torrent question

[Suu]

I dont know if this is in the right section, but...
could anybody explain to me how i download files hosted with bittorent?(or torrent, is there any difference? I'm confused@.@)
Thanks for your atention^.^

[Guizmo0]

Where can I find stuff to download using BitTorrent?
You can find lots of things here and from Smiler's BitTorrent links.

Help! My download isn't working!
Please read this FAQ to see if it solves your problem. If it doesn't, post a question to the technical support mailing list. Be sure to mention what operating system you're running, the url of the file you're trying to dowload, what version of BitTorrent you're running, and explain exactly what behavior you're seeing.

Do not post questions about where to find files or announcements of files being avialable to this mailing list. For that, use torrent-talk. (Note that I don't run or really have anything to do with torrent-talk, I'm just linking to it here.)

BitTorrent is great! How can I help?
You can give a donation.

I don't want you stealing my bandwidth! How can I stop it from uploading?
You could hack the source to not upload, but then your download rate would suck. BitTorrent downloaders engage in tit-for-tat with their peers, so leeches have very little success downloading.

I get an error message starting with 'problem connecting to tracker', what should I do?
The tracker for the one particular file you're trying to download is probably down. Try to download again later.

Alternately, this error message may indicate that your net connection is down or doesn't allow arbitrary outgoing connections, which is necessary for BitTorrent to work.

BitTorrent makes my machine blue screen! What should I do?
If you have a DSL modem, especially an Alcatel, you should upgrade your drivers. If you have a Linksys network card, you may have to upgrade your network card drivers as well.

When I click on BitTorrent links is says 'file not found'. What do I do?
This is a bug in Internet Explorer which keeps BitTorrent from ever getting run. The best workaround is to right click on the BitTorrent link, save it to disk, and double-click on the saved file using windows explorer.

Can I use BitTorrent on Mac OS 9?
After installing MacPython, you should be able to use btdownloadheadless.py from the source.

Does BitTorrent support resuming?
Yes, just save your download to the same location as the existing partial download. BitTorrent will resume where it left off after checking the partial download.

How can I contribute to a file distribution without downloading?
Just leave BitTorrent running after it's done downloading. If you already have the complete file(s), restart downloading and resume to the existing file(s).

How do I know the download isn't corrupted?
BitTorrent does cryptographic hashing (SHA1) of all data. When you see "Download succeeded!" you can be sure that BitTorrent has already verified the integrity of the data. The integrity and authenticity of a BitTorrent download is as good as the original request to the tracker. Checking the MD5/CRC32/other hash of a file downloaded via BitTorrent is redundant.

I'm behind a firewall/NAT, can I use BitTorrent?
Yes, but you will get better performance if other peers can connect to you. By default, BitTorrent listens on port 6881, trying incrementially higher ports if it's unable to bind, and gives up after 6889 (the port range is configurable). It's up to you to figure out how to poke a hole in your firewall/NAT.

How many downloads can BitTorrent support?
BitTorrent routinely supports about 1000 dowloaders of files around a gigabyte in size. After current tracker scaling work, the next scaling bottleneck is expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of simultaneous downloaders.

I published a file but whenever I try to download it hangs saying "connecting to peers" and/or the download just never starts.
You need to leave at least one downloader running which already has the whole file. Make sure other peers can connect to this downloader (preferably not behind firewall or NAT!)

I started a complete downloader but still noone can download, what gives?
If your tracker and downloader are on the same machine or within the same private IP range, you need to start the downloader with the --ip parameter, followed by it's public IP. Otherwise "localhost" could be assumed.

What language is BitTorrent written in?
Python. And it uses wxWindow for it's GUI.

When is the Java/C/whatever implementation going to be ready?
See the BitTorrent ports mailing list.

How do I limit the amount of bandwidth consumed by BitTorrent?
Use the --max_upload_rate command line parameter, which takes an upload rate in kilobytes/sec.

Does BitTorrent contain spyware or adware?
No, BitTorrent contains no spyware, adware, or any other kind of -ware.

Some warez sites are distributing spyware-wrapped versions of the BitTorrent installer. Please only download the BitTorrent installer from this site. I'm considering legal action against sites which misrepresent their hacked installers as the official one.

What license is BitTorrent released under?
MIT License, which basically lets you do anything you want with it so long as you leave the license notification in the source.

How can I download on a headless machine?
There are btdownloadheadless.py, btdownloadcurses.py and others available in the source distribution.

I can't use Paypal, can I still make a donation?
You can send a check or money order to:

Bram Cohen
2018 Shattuck Avenue Suite 124
Berkeley, CA 94704

Where can I find more information about BitTorrent?
If you're looking for information on where to find files downloadable using BitTorrent, try torrent-talk. Don't ask me anything about torrent-talk, I don't run it, I'm just linking to it.

If you have a development or technical support question, see the documentation page, the development mailing list, or join #bittorrent on irc.freenode.net. (I repeat, this channel is not for file distribution!)

You can also try the BitTorrent Wiki.