?"

 

www.suprnova.org

(And *not* www.suprnova.com as shown in the Google banner, they require you to pay for the torrents you can find for free on the .org)

 

Sanuk!

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Thanks for the info.

 

A supposedly useful program is TorrentSpy , which shows you how many people are seeding (uploading the complete file) and leeching (downloading and uploading the part they have finished) so you can see if the torrent you want to download is being seeded so you can get the full file.

 

I haven't tried it myself though.

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All this is very new for me as well, and I might be wrong, so bear with me...

 

Content is mostly copyrighted, and we're not paying for sharing it, so I guess that makes it illegal. The problems you're facing are the same with other peer 2 peer systems, I guess.

 

I thought I heard Laohuli say that torrents can not contain viruses, but I wouldn't really know why. It is surely never wrong to err on the safe side and check your downloads with a virusscanner before opening them.

 

As for legal problems, that differs from country to country. in the USA illegally downloading copyrighted material is seen as a civil offence and representatives of the copyright owners can sue your ass and do so. in the Netherlands, they can't. They have to report abusive behaviour to the police, who are the only ones with a licence to track you down. That means I'm safe as long as the police don't come knockking on my door.

 

As for ISP's, everyone has their own download policy. I am safe as long as I don't download more than 80 GB a month, and that is more than I'll ever use. Some will limit your download speed once you have reached a 1 GB limit. It widely varies. You better check with your ISP yourselves.

 

Final words: Bit Torrent is easy as f**k! Just download a bit torrent client, browse a website with torrent links, click on a link, and you're doing it. Be sure to keep your torrent open once you are finished. If everybody is just leeching, none of us get what we want.

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It's very rare with viruses and fakeware when it comes to torrents. The only to notice is that it will take quite a while to download the files and you'll find you run your bittorrent client all the time.

 

As for ISP:s, there should not be a problem. There are still issues with legality of copyright etc, of course. It's probably not wise to seed material that are copyrighted.

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soongmak said:

As for legal problems, that differs from country to country. in the USA illegally downloading copyrighted material is seen as a civil offence and representatives of the copyright owners can sue your ass and do so. in the Netherlands, they can't. They have to report abusive behaviour to the police, who are the only ones with a licence to track you down. That means I'm safe as long as the police don't come knockking on my door.

 

Naturally you know better about the conditions in Netherlands but I still wouldn't bet my house on your legal advise ;) It's usually a two-way affair: It's both a criminal affair and a civil issue. (They're a little more ahead of us Euros in USA, where they've figured the civil way is actually more effective than handling it as a criminal matter.)

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