Torrent Swapper is an open sourced sociable peer
to peer file-sharing client based on the Bittorrent protocol that is ideal
for high-speed distribution of large files that has a basic understanding
of human friendships, of user tastes in content, and of Internet connectivity
between users. Torrent Swapper supports simultaneous downloads, download queue, selected
downloads in torrent package, fast-resume, disk cache, speed limits, port
mapping, proxy, ip-filter, etc.
A beginner's guide to BitTorrent
What is BitTorrent?
BitTorrent is a protocol (a set of rules and description of how to do
things) originally written by Braham Cohen allowing you to download large
files quickly by allowing people downloading the file to upload parts
of it at the same time. BitTorrent is often used for distribution of very
large files, very popular files and files available for free, as it is
a lot cheaper, faster and more efficient to distribute files using BitTorrent
than a regular download.
Torrent Swapper is a BitTorrent client i.e., a computer program that follows the rules of a protocol. For example, HTTP is the protocol used to download web pages and other content - like this page - and your HTTP client (or browser) is the program you use to get those web pages. Just as there are multiple HTTP clients (i.e., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc.), there are multiple BitTorrent clients, and Torrent Swapper is one such BitTorrent client.
How do I download Torrent files?
Just like you need a qualified URL like "www.acme.com" to surf
to a web site and download content, you need a "torrent file"
to download content available using a BitTorrent client. Most of the time,
you will download this file from a website, though you could also get
the torrent from a friend or even a CD. Many websites offer torrents as
one method of downloading files available through that website - for example,
OpenOffice.org, a free office suite, can be downloaded using BitTorrent.
Other sites, like legaltorrents.com, offer torrents of all kinds of things
- these sites are just repositories of torrents and usually don't actually
create any of the content available. They're known as indexes or trackers
- there is a subtle difference between the two.
Once you've obtained the torrent file from wherever, you simply need to import it into your BitTorrent client. There are several ways of doing this in Torrent Swapper:
- Click File then Add Torrent in Torrent Swapper and locate the torrent file.
- Double-click the torrent file. (Only works if you've associated .torrent files with Torrent Swapper - Torrent Swapper asks you if it should do this the first time you run it. If you clicked 'No', you can do this by going to Options, then Preferences in Torrent Swapper, then clicking Associate with .torrent files under Windows Integration.)
- (advanced) Click File then Add Torrent from URL in Torrent Swapper, and enter a URL from which the .torrent file can be obtained.
But I don't want to download open source software, I
want to download the latest episodes of my favorite TV shows!
I would be lying if we didn't admit that the most popular use of BitTorrent
is probably illegal file sharing of copyrighted material, despite the
fact that it is used for many other purposes and was definitely not created
for it. However, there are a number of BitTorrent indexes that have no
restrictions on what's posted on them, for good examples visit our Top Torrent Sites
How do I avoid downloading viruses from BitTorrent?
You should treat something downloaded with BitTorrent just like any file
downloaded from the internet – simply, if you don't trust the source
of the file, then you should use caution when opening it. Running a virus
scan is usually a good idea. However, BitTorrent does have protection
to ensure that someone uploading parts of the file you're downloading
(ie. someone who is not the original source of the torrent file) is not
uploading malicious data to your computer.