How to Use Torrents

Their speed of download being aptly likened to torrential rain, by their inventor, Bram Cohen, torrents are file formats that are used for faster download. With the help of torrents, large files can easily be downloaded even if you have a small computer with low bandwidth. The way a torrent works is pretty similar to the working of a peer-to-peer (P2P) software. Just like in a P2P software, the files are hosted by one party and the host lets other people download it by using the P2P application. The only difference is that a file being downloaded through P2P software is downloaded all at once, creating pressure on the bandwidth, while torrents help you download a file in small parts. So how to download and use torrents?

How to Use Downloaded Torrents?
Before understanding how to use torrents, you need to be familiarized with the 'torrent-lingo'. In the torrent world, a file that has been put up for download is called a seed. The people who are viewing or searching for the file are called peers and the process of downloading the file is called leeching.

1. While using torrents, there are two ways in which you can source the file that you are looking for. The first is to download a BitTorrent software. µTorrent is one of the most commonly used software for this purpose. This µTorrent software will help you search for the files that you are looking for. Software like µTorrent work predominantly like Lime Wire where you key in the file name and it helps you locate the seed files from various hosts that are using this software online.
2. But here lies the difference between P2P software and torrents. While a traditional P2P software downloads one full file at a time, the µTorrent application helps in first locating and downloading a .torrent file. A .torrent file is a small 100 kb file that contains trackers which help in finding the various sources of the file you are looking for. For example, let us assume that you wish to get a free software download or better yet a movie download for the James Bond flick - Casino Royale. The µTorrent software will look for the .torrent file that has the trackers which will help find Casino Royale from different peers that are using the software.
3. Once you download the .torrent file, the rest will be done on its own. The file that you want to download (Casino Royale in this case) will be broken up into many pieces and each piece of the movie will be downloaded one by one. Herein lies the advantage of torrents. Unlike Lime Wire, if your host suddenly disappears, your download will stop and you will have to start over again. But if the host on the BitTorrent network disappears, the download will not stop. The trackers will merely look for other hosts from where you can download the pieces that were not downloaded. Thus when you download small pieces of the seed file, you can look for other hosts on the server for the remaining pieces, if your initial host leaves you halfway into your download. Torrents give you this option.
4. On the other hand, you could also look at different torrent websites to source the .torrent file. Popular, well-stocked websites include mininova.org and isohunt.com where you will find pretty much anything that you may be looking for. Search for the file that you are looking for from the search field and click on the result to start the download. The size of the database of the website really depends on how many users are logged into the website for file sharing. The more the number of people logged in, the greater is the chance of finding the file of your choice. And when you have more hosts, the download speed is also faster as the download will take place from the host having the best bandwidth.

So now you know how to use torrents. Torrents are great especially for large files and their speed varies from fast to super fast depending upon the hosts and the website you are using. But you have to ensure that you are downloading the files from legal websites, as, in case you download illegal copies, you may be charged for intellectual property and copyright violation.