Post 2: Stangmars Starter Guide to Bit Torrent


   Over the years there have been many different ways of sharing files. From the original FTP Servers to mIRC, Kazaa, and Edonkey. All of them are quite simple, a large network with many people listing files they have on there computer for others to download. Well now there is a new form of file sharing, Bit Torrent.

   Bit Torrent is the newest form of file sharing. The most advanced at the moment as well. Almost form of file sharing out at the moment is pretty much the same. You look around for a file you want, hope someone on the network you are using (Kazaa, Edonky, whatever) has it, and download it. In most cases this is great. But sometimes with things like movies, anime, and games, the transfer speeds are just too slow. This is the reason Bit Torrent was invented.

Before I start explaining how Bit Torrent works. Let me make something very clear. Bit Torrent is not like Kazaa where you are usually sharing a lot of small files. An example would be music; a MP3 is usually about 10mbs. This is not a lot of data. Bit Torrent is designed for larger files. A whole CD instead of a single song, but the idea is to trade a very large file with the same transfer speed of sending a single song (in the CD example) over a network like Kazaa.


   I am going to use a few examples on how a file is shared over Bit Torrent. Person A wants to share a file with the public. Let’s assume the file is Suse Linux. When a file is being shared it is split up into “chunks”. A chunk is usually a few megabytes depending on the size of the file being shared. We are going to assume that Suse is made up of 20 chunks. Well when Person A starts to share the file, and Person B connects, Person A (The Seeder) will send out a single Chunk of the file to Person B. Lets assume the seeder (Person A) sent out chunk 1/20. As more and more people connect more and more chunks are sent out. A few hours into the process of downloading this new file (Suse) all chunks have been sent out to 20 different people. Along comes the 21st person that wants to download the file. They notice that not only does the seeder have a chunk of a file, but another user like him has a chunk of the same file. So instead of just getting the chunk from just the seeder, he will get it from a user as well. Now every time someone else needs a chunk not only does the seeder have it, but so does another user. Eventually more and more users have the more and more of the file, and people downloading can download from more and more people.

   This is a lot faster then downloading from a single person. Instead you have many people with the file you need, and you can download from many of them. Not only is it faster, but the person who originally started sharing the file saves a ton of bandwidth, and not all the stress is on him to share the file. Let me clear something up, even if you are not the seeder, you will be sharing more then one chunk if you have more then one chunk. You are not just sharing one chunk at a time. You are sending whatever is needed to whomever. Now, when someone completely finishes’s the file they become a seeder as well. They have all 100% of the file, all 20 chunks of the file in this case. During this time, all bandwidth for that download goes toward uploading. Now you are sharing any pieces that others need.

Go to Next Post for Pt.

   Now say you have a new game you want to share. In a normal P2P network all you do is say you have this file to the network, and it keeps track of it. Others can run a search and see that you have it and download it. Sharing a file using Bit Torrent is a lot more difficult. When a person wants to share a file he creates something called a “Metafile”. A meta file is basically a long txt file that says this is what this file (Game/CD/Movie/Anime) is composed of, and here is what you need to download to complete it. Once this metafile is created by the person willing to share the file, he uploads it to something called a tracker. A tracker is a public PC that keeps track of all the users downloading/uploading chunks of a file, as explained above. This tracker is needed to keep track of all the users; otherwise nobody would know where to get anything. Let me make something clear again, this is all automatic. All you would ever have to do is turn on the file to download.


   Now when a person wants to download a file, they will go to a “Listing Site”. These sites are very basic, as all they do is look at trackers daily and say you can get this file from this place now. A person would go to a listing site click a link, and download the metafile the sharer created. This meta file will then connect to the tracker, and the users that are sharing/downloading the file. All you have to do is sit back. The average speed of Bit Torrent on cable is about 30-70KBPS download. Now, one thing to keep in mind with Bit Torrent. The tracker keeps track of how much you upload. The more you upload, the more you are going to download. So If you do not have the ability to upload at least 15-20kbps, you will not get that fast of a download speed.

Go to Next post for Part 2.


   To use a “metafile” to download using Bit Torrent you will need a client program. These are very small programs, that just download the data on there own, as long as you tell it how much bandwidth to use and it keeps track of your progress. That is all it will do. There are many clients out there and I have listed the most popular ones below.

The Official Bit Torrent Client: http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/
The Experimental Bit Torrent Client: http://ei.kefro.st/projects/btclient/
Bit Tornado: http://bittornado.com/
Burst: http://krypt.dyndns.org:81/torrent/index.phtml
Azureus: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

   Now that you have a Client program, you need to find Bit Torrent Sites that have things you are intrested in. That may be Anime, Movies, Games, Music, Tivo'd or DVD's of TV shows, programs, rare software, or anything else. There are sites for all of it. You can find links in the next sections of this FAQ guide thread.

   Once you go through a torrent listing site, and find a torrent you want to download. All you have to do is click the link for it. One of two things could happen. A. Clicking it could popthe Bit Torrent client you are using. Or B. it will ask you to save the file, (it’s only about 20Kb’s on average). If it does ask you to save the file, then save it someplace you have easy access to as you will most likely be using it often. If it does not ask you to save it somewhere and it popsyour client, hit cancel and right click on the link and save-as. You want to have that file (the meta file) saved somewhere where you will have access to it.

   Before you start downloading the actual file, I highly recommending making a folder that all torrents will go to. Once done, double click that file you downloaded (the metafile) and it will load the client. When it asks you where to save the Game/Movie/Anime/App whatever it is. Save it to that folder you made. Just let it go after that. Now you may be thinking right now, “What do I do if I have to turn off my PC?” Well just click cancel or close whatever it may be. Then when you turn on your PC again just double click that metafile again. Now this is something to pay attention to.

   After clicking the metafile for the second time, it is going to ask you were to save it. Well we are going to assume you made a Torrent folder. A place to save everything you download. We will assume that is in C:\Downloads\Torrents. Almost always when you download something via torrent, it will make its own folder to put files in. So if you were downloading Suse, it would make a folder in your Torrents folder. That would be in this example C:\Downloads\Suse. Now, when you restart that meta file DO NOT save it to the folder the metafile made. Make sure you save it to the main directory where your torrents are going. In this case it would be C:\Downloads\Torrents. The reason for this is because if you don’t, and you save it to the Suse folder. It will just make another folder inside of the Suse folder and start downloading there. C:\Downloads\Suse\Suse. This is not what you want. When you resume a file, it will check the data. After checking, it will find the seeds/users again and resume downloading.

   Now, one last thing before we wrap this up. If you are behind a firewall of any sort. You need toinbound ports 6881-6999. Otherwise you will be assured very slow download speeds. Now, as soon as your torrent starts up, you may be thinking, “How come it is going so slow?”. The first 15mins of the download is pretty much just finding the users/seeds. After about 15mins if you have the correct portsd if you are behind a firewall (even a router firewall) you will have a slow download speed.

I hope that this faq/guide will help you get started with Bit Torrent without problims.

-Stangmar

Post 4: A good tool for renaming files.

I have gottin many many many PM's from people asking "how can I rename a lot of files, and have it come out nice".

So I looked around and found the perfect program.

Well, as known very well here at AusFx. We have a lot of file sharing people. Usually when you download files, especially anime. You have a lot of long names that are a pain. For instance, these are the names of an episodes of .hack//sign that you could download in a package.

[aX]_hack_sign_-_01_-_[F870C03E]
[aX]_hack_sign_-_02_-_[C9310C03]
[aX]_hack_sign_-_03_-_[70D32BFB]

Once files are done downloading, you have all these long file names. Most people end up renaming them one at a time.

ITS A PAIN!

So, after trying MANY diffrent tools to rename files (about 20). I found a tool that I like. It is called "1-4a rename" lol. Anyways its an awsome tool, you can go to your site here. It is most defently the best rename tool out there.

So, if you are one of those people who download files that have a lot of wierd names. Or you may possably download anime, especially fansubs. Then this tool is so for you.

It is very simple. Extract the 3 files in the zip, file_id.diz, readme.html, and rename.exe.

The program is so called "emailware". Just be sure to click the email link, you dont have to send him an email tho.


Now to rename the files its qutie simple.


1. Run "rename.exe".
2. Browse to the directory that the files you wish to rename are in.
3. Make the Replace this field empty (first box). This means, that the whole name will be replaced.
4. Set the Replace To field to "File Name $$"
5. Click Start!

All done! Now you will want to note that you NEED those two dollar signs otherwise the files wont be numberd :S. So as an example this is what it would look like.


[aX]_hack_sign_-_01_-_[F870C03E]
[aX]_hack_sign_-_02_-_[C9310C03]
[aX]_hack_sign_-_03_-_[70D32BFB]

"Hack Sign $$"

Hack Sign 01
Hack Sign 02
Hack Sign 03

So its quite nice. I know I typed a lot, but just trying to be clear.

You can also check this link for tons of diffrent ways to rename files, extentions, basicly anything. But what I posted above is the basics.


I hope that this program makes everyones life a little easier when it comes to renaming lots of files.

-Stangmar

Post 6: Blank atm, will fill up later.

Post 8: Blank atm, will fill up later.

Post 10: Final Notes/Comments

Well everyone. I hope all of this is of help to you. Do not expect me to help you with anything related to bit torrent or file sharing unless you have read all 5 of these posts ahead of time.

Let me make one last thing clear. I DO NOT SUPPORT DOWNLOADING COPYRIGHTED FILES! I AM POSTING ALL OF THESE THINGS AS A SOURCE OF PUBLIC KNOWAGE.

Please Enjoy!

-Stangmar

Hey Stang
Can you make this thingy a nice text document with the links and all?
I just want a copy stored on my harddrive, you can email it to me via the profile.

Good job stang posting all that information , should help many users with any problems they have with BT.