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Download Anything Free with Bit Torrents!

One of my favorite ways to find files is Bit Torrent. If you are a music fan, like me, this is the easiest way to download complete albums at one time instead of individual songs. There is also a big variety of e-books, movies, programs and other digital goodies readily available. This is a great system for larger files, and most of what you find will be pretty big. Obviously, if you have a dial up connection, you should be prepared to wait a while, because downloading an album at one time could take days, even a week or more. Bit torrent also has a HUGE selection of games and movies for your PSP!

The BitTorrent network is set up in a way that is a little different than a normal P2P network. With this network, you don't do any searching for files using the client as you would with traditional clients like Kazaa. Instead, you search websites that have lists of recently released files, or torrents.

The websites listing the torrents are called “trackers” and have become very popular. Their popularity has come at a cost however, with the MPAA and law enforcement agencies shutting them down. There are a ton of sites to use, but you have to stay on top of things because they come and go so quickly. The tracker keeps track of all the people who have the file (both partially and completely) and connects users to each other for downloading and uploading.

Just like the other P2P networks, you first need to find yourself a client. Of the many available, I recommend and use:

Azerus for Windows. It is great for the beginner, and has advanced features once you are able to use them.

Tomato Torrent for you Mac users.

Once you have installed Azerus, I’m sure you’ll want to know how to use it. As we said before, you don’t actually do any searching from the client, but from web sites (the trackers). I’ll show you what I mean. Go to http://www.torrentz.com. You will see a search box. Type in “Sinatra” and click search. You’ll get your results. What do they mean? (NOTE: Due to the come-and-go nature of tracker sites, torrentz.com or any other may not be up at some future point. If this is the case, a little farther down I give you a list of other sites, and all sites return the same basic information. You can follow along at another site.)

When you get your results, you generally see a few things. The name of the torrent, the date it was uploaded (or added), the size of the file, and it’s health, indicated by “seeds” and “leeches.” The date added it pretty self explanatory, but let’s talk about “seeds” and “leeches.”

A seed, or seeder is a client on the network that has a complete copy of a particular archive. For any archive to work, there must be at least one seed to download from. I have been stuck for DAYS at 97% completion because I took a chance and downloaded a file with one or no seeds. I don’t recommend it.

A leech, or leecher is a client on the network that does not have a complete copy of a particular archive yet. When any new client begins downloading an archive, they are a leecher until they have finished downloading the entire archive and then become a seeder. The name 'leecher' here is an unfortunate use that has become too commonly used even though it is really not applicable to what the meaning is. A leecher normally means someone who downloads without uploading (takes but does not give.) But here, a leecher is part of the network and is uploading as well, many times more KB than they download. But hey, it's worth the new meaning once you appreciate the vast resources that bit torrent brings to you.

So, look for files that are very healthy, meaning that they have many (or at least more than one) seed. Now how do you get it from there to you?

From Torrentz.com search results, click on the torrent name. This is a little confusing, so pay attention. Some of the tracker sites actually index and search many other sites so that you don’t have to. This is the case with torrentz.com. So, when you click the file name, you’ll see a list of files where you can download the file you want. Remember that not all sites are set up this way, but a few are.

So now you are on the site that actually contains the file. You’ll see some more of the same information, but you’ll also see a link for the .torrent file. You want to download that file. These are small files (typically around 1 or 2 kb) that tell your client where it needs to look for the different files for the game, film or album you are looking for. When you download them put them in a folder labeled ‘torrent files’. It will help keep you organized.

When you go to open a torrent file you should select to open with Azerus (or your torrent client of choice). This will then give you a screen that will ask you where you want to save the files. Click browse and then choose which folder you want to download the files into. For example you could put any mp3’s into your music folder.

Now in Azureus, you should see your file downloading. There are indicator bars that show how much you have downloaded and how much is left, along with an estimated time to completion.

That’s it! Once the file is done, it’s all yours. There was a lot of information in there, so I’ll recap quickly: Once you have your software in place, go to a tracker. Find a file you want. Download and open the torrent file. When you do, Azureus will ask you where you want to save your actual file. Choose a location, click ok, and your off and running. I told you it was easy!

Where do you find these trackers? Here is a list that, at the time of publishing, is extremely useful to me. Remember, more pop up every day, and if your favorite gets shut down, do a Google search for “torrent tracker” to find another one.