Hi All,

Ok, I am going to layout here all you need in order to download torrents.
This will allow you to get TV shows, movies and software from the internet.
I am going to go through it step by step, I hope it will be clear to all.
Please don't be daunted by this. Downloading torrents is easy once you have installed the necessary software. Go through it slowly and you will be fine!

1) Get a bittorrent program.
I suggest Bitcomet which can be found here - http://download.bitcomet.com/achive/BitComet_0.70_setup.exe

This link will take you straight to the download. Download it, install it. Make sure you know where you installed it to.
If you are lost already, get someone else to do it for you.
You shouldn't need to make any changes to the settings on BitComet, whether you are using a router, or connecting straight to the ADSL line.

2) Look for torrents
http://www.scrapetorrent.com
This website will search four other torrent sites for the file you are looking for.

When you have searched, you will be given a list of possible files, plus some numbers after each file. The column you are most interested in will be the one marked 'S' which stands for seeds.

This number shows you how many people have the whole file downloaded, and are allowing you to take a piece.
The higher the number of seeds, the faster your file will come in. Ideally, over one hundred seeds will give you a good transfer rate.

The download will take some time, and it will start off quite slow, but increase in speed as it goes on. Once it has all downloaded, please leave BitComet running for some time, as this will help other people receive the file you were so pleased to get!

3) Play the movie/TV show.
Assuming you are downloading video files!
Once it is in, go to the folder where you installed BitComet. Look for a folder called 'Downloads'. Not surprisingly, this will hold all your downloaded files. You could make a shortcut to this folder and put it on your desktop, which will speed up the process a little!

If you have trouble playing the file, you may need this

ffdshow - http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ffdshow/ffdshow-20041012.exe?use_mirror=nchc

This is a codec pack which will allow you to play most videos on your computer. I have been using it for years, and it has caused me no problems, nor does it contain spyware or adware.
Download it, install it, you're ready to watch!


There are many different approaches to torrent downloads, and many different sites for searching. Please don't clutter this thread with 'This site is better' or 'BitComet sucks, I use BitchTorrent'.
If you have a solution to other problems you may have encountered, please post them.

I'd add something about RSS Feeds - you can easily get new episodes of tv shows without even bothering to go to torrent sites. eg TVTad

Also - not everyone uses Windows.

Mac users - Azareus still seems to be the pick of the pack, even though its java based and takes lots of cpu ram etc.
Unix users - KTorrent isn't bad, and if you want a web based solution, TorrentFlux is pretty good. uTorrent also works fairly well in WINE.

Windows users - uTorrent is also decent, and a small download. If Bitcomet doesn't work for you, try uTorrent out.

Windows SP2 users will also have to get the TCP patch for more simultaneous downloads
Get that here - http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads#4226patch

I'd also recommend getting a router that supports UPnP, the cheaper ones don't. Linksys Routers work better than most in this aspect, and have good third party firmware available. Thibor firmware is good, as is dd-wrt, installation of that is beyond the realms of discussion though)

Laptop users should be careful of some of the Bitcomet defaults also - the default is to not allow hibernation, suspend. Make sure you uncheck that.
(Options, Preferences, Appearance, Uncheck Prevent System going into suspend mode when a task is running)

I can put up a download area for software if people want - I have all the necessary tools, plugins and utilities alreaedy on our servers, I just need some persuasion to organize myself to do it )

Lawrence.

Azureus is my pick for PCs as well. (Who cares about RAM usage on a windows box right?)
Seriously though on Windows it doesn't really use that much RAM. Mine's running at 72MB total
memory including virtual and almost nothing in RAM. Thats with about 10 torrents going up and
downstream maybe its inefficient Mac Java implementations or just bad configurations. or
maybe you're just assuming its cpu and ram intensive because its java? java these days runs
almost as well as native code.

I find it the easiest to configure so that people don't leech off me too much
but i still give back to the community.

http://www.getazureus.com/download.php

I also use & like utorrent (http://www.utorrent.com) and very lightweight -- but still supports the features that I want. I also recommend http://www.tvrss.net to find torrents for US based TV shows -- this is an RSS aggregator primarily (or exclusively?) for mininova.

Thanks for this.

Issue:

I have successfully d/loaded 2 shows, with help from Mr Meandeeeeeero, but now have an issue.

I chose a Torrent, which said it had well over 100 seeds, now its sitting in my BitComet and not downloading, the only info I have is it says: o seeds and 73 peer, hence no d/load.

I went to another site to get the torrent, and this also had many seeds, but again in my BitComet it says 0 seeds...

Windows SP2 users will also have to get the TCP patch for more simultaneous downloads
Get that here - http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads#4226patch

MY SYSTEM GAVE ME A VIRUS WARNING, DO NOT USE

Did you try an alternative client such as utorrent? I would try that first. If that still reports 0 seeds then I would guess that there are simply no seeders The torrent client always shows the actual information. The web site tracker information is generally some cached (and therefore older) information.

I am trying to d/load football manager, this is a game and I would think there would always be many seeds for a popular game?

Stirling: Your virus software is full of sh*t

The TCP patch patches the tcp dll's so that you can have more than SP2's limit of 10 concurrent downloads. You don't have to install it, but it will make downloads faster as you can connect to more people concurrently (it patches things so you can make 50 connections).

If your virus software is giving you a warning, its a false positive.
Report that to your virus software provider, and also let us know what software you are using so we can avoid/laugh at it.

Lawrence.

Thanks.

Any idea on my question?

Do any of the internet packages in China have limited data caps? I have downloaded and uploaded a lot and I'm wondering if I might have reached my monthly data allowance - if there is one?

To all hip hop fans who have been waiting for detox...
i just downloaded the new ludacris album - release therapy.. one of the best albums since the notorious days of 1996.

Also the football manager issue, my friend downloaded it and said its not working very well. i wouldnt bother downloading games, they ussually run slow.

bump

I finally got it

I love Azureus.

It's the mutt's nuts of downloaders.

why Does it try to play as an audio file? I am using windows media player

Welcome back Jan! Why does it try to play what? Are you saying that a torrent file you downloaded is being played in media player? Or a file you torrented? PM me if you want, you'll get a quicker response

Sounds like she's missing a codec.

xvid, x.261, ffdshow, ac3 codec, realalt should cover 99% of what you'll see out there.

I have another post in the forum where I list the codec's you should install.

utorrent Rocks! It's way better than Azureus

i tried using bittorrent a while back when it was suggested by pablo but had no success, for some reason the download speed was way too slow.

after this thread i have gave it another shot and i'm glad i did. using azureus and the scrapetorrent site fair beats having to download single songs using other applications.

I recently Stumbled a new torrent search site, called Fulltorrent.net, which does a very good job of searching about seven engines. Found stuff there that I have not found elsewhere.

^Just checking it out now.

www.btjunkie.org is good if you want to search several sites.
As is www.isohunt.com

Scrapetorrent checks ISOhunt as part of it's group of four or five sites.

Damn, btjunkie is very good!

gonna give this a try... Meanderer is very nice to give such a great tips

slow downloadinf for a season serial, it requires 60 hours plus so I am sitting counting the bytes... I am using that scrapetorrent

DA, it all depends on how many SEEDS are providing that file for you. The more seeds, the faster it will go. Also, torrents usually start slow, and then speed up.

Something to add:

A codec pack that seems decent, and not over the top;

http://www.cccp-project.net/

Nice one, thanks CS