Recently I’ve been asked how to do this torrenting thing. On the idea that the answer would be of use to more then just the person asking, below is an answer.
First, the quick overview steps. For those who don’t want to read a longer answer.
Quick Overview
Install a Torrent Client
Add Torrents to Client
Wait while Torrent downloads
Enjoy Downloads
Legal Concerns
To the best of my knowledge, torrenting is technically legal. In the details you can do illegal/unethical things, much like you can with any tool. With that being said, standard disclaimer does apply.
Initial Setup
First thing you need is a torrent client. There is a large collection of these out there. In a general sense, any will do the job. It’s all about personal preference. uTorrent used to be good, I’ve heard good things about Deluge, Tixati is streamlined, but I’ll be using qBittorent for this example. Links below, feel free to find the one that you like best.
http://www.utorrent.com
http://deluge-torrent.org/
https://tixati.com/
http://www.qbittorrent.org/
Download the installer from whichever one you choose, run it, and then start up the client. What you see now will depend on what client you are using, but as I’m using qBittorent for this:
On the top you have the buttons for adding/removing new torrents, start/stopping them, changing order, and preferences. Down the left side are informational icons about the loaded torrents. At the bottom are a series of buttons for bringing up information on the selected torrent, with a second row of connection informational icons below those. And the big white window in the middle is where your torrents are. As that window is currently empty, most of the other icons/buttons are useless. We need to add torrents.
Adding Torrents
Top left corner of the qBittorent window has two buttons with a green plus sign. The first also contains a chain, thats for magnet links. The second is just the plus sign, that’s for torrent files. Both can be used, it depends on how you’re getting the torrent info. Is it coming as a .torrent file, or a link starting with magnet:? For this example we’ll be using a .torrent file.
Any torrent would do, but we’ll grab a copy of LibreOffice for this demonstration. Point your browser at http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/ (or just do a search for LibreOffice). On that page there should be a torrent link. As I’m writing this it’s on the left side, right under the big green “DOWNLOAD” button. Future versions may change appearance, but there should still be a link to the torrent file there. When you click on it your browser will ask what to do. If there is an “Open with qBittorent” option, you can skip the next paragraph, if not use “Save File”.
Now we go back to the qBittorent window, and click that green plus. Navigate to your download folder (which is probably in the download folder shown in the window, but you could have moved it elsewhere). Once there, select the LibreOffice torrent file (LibreOffice_5.2.1_Win_x86.msi.torrent is current as of this writing) and click open. This brings up some options about where to save things, but for now we’re just clicking ok.
Waiting for Download
As soon as you clicked OK the torrent was added, and now you get to wait for the download to finish. How long that will take depends on a collection of variables. All that really matters here is the percent done. When that reaches 100% your download is complete and ready to use. You can minimize qBittorent while it downloads, it will continue in the background so long as you have an internet connection.
When it’s done you can double click the torrent and it will take you to the files location. At which point you can do whatever it is the file lets you do (in this case install LibreOffice). Something like LibreOffice will probably download quickly, there will be plenty of ‘seeds’, which are people that are sharing the file. Sometimes there are torrents with few (or no) seeds, and they can take a long time to download (possible never finishing). Also the larger the file size, the longer the download takes.
Cleanup
So the download is complete, you’ve used the download for whatever it was for (or not). Now what do you do? You could leave the torrent client running, sharing out the files it has with others who want them. After all, that’s how you were able to download it in the first place. You could close the program, stopping it’s internet activity. That is done by doing to the ‘File’ menu (top left corner), and choosing ‘Exit’. The red X in the top right, that closes most programs, won’t close a torrent client. That minimizes it, leaving an icon in the system tray.
While you can leave torrents running for a long time, and build up quiet a collection, at some point you’ll want to delete some. To do that, select the one you want to get rid of, and click the red minus (top left). Check the “Also delete the files on the hard disk” option if you want the file to go away too, and then hit ‘OK’.
Adjusting Settings
Most torrent clients have a wide selection of options that can be adjusted. In our example of qBittorent, these can be found through the Options icon (top middle, looks like screwdriver and wrench). These settings change how the client acts in a number of ways. Generally, the defaults are good enough, although you are welcome to adjust things to meet your needs.
One setting you’ll probably want to adjust is so important it’s got it’s own icons outside the option menu (although it can be adjusted here too). That is the speed settings. By default, torrents will use all available bandwidth. This can cause problems with other uses of the network (email, web browsing, etc). By imposing a speed limit you prevent torrents from using all the bandwidth, leaving the unused capacity for other tasks.
To change the speed click on the green or orange arrows in the bottom of the qBittorrent window. Green is Download, Orange is Upload. After clicking the appropriate arrow, set the speed limit you want and click OK
Generally Upload is the more important to limit. Download can overwhelm the network, but it will stop once the file is finished. Usually you want the file, otherwise you wouldn’t be downloading it, so you don’t mind. Upload, on the other hand, never really stops. Most residential internet services offer a smaller upload then download, making this setting even more important. What is the right number to limit your upload at? I don’t know, it depends on your situation.
Somewhere between 50 and 100 KiB/S is probably a good place to start. But you’ll need to fine tune it based on your unique situation. Try a number. Lower it if things seem slow, raise it if they seem fine. Eventually you’ll find what works for you. Some clients (including our test client of qBittorent) include an alternate speed system. You can set one speed for while you’re using the computer, and another when you are at work/asleep/whatever.
Finding Torrents
Sometimes finding a torrent for download is as simple as a google search (like the LibreOffice example). Sometimes it takes more effort. There are a collection of websites that specialize in being gathering places for torrents. The Pirate Bay (https://thepiratebay.org/) is the most (in)famous among these, but there are many others.
Care must be taken at these sort of sites. While much of what they offer is legitimate and useful, some of it is dangerous (for various reasons). Always make sure that what you think you are getting, is what you are actually getting. Does the size make sense, the name, the uploader, etc. And once it’s downloaded, does it act like what you expected. Don’t let your desire for a particular thing lead you to download malicious torrents. Otherwise, the next question I’ll be asked is “What do I do when evil software eats my computer?”.
Nobody wants that. Choose Wisely.
Other Guides
On the assumption my directions are less then adequate, below are links to other guides on ‘How to Torrent’. Hopefully they will fill in any gaps in my explanation.
TorrentFreak – How To Use BitTorrent
Lifehacker – A beginner’s guide to BitTorrent
Pirate Bay – How do I download?
Bitsnoop – simple, as 1-2-3
wikiHow – How to Download Torrents