What is the best program to use to download TORRENT files?

[sach2]

I'm confusing myself...a little practical advice:

If I'm uploading at 76 kB/s in µtorrent I can browse the web with no delays and download about 130kB/s at the same time. Rarely do I have a combination of torrents running that are trying to download faster than this 130kB/s. If I do find I actually hit 130kB down, I temporarily lower my 76kB upload to 60 kB and at this setting can achieve about 270kB download speed. Once one of my torrents completes and my downloads go under a 100kB, I go back to 76 for my upload speed.

If you join any torrent sites, you'll find they enforce a fair share ratio minimum and therefore it helps/behooves you to upload/share at near your bandwidth's maximum capacity since upload speed is so limited by all ISPs and thus a fair share ratio takes a while to achieve.

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Global max upload setting is under Tools>Preferences>Connection in µtorrent. Just type in a number like "76" to limit your uploads. "0" in this box means unlimited, not a good idea, for best results choose some limit.

[DAKz]

I am lost here...If you want to download Ubuntu Linux Live, the fastest download speed you will see is by using the direct download through your browser and Ubuntu's web site??? then more then likely you will be faster then their servers. If you are only downloading the one file, why would you risk being backdoored, (sorry, attacked through a port) through one of these places when the direct download is way safer and faster? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good torrents out there, there are also a lot of very nasty things out there disguised as torrents. I tired Ubuntu and downloaded it right from their site and while I was there I ordered the disk, it was free, and they sent me about a dozen of them, so I got a clean safe download limited by their speed, and 12 copies in the mail all for free, with no worry of viruses, spyware and without having to expose a port.
If you have use for the torrent program then go for it, and as mentioned above utorrent is very good, but since half of this thread is how to uninstall it then I guess I am lost as to the risk of a torrent client vs the safety of the direct download??

[superstar]

Wow I did'nt know that using u torrent could be so unsafe. What the heck is exposing a port? Ports are part of the firewall no? How can I check to make sure my ports are not open from u torrent when the program is closed? Do I just go to my firewall properties and see if anything is allowed by it with a u torrent type name??

[DAKz]

ports are part of the computer, and by using any thing that connects on line you are exposing a port. The problem with torrent is while your downloading from someone, someone else is downloading junks from you, there maybe hundreds downloading junks from you. If you look at utorrent you will see towards the bottom center either a green, yellow or red icon, if you hold your mouse over it it will tell you that either you are connected so that others can connect to you, and so on, when you start utorrent it will ask you for permission to act as a server, this allows access through your firewall! Not only is there danger there, but remember a lot of the things that you are downloading can contain anything from a simple easy to detect adware to very harmful viruses, the simple fact is you do not know where the torrent has been, who uploaded it, who is contributing what junk, etc. That is why I asked if your going to download something that is offered for faster and really very much safer would you subject your self to the risks involved???

[Colemanguy]

Torrents have another huge benefit, thats that it shares the bandwitdh required to download a file, putting much less load on file owners servers (in this case lets use ubuntu). Now this helps as bandwitdh isn't free, but costs, and by useing bittorrent it helps share that bandwitdh. Heres a link about bittorrent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent

Bittorrent is a very minor security risk, much less so then any p2p type other apps you will find. Its really a non issue. Your welcome to bit torrent with out opening that port, but your then just leeching, and wont get "rewarded" for your uploads, which means your download is slow. Sure that .torrent file could contain adware/spyware, but then so could anything you download from the net, just be smart and use common sense and you will have no issues.

[DAKz]

Sorry I have to disagree with the minor security risk statement, and as he indicated he wants to expose his machine to the risks to download a single file, a linux distro. look through the posts around here they are filled with people that in spite of precautions, they are still sending in A2 logs as many here pour over them trying to help. Bandwitdth is cheap these days, sorry it is. and the people that distribute Linux expect and want people to go to their sites, it where they get to express their views on their product.
As I mentioned before if your going to download a lot of stuff then yes it's the way to go, as long as you take the precautions and understand the risks, but for one file that's faster and safer by direct download, ain't no way.

[Colemanguy]

How many of the people posting logs are using bittorrent? Most are in there cause of porn/p2p crap. Bandwitdh may be cheap for you, but 100s of gigs of traffics, its not cheap.

[nikkilj]

I suggest u try Bitcomet. ive had no problems at all with it an think its great.

[DAKz]

Yep I express an opinion, yes sorry it is cheap turn back your clock to when you joined major geeks and compare the price then to what it is now! And a lot of the spyware, viruses are integrated into programs, seemingly harmless files, then the next thing you know you got it. Even simple image files can be infected easily, want a new wallpaper for your desktop then your taking a risk. I agree that a lot of infections come from the porn area but then again I really don't think that malware protection is the first thing on their minds. I still say that if you are going to use a torrent client then yes utorrent is great, would I use it for 1 file.....not even with my test computer! but thats is my opinion.

[Adrynalyne]

Originally Posted by DAKz

Sorry I have to disagree with the minor security risk statement, and as he indicated he wants to expose his machine to the risks to download a single file, a linux distro. look through the posts around here they are filled with people that in spite of precautions, they are still sending in A2 logs as many here pour over them trying to help. Bandwitdth is cheap these days, sorry it is. and the people that distribute Linux expect and want people to go to their sites, it where they get to express their views on their product.
As I mentioned before if your going to download a lot of stuff then yes it's the way to go, as long as you take the precautions and understand the risks, but for one file that's faster and safer by direct download, ain't no way.

Ask Major Attitude or Corporal Punishment if bandwidth is cheap

[Colemanguy]

And actually you can get even higher downloads from bittorrent then a single server as it could be coming from many more sources, instead of one http source that may (probably is) limiting bandwitdh per connection.

[superstar]

Wow a heated debate! Let me join... Lol. This is my thread. Nah to be honest I have to say I am a regular scanner. As a matter of fact I probably have a problem. I scan my pc once or twice a day with spybot, adaware, avg free, and system mechanic (for registry issues and to clear my internet cookies, etc). Well I don't use all four everyday but I do always use spybot and adaware at the end of every night. If I have time I run avg to scan when I am not in the room and I know I'll be back in a while. But I always do a full scan with all four programs every weekend. I sometimes think I have a problem because I do this so much in order to keep a healthy pc. This is my only pc and believe me most of us are'nt lucky with more than one. I actually built this one, as it is my first pc ever.

As for the problems most people have... Hmm I know the risks I'm taking when I use programs like utorrent. The reason why I asked about ports because I was wondering what I could do to close the open port when I uninstall utorrent. I mean if I uninstall it the port should be closed on it's own no? I should'nt have it accepted in my firewall since my firewall never asks me to unblock it anyways... I dunno.

But as far as the people who come on this site for help. I'm one of the many who are sick of people looking at porn and getting virus' over and over again. Especially when you tell someone not to do something on a pc after they've had a problem, and than they go right ahead and do it resulting in more problems. I wish there was no porn online because there would be less issues for us all to fix. But I remember someone saying this to me a while back:

"If it were'nt for pornography there would be no internet today."

Which is somewhat true because half the people who buy pcs buy them for devious sick reasons. Hell I know people who are addicted to pcs. I think I am one of them. But not for porn... For learning and reading. I mean there are some people who sit at their pcs all day and stare at nudity, even in front of their spouses. I mean come on that's just sickening and disrespectful. What you do on your own time is your buisness, but some people have addictions. In all honest I don't think we've ever touched that subject on this site. I think we should all conversate about the "mental problems" some people have when buying/owning pc's. Because this leads to 50% of the problems we all try to help and solve here on this forum. It's an interesting topic... Heck some other people are addicted to pcs and don't even look at porn... They just sit and gaze all day/night long.


What do you all think?

[DAKz]

@Adrynalyne In stead of asking MA I asked google, http://www.top10hostinglist.com/?gcl...FTBcFQodBTELQA

@ Coleman Guy, Not on my computer, I have a 11Mbs speed, and very few of the torrent crowd has that, and utorrent comes configured with an upload speed limit. This can be changed to an unlimited speed, but is not configured that way.

@Superstar What a great reply, I too am one of those people that are addicted to computers, I have managed to turn my addiction into a business. I have been at it for a while, (better then 30 years) and was using the internet long before Al Gore invented it thanks to the military. But to accept your point about internet porn then we have to admit that bandwidth has become cheap enough for that industry to flourish. To find a web site with no advertising on it is a rare find these days, even MG sells advertising space to offset the cost of bandwidth further making it even cheaper. I read a while back that online porn is a 3 billion dollar a year business, which amazes me.
Now back to the original topic of this thread, Someone wants to use a torrent client to download one file, a linux distro, and has concerns about uninstalling it, I still say they fastest way and the safest way for him to get that is by direct download from the ftp server at their site. I also think that if he is going to download files other then that one distro, then go with a torrent client, I noticed last week that one of the major torrent sites, ISO hunt, was closed down for a while, thanks to legal troubles, and this is a regular occurance with the major torrent sites. It makes the news real regular how Microsoft goes through and invades several of these sites removing their software, most notably some of the hacked to death copies of Vista. Lets face it none of the Linux sites ever get these problems. and you don't have a bunch of kids sitting around trying to invent a new malware to slip into a file waiting for some one to download. 10 years ago mIRC was the rage and it got to wear your machine was attacked every time you logged in, then e-mule was the way to get files, then it got to the point where more then likely you were going to download a virus, and they have ran into legal troubles of their own, then came Limewire, which a lot of people still swear by, even though it has become the biggest distributor of malware, and now we all see the same thing happening to torrents, with a couple of new twists, easier to hide stuff in torrent files, and harder to trace, too many are contributing to the file transfer, most without even suspecting it, because they are downloading it, while someone else is downloading a chunk from them, while another is downloading a chunk from them, etc so by the time anyone has a chance to find any malware it has spread through many systems! I have seen files that are badly miss labeled, incorrect versions, files that are way larger then they should be, so it has now gotten to where you have to do a lot of research to download anything. I use utorrent, but I also use way more malware protection then I probably need, simply because I have learned that if Spysweeper says my system is clean, I find that Spyware terminator will find something, and adaware will find something, etc. I was wondering a while back what would our computers look like if we didn't have to spend so much time battling malware, I know I would have a lot of extra space on my system, a lot less little icons in the taskbar, a lot less things popping up, and lets face it, there would be a lot less posts in these forums!
Nope no heated debate here, I expressed a opinion, and based on my knowledge and experience I stick with that opinion, or I would not have given it in the first place.

[augiedoggie]

Well said DAKz, I just use utorrent to grab distros. Period. Just to save them bandwidth as I'm not paying for anything here except for my connection. Hehe, I can't count how many times I've heard "Hey, what's wrong with the torrent, it stopped at %99!" or why do I have a porn movie instead of blahblah. :D Buyer beware!

[Colemanguy]

First its the up that matters not your 11 down. Then you take bobs 512 up + bills 512 + freds 384 + colemanguys 1 meg up + blah blah, on and on, and it adds up.

[OverCooked]

Superstar, it seems your thread has been hijacked so here's what you should set your connection type to. "xx/640k". This limits your uploads to 60kB/s which is a little lower than your tested speed. This way you are not hurting your download speeds and you are uploading at a fair rate.

A lot that has been said is true, but there are security risks with everything you do on the Internet. As long as you use common sense and stay away from porn and illegal torrents and make sure your anti-virus, and firewall are up to date, you shouldn't have a problem. :-)

Good luck with those sound recordings from your friend's group.

[OverCooked]

Originally Posted by DAKz

@Adrynalyne In stead of asking MA I asked google, http://www.top10hostinglist.com/?gcl...FTBcFQodBTELQA

If you are distributing distros or thousands of programs like MajorGeeks does every day. Those little hosting companies are not going to cut it for you. You have to be able to provide a high constant speed for all simultaneous downloads for all your content. I wouldn't be surprised if MajorGeeks' bandwidth bill was thousands of dollars a month. Same thing if you are offering several different distros at 600MB a piece to thousands of people. You will be up to your neck in bandwidth bills. That is why it is better to use Bittorrent rather than a direct download from the site. You are not using their bandwidth and you are saving them some cash so they can continue to spread their software and keep everyone happy.

[superstar]

Originally Posted by OverCooked

Superstar, it seems your thread has been hijacked so here's what you should set your connection type to. "xx/640k". This limits your uploads to 60kB/s which is a little lower than your tested speed. This way you are not hurting your download speeds and you are uploading at a fair rate.

A lot that has been said is true, but there are security risks with everything you do on the Internet. As long as you use common sense and stay away from porn and illegal torrents and make sure your anti-virus, and firewall are up to date, you shouldn't have a problem. :-)

Good luck with those sound recordings from your friend's group.

By this you do mean to set it to "xxx/640k" in the speed guide options, and leave everything else the way it is right?

I currently set it to "xxx/200k" because I did'nt know what I was doing. I understand a bit now... I'm guessing the "xxx" in the drop down menu of the speed guide options means what the users upload speed might be no?


Thank You


As for the rest of the stuff you said about saving websites bandwith bills and stuff by getting them from torrents your absolutely right.

[sach2]

superstar,

Yes you would open the speed guide use the dropdown choose xxx/640k. The xxx is download (xxx probably meaning unlimited), 640k is your upload limit. Then at the bottom of the window click use selected speed/settings.

[OverCooked]

Originally Posted by superstar

By this you do mean to set it to "xxx/640k" in the speed guide options, and leave everything else the way it is right?

Yes, uTorrent will select the best configuration for you based on what your speed guide options are set to. This xx in the beginning is your download speed, and since you want to utilize as much as that as possible, there is no need to put a cap on the settings unless you notice a severe slow down if you are downloading a torrent and browsing the web at the same time. Sach had it right too:-)