Torrents 101

It seems that some of our members are not yet tuned in to the wonderful world of torrents, so here is a very basic primer. Please feel free to add stuff or correct me if I'm wrong.

This is the best explanation I could find -

Basically, a torrent is a way to distribute large files (like high-quality concert recordings and video) in a shared manner. The person offering up the torrent, we'll use Amy in this example because she just offered the video, creates a torrent file and posts the link to it on a public tracker site. Other people who are interested in it download the torrent file and open it with special torrent software (more on that later) which starts to download chunks of the file from Amy. As people sucessfully download chunks of the file, they start sharing those chunks with other people trying to download the same file from Amy.

So, if there are 10 chunks to the file, I might get chunks 1, 5, and 7 from Amy directly. But if Jeff starts downloading too, then I'd get chunks 2 and 3 from him and give him my chunks 5 and 7. Brian might also be downloading and I'd get 4 and 8 from him and give him 1 and 5. Eventually we all get all the chunks from someone participating in the torrent. Then we keep our software running so that people who came to the game later can download more chunks from us, especially if we have a good network connection (not everyone does this, but it's very kind to do, so do it if you can).

Doing it distributed like this reduces the demand on Amy's computer and connection (because all of us aren't downloading the whole thing from her directly). And because it's all in chunks, you can stop downloading if you have to use your net connection for something else and start up again later, and the software knows what you still need.

There are a lot of different tracker sites. Amy set up her own at one point for some BNL stuff. Other's can be limited access or invitation only because of potential legal issues.

So, you need special torrent software to download torrents. On the Mac, I use somthing called BitTorrent (which probably needs to be upgraded). Others can tell what to use on a PC or suggest other Mac software.

Once you download a torrent file, the files within may be in formats that you need to convert before you can listen to them in iTunes or other software (the most popular formats are SHN and FLAC, google those). If you're downloading video, you'll probably need DVD burning/converting software.

http://board.barenaked.net/showthread.php?t=142

Main definitions -

Leechers - Those downloading the file
Seeders - Those providing the file for download
Trackers - The site/program monitoring who is Leeching and Seeding
(Share) Ratio - How much you 'take' compared to how much you 'give'.

It is considered normal good practice on any torrent site to 'give' as much as you 'take' i.e. if you download 500 Mb and only upload 250 Mb, your ratio is .5, so you want to try and upload at least 500 Mb too.

(Tres - This is what my problem is - I had to re-join the site and start again from 0 - I downloaded the Michael Burks concert, but there are no other peers, nobody else is 'asking' for this torrent, so I have uploaded 0 Mb and my share ratio is ..... 0    ) The Michael Burks torrent is on 'Dime'.

Here is a page with recommended, safe torrent software, which must be installed on your pc. I use Vuze, but any of these will do.

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/pee … ftware.htm

Once you have downloaded your music torrent, you will need to convert the files, which are usually flac files, that will not play on a 'normal' pc. This program will convert flac to wav, which you can then burn to cd and listen to in the normal way. I have used this program for years - I notice they now mention a limited trial period, but I have never been asked for money and it works really well.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Finally, the motherlodes of live music (as far as I know, please feel free to add other sites you may know about). You need to register and join these sites, but they are free, and boy are they ever worth it! 

http://www.dimeadozen.org/

http://bt.etree.org/

Happy file sharing.