Teen Forums - Teen Chat, Teen Help, Teen Advice & Support

For those who do not know how to torrent, or even what a torrent is, this is a guide I'm putting together as I realise, torrenting can perplex a lot of people.


The software

You need what's called a Torrent Client in order to download a torrent, the best one in my opinion is uTorrent [utorrent.com], it's very fast and very easy to use, but there are others around if you wish to use a different one.

When you've got the software, install it!


Finding the torrent

Now, to find the torrent you're looking for, you need to go to a torrent site. The one I use is ThePirateBay.org as it's very reliabe and has almost every torrent you can imagine. It has a search bar, so simply search for what you need. When the search is completed, you should see a list of your results, they may have things like [DVDRIP] or [UNLEASED] or something like that in the name, which doesn't matter.

When you've found the torrent you want, make sure it has alot of seeders, the number of seeders are shown next to the name of the torrent under SE. To arrange the torrents so that the most seeders are at the top, simply click the SE.

You should now be in the torrent's description page, give it a quick skim read, and read the comments as the comments are a way of determining the reliability and safety of the torrent. When all that's done, click "Download this torrent"


Downloading the torrent

When you've clicked "Download this torrent" open up your downloads window in your browser and click "Open with.." and locate your torrent client. Now, the torrent will have loaded into the client, and should commence downloading in a few seconds. If it doesn't start downloading it could be your internet connection, or the trackers may be out of date completely.

If it starts downloading, but is very slow, some ways you can speed it up are

• Update the trackers. on uTorrent, this is done by right clicking the torrent and clicking "Update trackers"
  
• Bandwitdh Allocation. You can change the priority of your torrent by right clicking it and scrolling down to "Bandwidth Allocation" and selcting "High Priority". This will slow your internet browsing speed down, but increase the torrents download speed

Opening the torrent

It's very common for the files of the torrent to be inside of a RAR file or a ZIP file. If they aren't just look for a readme file and follow the instructions. If there isn't a readme file, check the description of the torrent on the website, or look for a NFO file to open with Notepad. If the files are inside a RAR file, you need a program like WinRAR or RARZilla to extract them, I'd recommend WinRAR. Once you've installed WinRAR, double click the torrent's RAR file and extract the files to somewhere like the desktop. Inside should be the files necessary!

Job... Done.

If your Internet Service Provider is www.plus.net [plus.net], don't bother trying to download torrents as you'll get insanely slow speeds.

For experience. xD

Very well covered, I can't think of any details you've missed.

i can't use bit-torrent. my dad set up the firewall so that it is blocked. my dad works as a software developer and is very sensitive about pirating software. if i were to download pirated software or DVD movies, he would disconnect my computer from the internet for 1 year.

screw torrents i would prefer to download a game of a safe site where the game is in about 10 rapidshare links a know its clumsy but when you get virus or the client slows down your pc or even got fined because most torrents are illegal but only like the copyrighted stuff like films music.ect personally i got to a turkish website for games and another for movies and as for mp3s theres a ton of free mp3 sites infact downloading torrents would be my last resort and kind of noobish

I can probably mention several things that he hasn't covered which is just as vital. Although I won't because it's a best guide and it's simplest.

You call torrent downloading n00bish? Can I slap you silly can call you a n00b myself? Torrenting is the easiest form of downloading, sure I download from filesharing sites as well, but only for console related purposes because it's easier. Everything else, I go to torrents for. It may not be the most effiecent way to download something, but it sure as hell is the easiest. I like how you mention viruses, and slowing down of the client PC.. YOU are clearly a victim of a bad torrent and now claim they're all the same. I will rest my case there.

In what way is this the ultimate torrent guide? It completely ignores how to speed torrent downloads up, how torrents work and what a torrent is. And doesn't explain that torrents are peer to peer files that come from an open swarm.

Not the ultimate torrent guide, this would barely function as an opening paragraph in such a guide.