Would someone be kind enough to explain what Torrents are all about?

[McSeven]

Are there different kinds? Are they safe to use? Are they spyware? etc?

 

[derekimo]

It all depends on what they are and where they come from, some are useful

others can be really bad news.

BitTorrent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for fixing the link John.

 

[EliteMaster16]

basically their used for downloading large files through what's called a p2p (peer to peer) connection. So you can download like tons of gigs of videos, photos, sound files, what have you through using bitorrent applications such as uTorrent.

 

[derekimo]

basically their used for downloading large files through what's called a p2p (peer to peer) connection. So you can download like tons of gigs of videos, photos, sound files, what have you through using bitorrent applications such as uTorrent.

Correct. There's just alot of shady torrents out there, BUT not all are.

You just need to be careful with them.

 

[mickey megabyte]

:warn: WARNING! :warn:

be very careful if you start playing with torrents.

there are lots and lots and lots of illegal ones out there.

there are lots of nasty idiots who infect torrents with viruses, trojans and the like.

make sure you have very good up-to-date anti-virus/spyware software. SCAN EVERYTHING!

many isps limit torrent usage at peak hours.

realise that uploading torrents slows down your internet speed.


(PS how do you do warning boxes?)

 

[JonM33]

It all depends on what they are and where they come from, some are useful

others can be really bad news.

BitTorrent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for fixing the link John.

I have never seen a "bad news" torrent before.

 

[derekimo]

It all depends on what they are and where they come from, some are useful

others can be really bad news.

BitTorrent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for fixing the link John.

I have never seen a "bad news" torrent before.

Doesn't mean they aren't out there, you're just lucky I guess.

 

[mickey megabyte]

I have never seen a "bad news" torrent before.

they do exist, in large numbers. you're lucky you haven't found one yet.

 

[JonM33]

Doesn't mean they aren't out there, you're just lucky I guess.

they do exist, in large numbers. you're lucky you haven't found one yet.

I have been using BitTorrent since 2005, downloaded thousands of them. One private tracker that I have been using for the past 2 years shows over 3TB of traffic downloaded and 700 torrents in my history.

No "bad news" from any of them. It's not luck either. What do you consider "bad"?

 

[scoopeeedoo]

I really don't realize the interest of torrents...
Honestly i used to be a p2p user before and stopped because of innumerable intrusion attempts (thank you Norton for keeping me safe!).
Since i use direct download (always read comments!!!) i never had problems again...

 

[mickey megabyte]

...snip...

No "bad news" from any of them. It's not luck either. What do you consider "bad"?

bad to me = virus, trojan, spyware etc

or simply badly labelled - you think you're downloading some tv show, but you get gay porn (for example)

i'm not going to provide you with any links :devil:

 

[JonM33]

bad to me = virus, trojan, spyware etc

or simply badly labelled - you think you're downloading some tv show, but you get gay porn (for example)

i'm not going to provide you with any links :devil:

If you download illegal software than that's your own fault.

 

[dobhar]

If you are going to "Torrent" use a site that users need to be invited to...helps keeps the "nasties" out.

 

[mickey megabyte]

bad to me = virus, trojan, spyware etc

or simply badly labelled - you think you're downloading some tv show, but you get gay porn (for example)

i'm not going to provide you with any links :devil:

If you download illegal software than that's your own fault.

the OP didn't know anything about torrents.

it was a very good idea to warn him that there are dodgy 'bad news' ones out there.

now he knows.

 

[JonM33]

the OP didn't know anything about torrents.

it was a very good idea to warn him that there are dodgy 'bad news' ones out there.

now he knows.

Most "legal" torrents are all safe without a problem. That's everything from Linux distros to video game demos. If you go browsing for pirated software then you are playing with fire.

A good hint would be for the OP to avoid illegal software downloading. There are plenty of free alternatives that are perfectly safe to use.

 

[mickey megabyte]

the OP didn't know anything about torrents.

it was a very good idea to warn him that there are dodgy 'bad news' ones out there.

now he knows.

Most "legal" torrents are all safe without a problem. That's everything from Linux distros to video game demos. If you go browsing for pirated software then you are playing with fire.

A good hint would be for the OP to avoid illegal software downloading. There are plenty of free alternatives that are perfectly safe to use.

it's the word 'most' that bothers me, but i get your point.

 

[JonM33]

it's the word 'most' that bothers me, but i get your point.

Okay....ALL legal torrents are safe. If you download the torrent from a reputable website then there isn't going to be a problem.

 

[xrekirax]

All I have to say is keep your AV on, keep to the legal downloads, and if you can check out any info on the tracker or the person who uploaded the torrent. If they have good reputation on the site the tracker was uploaded, you probably can trust them (still keep your AV on though).

Also, if you want extra protection, go ahead and use a proxy or a VPN to stay anonymous. Though you wouldn't necessarily need one for legal downloads, some people fancy staying "hidden".

 

[johnwillyums]

Torrents download from multiple sources all at the same time. So as you are downloading other people are downloading from you. It literally is a torrent.
P2P sharing is sharing between 2 individuals hence depends on the upload speed of the one doing the sharing.
If a torrent file is popular it will have plenty of "seeds" and will download very swiftly to your computer.
Both methods can be dangerous in terms of virus, trojans etc. I would say Bit Torrent is safer than P2P sharing.
On torrent sits it's a good idea to look at the comments before clicking download as these will warn of malware etc.

Hope this helps, John

 

[WindowsStar]

Torrent is just a tool to move large amounts of data around efficiently. It can be used for bad or for good. One of the best things I have ever seen Torrenting used for is a deployment of an OS to many many computers in a short time.

Here is the story if you wish to read it:

Several Admins were given the task of upgrading the OS on a company’s network from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. There were over 9000 workstations in a 100 buildings and many were long distances away with T1 lines connecting them. When the Admins calculated the time needed they found that it was going to take weeks and weeks to push the install. Their solution was to use torrenting, why because once one workstation had the OS it was able to give it to other machines and the more machines that had the OS the more that were servers. Once one machine had the OS across the T1 line it was able to give it to all the other computers and getting the data on the LAN is much faster than over the WAN. They were able to get all 9000 machines upgraded in 4 short days over a long extended weekend.