What Is Utorrent?
Utorrent is a program uses bit torrent technology, which is a different way of sharing files than used by services like Napster or Kazaa. In a bit torrent set-up, many people can upload and download a particular file simultaneously. This means that you can often download a file at a much quicker pace than you could with a straight file-sharing program like Kazaa, since that type of program usually only involves two people.
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Torrent Technology
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A bit torrent is a file that links you to a torrent tracker. You can think of it like a signpost that shows you where your file will be. Many other people can all also download the same file as you at the same time. Each one of them is given different pieces of the file at different times, which they in turn pass onto you. And as part of the torrent, you also pass pieces of this file to other people. So by making everyone in the swarm help with the file, your download rate can be greatly increased.
Using Torrents
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The program uTorrent is just one of many designed to download and open torrents. Install this program by clicking on the download link and then opening the installation file. Without a proper torrent program installed on your computer, the torrents you download will just sit on your machine and you won't be able to access the file you want. Once you have such a program, you can go to a torrent search site. One example is Isohunt (see Resources).
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Finding Torrents
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All you have to do at a torrent search site is type in the sort of legal movie, music, or other file you want into the search box, and then click on one of the options. You should be able to click on "Download torrent." This will give you the option to open the torrent using uTorrent. Once you do this, uTorrent will automatically load, and then begin downloading your file from the torrent.
UTorrent
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In the main screen of uTorrent, you'll see a box with a header marked "Name." Under this are the names of the torrents you are currently downloading. You can look to the right and see all the information about the torrent such as the download speed, the size of the file, how long it will take to download (ETA), and how many other people are both uploading the file (Seeders), and downloading it (Peers). If you want to get a better speed out of the torrent you have going, you can right click on the torrent in the program, and select "Bandwidth Allocation." You can then designate it as "High" to make the download go faster. This may affect your other internet programs, however.
Considerations
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It's a good idea to make sure whatever you download off a torrent website is actually legal material. While there are torrents on many of these sites that aren't legal for you to download, you can often find legal content such as albums that bands willingly put up for free download in order to get exposure. It can pay off to do a little research before you download something.
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