The BitTorrent Guide : Part II

In this part of the BitTorrent Guide, we shall talk about various BitTorrent clients and configuring them. IF you intend to ask me what a BitTorrent client is, then the answer is :-

A BitTorrent Client is a software that downloads files from the BitTorrent network according to instructions provided to it by the .torrent file.

Just like Linux distributions, the internet is flooded with different BitTorrent clients, so the following is a list of reliable, free, and popular BitTorrent clients (please don’t send me an ultimatum if your favourite client is not present in this list, but your inputs are welcome) :-

Cross Platform Clients

These run on multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac and Linux.

Official BitTorrent Client : Altough not the most powerful BitTorrent client, it’s an obvious starting point for many, but i would recommend using ABC instead of this one.

Another BitTorrent Client (ABC) : This is one of the simplest BitTorrent clients out there and is a good way to get started. More experienced users are likelky to get bored with it very soon.

Azureus : This is a powerful Java based client that tends to find more peers than other clients. However, it tends to be a little resource hungry, so if you’re short on RAM, a better alternative would be BitComet. It’s highly configurable, and once you get the hang of BitTorrent, this becomes the standard client for many.

BitComet : This is a C++ based, user friendly BitTorrent client that comes in second only to Azureus in terms of performance. Like Azureus, it features a lot of customisation options.

Linux and Mac

Linux users can use KTorrent, which comes built into KDE, and Mac users can use Tomato Torrent.

For more, check out this comparison list of BitTorrent clients.

Ideally Configuring a BitTorrent Client

• Do not set your maximum upload speed to more than 80% of what is available, because the client needs some upload bandwidth to communicate with the tracker, so this may result in much slower downloading.
• Keep a low number of maximum uploads. In a torrent network, it is better to send 2 files at 5 kbps than 5 files a 2 kbps, since that will degrade the performance of the person who is leaching from you.
• Seed Files : Since BitTorrent is a participation driven network, the more files you host for the network, more the priority you are given while downloading, and it is always better to host very popular files