So you’ve read all about this bittorrent thing, been scared about the various lawsuits and legal action brought against little old ladies and students, searched the internet and found nothing helpful about it. Well… nothing you could understand.
I present to you, the first in a new series of posts subtitled “nonGeek Guides”. “Technical know-how for the technical no-hoper”. The first in this series shows you how to download something “off the torrents“.
What you need to get bittorrent working:
- A good, fast internet connection (ADSL or better)
- Some disk space to store your downloads
- Time, patience and lots of cups of tea
First of all you will need what is called a “Bittorrent Client”. This is a piece of software that will allow you to connect to the bittorrent network and download stuff. There are many different bittorrent clients out there but I recommend uTorrent. Mainly because, like me, its free, fast and does’nt take up much memory (!). I have tried plenty of other bittorrent clients on the windows platform but have found this (currently) to be the best.
Head over to the uTorrent website, click the download link on the screen and click “Get uTorrent 1.5 installation program“.
When the file has downloaded, open the file which will install the program. Unless you really think you know what you are doing (using Windows for Workgroups at work 10 years ago does’nt count as knowing what you are doing…by the way) then accept all of the default options it gives you during installation. You will then be rewarded with a uTorrent icon on your start menu!
You will not need to click the uTorrent icon though! We will save that for later.
Now we need to go and find some “torrent files” to download.
Before we get all technical (using the mouse) and get into the nitty gritty – a warning.
The bittorrent network is a hive of villanous scum and you can pretty much find in there anything you want, from the latest version of Windows XP to a copy of that episode of “Extreme House Surgery – Extreme Edition” that your wife missed last week. But be aware that some of this is illegal and by downloading it you might get yourself into trouble quicker than a Geek at cheerleader camp.
Therefore, I will be showing you how to download the latest works of a “royalty free music artist” that has been dead for over 100 years – avoiding any legal disputes along the way.
The bittorrent network relies on something called a “Torrent File”. The torrent file contains two important things. The details of the file you want to download, how big it is and what it is, and the address of a central computer called a “Tracker”. The torrent file itself is only small and just contains text that points your bittorrrent client in the right direction.
The tracker computer does two things. It keeps a record of who has got the full copy of the file you are requesting and who is also requesting that file. The people are referred to as “Seeders”, who have already downloaded 100% of the file and “Leechers” who are in the middle of downloading the file. The tracker passes your computer the information to connect to the Seeders and Leechers to download the file from them – to your computer. Obviously if there are no Seeders and Leechers then you will not get the file. If you see a torrent file you want and there are no seeders, avoid it like the freshly used toilet cubicle.
There are also a multitude of torrent listing sites out there on the internet. Some are good, some you have to pay for (!) and some enforce a download/upload ratio. As we are being “goody goodies” on this guide, lets head over to bittorrent.com run by Bram Cohen, the inventor of Bittorrent, to do a search on their “government appeasing” legal database of available torrent files.
Here in this example, we will search for everyones classic legalized rocker, Wolfgang Mozart. Type Mozart in the search box and click the Search button. As if by magic, a list of available Mozart torrents will appear. The files with the most Seeders will appear near the top of this list and will be classified as “fast”. Generally, torrent files with more Seeders are downloaded faster.
I want the first one I think, so I will click the “Download Torrent” link underneath. This takes me to the website that allows me to download the torrent file itself – not the music – just the little file that tells my uTorrent program where it is. This website is often also the tracker computer. The site used in this example actually lists the number of Seeders and Leechers too:
Scroll down further and click the “Download This Torrent” link. You will then be prompted to save or open the torrent file. Choose “open” and this will load uTorrent and start the process.
uTorrent will give you the option to choose where to save the Mozart music files we want to download. By default they are saved to a folder called Downloads within your My Documents. As a nonGeek, it’s probably best for you to just leave it at the default setting.
Click OK and uTorrent will then start and connect to the available Seeders and Leechers. You will see the figures in the download speed column start to increase. This means you are downloading the file! W00t! or “wahayy!” for you nonGeeks.
At times, the Bittorrent network can be slow. The more Seeders and Leechers on a torrent file the better. As you can see from the ETA column, at 1.6kb a second download speed, this “torrent” will take 2 days and 6 hours to finish! This is where those cups of tea come in useful. It is not always this slow though – so don’t loose interest here. The brilliance of uTorrent also means that you can close the program and shut down your computer when you want. The next time you start the uTorrent program, it will carry on where it left off.
When the torrent file has completed its download, a little message will appear to tell you so. You can then trot off to your Downloads folder to see (or listen to) the end result.
After the torrent file has competed you will automatically become a Seeder and begin to provide the file to others. In fact, you were doing this all along as the program is clever enough to download the file from the Leechers too at the same time. Thats the beauty of the bittorrent network – everyone plays at the same time. If you are downloading and have got a bit of the file I need and you are nearer or quicker than the Seeders, I get it from you and vice versa.
Its good practice to try and upload as much data as you have downloaded. This means that you will be keeping the torrent network alive. You can check the ratio column in uTorrent. When it reaches 1.0 – you can be happy and close the program.
That wraps up the first of the nonGeek Guides. I’m not sure what the next one will be about though. If you have any suggestions then leave a comment!
All production files from the movie are also released as open content and are included on the Elephants Dream DVD set as well as are available for download. The movie and all of its production files are licensed as Creative Commons, only requiring a proper crediting for public screening, re-using and distribution. This is simply great for people who are in this industry – professionally or simply students.
If you're sick of high interest rates, or fearful of how the new laws designed to protect you from yourself will most likely bankrupt you, you're probably feeling pretty stressed, like I am.
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