How do I Use uTorrent?

We'll any kinda of use of Torrenting is 'illegal' one way or another, though that hasn't stopped anyone.

Seeders = People who have the File Already Dled
Leecher = Other people Dling the file at the time

Dl the file, the open file (or click and drag) then it should be gong fine. If you need more help just ask

 

Forwarding your ports just means "another way into you pc" like past a firewall and makes better dl speed. Just google, 'Port Forwarding' and that should help.

 

No.

Torrents are a file distribution system using much smaller files, called torrent files, as 'keys' to the larger download files on a P2P network. You basically download the torrent file for the download you want, open it in uTorrent (double clicking the file should automatically open it in uTorrent, but if not then there should be an "open torrent" option or something similar in the uTorrent File menu. If the download isn't appearing on your list on uTorrent then I don't see how Port Fowarding could be the issue, it should at least appear on the download list with an error of some kind. I think it just hasn't opened correctly, keep trying, and possibly check Google for official uTorrent help pages or something, they may have a troubleshooting section if torrent files aren't opening properly.

But there is nothing inherently illegal about torrents, or any form of P2P network/software, the illegality comes when they are used for circulating copyrighted files or media. They are the obvious choice for this, since the P2P element negates the central server required for other download systems, servers which are inevitably shut down if they are found to be hosting illegal/copyrighted content. But neither torrents nor P2P are illegal by themselves, otherwise how would the download link for the torrent client itself not have been shut down? Torrents are even used by many developers, generally open source ones, to distribute updates and various files in a non-intensive way for their own servers, if I'm not mistaken.

 

I understood this before however, most people dont use it legally.

 

NO NO NO NO NO NO.
STOP SPREADING FALSE INFORMATION.
Torrenting is legal. If I make a powerpoint and I put it up on The Pirate Bay, THAT IS LEGAL. If I put up the whole Microsoft Vista OS on The Pirate Bay, THAT IS ILLEGAL.

Edit: DeltaNerd got it before me.

 

I used to use Torrenting alot to exchange files when I was helping with a Jedi Academy mod, MovieBattles II. It was several hundred MB, so we'd transfer it over torrents. Fast and if one of us crashes or looses power, you don't loose the whole thing. It's definately legal as long as you don't download anything copyrighted (IE. Music, games...)

 

Torrent files store bits of information. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

If you're not going to download something illegal what is the point of using uTorrent?
If you want to download something legal there are other sites out there that offer much faster downloading speeds than uTorrent.

A reason why you may not be able to download files from uTorrent is because of your ISP. Some ISP's do not allow programs P2P programs such as uTorrent and Limewire, so it may be an ISP issue rather than your computer.

You could also try using a different torrent program such as Azureus or even Limewire also has a built-in torrent system.

 

And to Whisper:

The guys at The Pirate Bay have been arrested many times before, and I do believe they're serving a prison sentence at this very moment.

 

Exactly, it's just a file transfer program.

What torrent files are you using? Not specifically asking for the files you want to download, feel free to keep mum on that one . But if you want something that downloads faster then you want a torrent with the highest number of seeds, and lowest number of leechers. Or the best ratio between the two, ie. a torrent with 10 seeds and 1 leecher is probably going to be faster than a torrent with 500 seeds and 200 leechers, the balance between the two numbers is what's important. Often you'll also find that torrent downloads start off slow. At first you'll probably only get a couple of seeds (the number of seeds quoted on the torrent site isn't always the number you get, I don't use uTorrent, but most clients have a 'seed' column on the download list, the number you see will be the number of seeds you are currently downloading from, and the number next to it in brackets will be the total number of seeds for that torrent), but if you wait the number of seeds you are currently downloading from tends to increase, meaning the download speed often increases over time. I've had torrents that, when I start them, quote me a download time of 2 weeks, then I look at them 2 hours later and they're done.

There are other uses, many free files are distributed by torrent because it doesn't require a central server to host all the data, making it much cheaper for the people doing it, hence the general free nature of the files. Also, like Insane said, torrents can be a really useful way to transfer files between smaller groups of people, if you are working on a project or something, especially when dealing with larger file sizes.

I don't know about the US, but I haven't heard of any ISP's in the UK blocking all P2P data. I know the major ones are in talks with the various industries involved in the copyright debates, but even the harshest of those (Virgin Media) allow you to transfer data using P2P, they just send you a warning letter and eventually cut off your service if you're not careful about it. But even then, I don't see how this could be the problem. If the download was being blocked in any way, either by the computer or by the ISP, then it should at least show up on the uTorrent download list, it just shouldn't make any download progress. His download wasn't showing up at all, but tbh it sounds like he's got that fixed, and seeing as he is in fact getting download speed (albeit very low by the sounds of it), then it shouldn't be ISP bans on P2P.

Ewwwww. Limewire.

 

Ill expand on leeching and seeding, its what that guy said b4 but more...
Seeds are amounts of time it has been uploaded back to others and leeching occurs when you download then cancel. Go for torrents with more seeds than leech.

To clear up. Torrenting is legal but copyright infringement is illegal.
Always check comments, pirate bay gets great feedbak for legit torrents and just click download on the site, it will give you a torrent file which u open and let download, i may make a tut tommorow.

 

Kind of, but I feel this is a little unclear. In terms of what these words actually mean in real world terms, this is how it works. Seeds and leeches are all people, torrent users like yourself.

A seed (or seeder) is someone who has downloaded the full file, and has left it in uTorrent (or another torrent client) so that others can download it from them. It's considered good form to leave files you have download 'seeding' in your torrent client so that others can, in turn, download them from you. But it can eat your bandwidth if you let your seeded files build up, so even if you want to be generous it's good to keep an eye on exactly how much of your bandwidth is going on seeding files you have downloaded.

A leech (or leecher) is someone in the same position as yourself, they are downloading the file and are only partially done. They are also downloading the file from the seeds, and their number indicates how healthy your download speed is likely to be, more seeds generally = slower download, as the number of seeds must be 'shared out' between the number of leeches. If you see a torrent with more leeches than seeds then it's probably going to be very slow downloading the actual file in uTorrent.

Basically, seeds are people who have the whole file, that number indicates how likely you are to get a high download speed. And leeches are people who are still downloading the file, and that number indicates how much the speed (again, indicated by the seed number) is likely to be decreased by the others downloading the file.

 

Yes I know this. Back in the day I used to host a free program called 'Halo 3 Toy Box' for modding halo 3 maps and I encrypted a virus into the program to start up and run in the background after you started installing for my host booter, but thats besides the point. The point is, is that is just mainly used for illegal downloading but will never be seized because of it's ability to also provide legal downloading.

 

Fish, the reason downloads may be slow is due to too many leechers or not enough seeders. If this isn't the case, it might be your ISP, or just the fact that you live in the UK (a good guess).

 

Torrenting is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) File Transfer Protocool (FTP). In contrast, download sites such as Megauploads and Rapidshare are Direct Downloads. In torrenting, the site you download the torrent file is not the one you download the main file from; say, a movie. Instead, each peer has the movie on them. Torrent files are files that delegate the transfer process between the peers. Because that dicks around with the legal system, like how PGP was spread around the world, it's technically legal.