How to Open a Torrent File

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By Devero
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Downloading torrents is a great way to get high speed downloads

Downloading torrents is a high-speed way to get music, movies and other files from a network of users. A torrent file can be thought of as a bookmark to a file that is stored on the hard drives of many users around the globe. When you open a torrent file, you begin downloading different parts of the file from everyone who is sharing it. When you begin to download the file, another user will start to download pieces of the file from your computer. Torrents are a great way to download music, movies and whatever else you want from the net.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A computer
An Internet connection
A torrent client (downloading program)

Step 1

Download and install a program to download torrents. Bittorrent (www.bittorrent.com) is a free, clean and widely-used client. There are many other programs as available as well, some with additional useful features, but others come with unwanted malware.
Step 2

Install a good spyware program or backup your computer if you plan to download from un-checked or unknown sources. Windows Vista System Restore works well; for older versions of windows, install Norton Antivirus or any other reputable virus scanning program.
Step 3

Users say the file

Search the net for a torrent that you would like to download. Stick with a reputable site (see resources) because the world of torrents can be plagued with viruses if you're not careful. To better check if a file is virus-free, look at comments under the torrent details to see what other users are reporting.
Step 4

Check the format of the torrent. If you have no idea how to open the file within the torrent, look for a different torrent that contains a file type you are more farmilar with, or figure out how to deal with the file type. File types like Winrar, zip, shn and flac can be intimidating at first, but it just takes a few minutes of research to figure out how to open/extract them.
Step 5

Looking at seeds and leaches on torrents

Check the torrent's popularity. If there is no one currently seeding (hosting the full file) or leeching (downloading), it will take much longer for you to get the file; search for a more popular torrent. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet with a slow download if the file you are requesting is rare.
Step 6

Click the link on the page to download the torrent. The computer will then ask you what program to use to open the torrent file. Selcet Bittorrent (or whatever other program) from the list and hit ok. The torrent client should then open up and the file you requested will begin downloading. Wait until it reaches 100 percent, then virus scan and open the file and enjoy.

Comments

aew4 said

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on 1/12/2009 very good advice, and useful for taking advantage of free software / files. 5*

Devero said

on 1/9/2009 Yes, good point. Be careful what you download; there are a lot of dangerous files out there as well.

catnight said

on 1/9/2009 Great ideas! Had an odd thing happen.. legitimate program I owned had the keys but cd broke, torrented a copy to install, got a warning of illegal download from my ISP. So be careful out there!