Hacksar

So, you’ve heard about this thing called “BitTorrent”, and have no idea what it is. You want to download various things, such as songs, software, movies, tv shows, etc, but don’t know how to get started. Here’s a detailed guide on how to get BitTorrent savvy in just a few minutes.

BitTorrent is a file sharing protocol, but you don’t need to concern yourself with how it works. What you do need to know, however, is how to use BitTorrent. To use it, you need a BitTorrent client. This guide will be using the client uTorrent (v 1.8.2), a free, open-source client that many people say is the most secure, lightest, and easiest client out there.

Keep reading for the Step-by-step guide.

So, let’s get started.

1. Visit the uTorrent website and go to their downloads page. Download the version that is made for whichever operating system you have. Windows 95/98/ME, NT/2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 are supported by v1.8.2. There is also a Mac version.
2. Save the file wherever you want the program to be. (The file will be named utorrent.exe). One of the cool aspects of uTorrent is that it is a “Portable Application”. This means that you can run it without having to install anything – all you need is that one EXE file. Theoretically, you can even run it from a USB flash drive.
3. Once you have the BitTorrent client on your computer, you will need to find the actual torrent file that you want. Think of a torrent file as a shortcut file that tells uTorrent which files that you actually want to download. Sites that index these torrent files are called trackers. The most popular trackers can be found at the bottom of this page. For this guide, we’ll be using the tracker ISOHunt.
4. Visit ISOHunt. At the top of the page, you will see the search box that will be your best friend from now on. Type in the search term for what you want to download. For this example, we’ll search for a Led Zepplin discography.
5. Type led zepplin discography (or whatever you’re searching for) into the search box and view the results.
6. Sort the results by Number of Seeds Descending. This can be done on ISOHunt by clicking the blue box with the S in it at the top of the results table.
7. Find the file that is what you want, and try to get the most seeds (and leeches, signified by L) possible. You can click the name of the file to see a more indepth description, such as what files are contained within the download, etc.
8. Press the “Download Torrent” link, and you can now either let it open directly with uTorrent, or you can save it somewhere on your computer, and open it with uTorrent that way.
9. If you are suspicious of a file (such as if it is a fake, or if it works – like in the case of movies or games), always see if there are any comments. Read through all the comments (or the majority of them) and see the general feedback given by other users. This part requires some common sense, so don’t download something where 50 different users commented with “CONTAINS VIRUS, DO NOT DOWNLOAD”.
10. Another thing that you should keep an eye on is the number of seeds/leeches. If both the seeds and leeches are below, say, 50, I make a habit to not bothering even trying the torrent. It will take a LONG time to download, and sometimes won’t even finish. The more seeds there are, the better.

Popular Torrent Trackers

• ISOHunt [http://www.isohunt.com]
• Mininova [http://www.mininova.org]
• ThePirateBay [http://www.thepiratebay.org]
• Demonoid [http://www.demonoid.com]

And if all else fails, try Google with “____ torrent” as the search query.

Disclaimer: Pirating of copyrighted material is illegal and is no way encouraged in this guide. Hacksar.com is not responsible for what you download.

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