Monday, February 09, 2009

BitTorrent

People ask me all the time about how to download music/tv/movies.  I end up writing to a new set of instructions everytime. Instead I'm going to post them here for easy reference.

1. Download & install PeerGuardian 2(direct link to the installer).  This will block anti-peer2peer sites from tracking you.  Not going to guarantee you won't get letters telling you to erase that copy of The Dark Knight you just downloaded but it should help.
- Comprehensive guide to installation
-I just use the P2P list,  there is better software to block adware and whatnot
-After installing I would recommend going into settings and unchecking the log allowed connection box, you won't read that log anyway

2. Download & install µTorrent.  This is the program you use that downloads the actual file. Mac users, I would suggest using Transmission as your torrent program, but you're own your own for setting it up.
-µTorrent has many useful guides you can follow if you run into trouble
-After installing a connection setting screen will pop up, follow this guide.  for comcast customers I suggest using 388k for the speed settings.  Pay attention to the firewall/router areas of the guide, if your downloads are slow its because your firewall router is blocking a port.

3. Search for the file you are looking for at a bittorrent search engine.
-I primarily use mininova.org for everything, but there are other sites out there such as thepiratebay.org and isohunt.com. eztv.it is excellent for finding tv shows.  
-when downloading the more seeds a torrent has, the better.  I usually click seeds at the top of the list and download the one with the most seeds.
-aXXo and FXG put out some very good movies, I'd highly suggest their versions of a movie when downloading
-a few of things to watch out for... 
check the file's size and extension
avoid downloading/opening .exe and .zip, spyware usually follows after opening
read the comments, you can usually get a idea if the file is any good

Happy downloading.  Remember to respect copyright laws.  Any further questions you can email me.

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