One of the greatest accomplishments of the internet is the ability to connect with other people around the world (we recommend connecting with aquality Chromebook). Along with that connection comes the ability to communicate and exchange digital information and files. In the 80s, this exchange occurred by logging in to a host computer and initiating a file transfer over a dial-up connection.
This cumbersome and slow system was eclipsed in the early 2000s by services like Napster, which could facilitate a direct transfer of files between two computers without the need for arcane computer knowledge. One problem with Napster (and its imitators) was that you had to rely on the user whose content you were downloading to remain online throughout the entire file transfer. If they went offline, the download stopped, and the hours you waited were wasted. In 2001 (the same year Napster shut down), the BitTorrent file-transfer protocol changed that, transforming peer-to-peer file sharing forever.
The basics of BitTorrent
The big innovation wrought by the BitTorrent protocol was downloading a file from more than one person simultaneously. To achieve this, the protocol breaks up files into numerous equal-sized pieces, so instead of downloading one file from one person, you’re downloading dozens of pieces of a file from a pool of potentially hundreds of people.
However, if you want to take advantage of all that the BitTorrent protocol offers, you’ll need a specialized bit of software called a client. The client coordinates between all the users making the pieces of the file available and those who want to download them.
How to choose a BitTorrent client
There are lots of torrent clients to choose from. The most popular areμTorrentandBitTorrent, both maintained by Rainberry, the company responsible for maintaining the BitTorrent protocol. These two clients are free to use and available for PC and on the Play Store. The drawback is that they are supported by ads (although both clients have various tiers of premium subscriptions available).
On the other end of the software spectrum are the free and open source options. The king of open source desktop clients isqBittorrentwhich has a nearly identical feature set as its freemium counterparts, tends to have a lighter footprint on your system, and downloads files faster.
qBittorrent isn’t available on Android. However, there’s LibreTorrent which is simple to use and has a negligible learning curve. If you can, install the APK directly or from F-Droid, since it comes enabled with a few more permissions, making it easier to find and save files.
Downloading a torrent isn’t quite like downloading a normal media file. Instead, you download a file with a .torrent extension that has all the information your torrent client needs to grab the pieces of your file from users around the world. Where you find these torrent files is up to you, but a good source of torrents for media in the public domain ispublicdomaintorrents.info.
This example usesa torrent for Night of the Living Dead.
Opening a torrent on Android with LibreTorrent
Congratulations, you’re downloading a torrent!
Opening a torrent on PC, Mac, or Linux with qBittorrent
After installing qBittorrent, clicking a .torrent link launches the client with the torrent loaded and takes you to step 3. If not, download the .torrent file from the link and follow these steps.
Be safe out there
With the knowledge you gained, you’ve unlocked a new world of potential content for your phone or computer. Just keep in mind that nearly all media is copyrighted, meaning if you download content you don’t have the rights to, you may be putting yourself in legal jeopardy. If you’re still willing to accept the risk, you might want to check out our list ofthe best VPNs.
