Torrent is a small file (around few kilobytes) with the suffix .torrent, which contains all the information needed to download a file the torrent was made for.That means it contains file names, their sizes, where to download from and so on. You can get torrents for almost anything on lots of web sites and torrent search engines.
Torrent is the most popular way of downloading large files, including movies and games (remember legality of downloading).
Downloading with a torrent is advantageous especially when downloading files, which are momentarily very popular and whitch lots of people are downloading. Because the more people download the file, the higher speed for everyone
Downloading with a torrent is actually very simple. You just need a rightly set torrent client (setting your connection speed is usually all you need to set). Then you open the torrent file inside your client, set a place where you want to download desired files and then just wait till it's downloaded. Downloading with a torrent is no more complicated than using any other p2p application, but even simpler.
Newest client versions:
uTorrent - 1.7.7(220 KB)
Azureus - 3.0.5.0(7,5 MB)
If you want to know more about torrents, continue to torrent principles or if you know enough, go pick a client to download.
Tips to Speed Up your Torrents:
1. Cap your upload (most important)
Limit your upload speed to approximately 80 percent of your maximum upload rate. You can check your upload speed over here (never trust your isp). Once you know your maximum upload speed, change the max upload (to 80%) speed in your torrent clients preferences.
Dont get me wrong, everyone should share as much as possible, but if your upload rate reached its max, your download rate suffers significantly.
2. Hack the max TCP connections
If youre on XP sp2, your TCP connections are limited to a maximum of 10. This seriously hurts your downloading speed because it wont let you connect to a high amount of ip numbers. It is supposed to slow down viruses because their spreading strategy is to connect to a high amount of ip numbers, but it also cripples your torrent downloads.
A nice way to fix this is to download this patch, it allows you to set the maximum allowed connections to any number you want. Any number between 50 and 100 is ok .
3. Check seeds and peers
A simple tip, but o so important. Always look for torrents with the best seed/peer ratio. The more seeds (compared to peers) the better (in general). So 50 seeds and 50 peers is better than 500 seeds and 1000 peers. So, be selective.
4. Change the default port.
By default, BitTorrent uses a port 6881-6999. BitTorrent accounts for a lot of the total internet traffic (1/3), so isps like to limit the connection offered on the these ports. So, you should change these to another range. Good clients allow you to do this, just choose anything you like. If youre behind a router, make sure you have the ports forwarded or PnP enabled.
5. Disable Windows Firewall
It sucks. Windows Firewall hates P2P and often leads a life of its own. So disable it and get yourself a decent firewall, Kerio or Zone Alarm for example.
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