Bit Torrent for Dummies (like me)

[Wyers]

Still a Kazaa Lite kinda guy but would like to join the Torrent revolution. Being a novice regarding this sort of thing, can someone offer me some info or point towards a site (not too techie) so I can get this thing started.

Thanks

Sorry... been searching the net a little and wanted to expand on my initial post. Which Torrent software is the best to use? I was looking at BitTorrent ver 3.4.2 but figured I'd ask here so I could get the best software on the first crack. Once I download a file is it ready to go or are any modifications required.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum but I noticed several mentions of BT in regards to downloading WPT broadcasts so I figured I'd ask you folks.

Thanks again.

[cwsiggy]

http://bittorrent.com/index.html

[Wyers]

Thanks.

But if you read my post you would be see that I've already discovered that site. My question was whether this was the best software to use or is there better Torrent software available?

1) What's the best software available? What are most people using?

2) Is it as simple as downloading and clicking the file or do I have to make any modifications?

Actually, you're response offered me the only piece of information that I already knew.


[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[crosse91]

i use bitcomet to download torrents and like
the biggest hoop to jump through is the file conversions or finding a player that will support all the audio file types there are out there

[Shibby]

The best client I've found to date is ABC's client.

http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/

[Wyers]

[ QUOTE ]
the biggest hoop to jump through is the file conversions or finding a player that will support all the audio file types there are out there

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the reply. Would you (or anyone else) be able to expand on this? Once the download is complete do I need to seek out additional codecs and such in order to decode the video and audio. If so, how would I go about this? I've done a quick google search on Torrents, unfortunately the sites I've surfed all assume at least a basic amount of knowledge about the technology - which I obviously do not (yet) possess. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[TreyOfLight]

[ QUOTE ]
Would you (or anyone else) be able to expand on this? Once the download is complete do I need to seek out additional codecs and such in order to decode the video and audio.

[/ QUOTE ]

The files you get are no different than what you'd kind on Kazaa. They're mp3's, mpg's, and so on. If downloading movies, you'll need some video codecs beyond what came with your system, but if you've been doing that on Kazaa then you already know that. If not, seek out the "K-lite Codec pack" from http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm and install it.

[ QUOTE ]
unfortunately the sites I've surfed all assume at least a basic amount of knowledge about the technology - which I obviously do not (yet) possess.

[/ QUOTE ]

The technology is not rellly complicated, just different. When you run Kazaa, you connect to a swarm of users all sharing different files. You search those files and click on one, Kazaa figures out which users have which parts of that file and gets it for you.

Now, imagine that there were a million different Kazaa networks, each with just a few users and a set group of files that were shared. Each network would have a downloadable "key", and your Kazaa client would manage your connections to each of those swarms whose key you had downloaded. Also, there would be no search function and Kazaa would just assume you want every available file on every swarm you connected to. In a nutshell, that's bittorrent: you download a .torrent file from a website, which defines what files are shared in that swarm. You bittorrent client connects to the swarm and gets all of those files for you. The advantages over Kazaa are threefold:

Quality. If someone takes the trouble to create a .torrent and seed it, and others take the trouble to continue seeding after they've downloaded, chances are it's not some corrupt RIAA counterfeit. Contrast with Kazaa, where you'll find a hundred versions of the same thing and it's up to you to decide which one is right for you.

Completeness. The torrents are already organized into collections, so you don't need to seek out evey individal file in an album, for example. Torrents can also include a directory structure; Kazaa downloads cannot (because you're getting one file at a time).

Correctness. The .torrent file includes checksums that are verified as the data comes in. A complete download implies a correct download. This might be true of Kazaa as well, I don't know.

Good luck!

[EDIT: you may want to check out the Azureus client - http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ - which is very full-featured and nice. Its memory and CPU requirements are perhaps higher than the other clients mentioned here, but still reasonable.]

[Wyers]

Thanks Trey. This is <font color="red">precisely</font> what I was looking for. The clarification is much appreciated.

[crosse91]

i download alot of live shows and they'll come in FLAC file format. I believe FLAC stands for file lossless audio codec (or something very similiar) and since MMJukebox doesn't support this file type i usually convert everything to very high quality (220+) MP3's using a tool called the Dbpoweramp converter. I think this poweramp may also play the files, but i only downloaded the converter-this way its easier to place the converted MP3's in your desired folders/music player. Also i've heard Ipods don't play much of anything other than MP3's so, if thats a concern-there it is (although i may be wrong)

[krille]

Try these sites:

www.btefnet.com
w2.tvtorrents.tv
www.torrentspy.com
www.torrentreactor.com
www.filelist.org
www.elitetorrents.org

As a client I'd recommend using azureus (get from download.com)