mindme
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Karma: 44
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Re:Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread - 2006/07/28 11:45
toberose wrote:
Hi, all:
what's a torrent?
Short answer: the greatest app ever made.
Long answer (which I wrote up for a message board of ex pat teachers in Korea who want to watch our beloved, missed TV shows ... like Bullshit!):
Bit Torrent
Bit Torrent can be a little daunting for the less than computer savvy and a little odd for people used to peer-to-peer systems like Kazaa.
First Get the Client: Before you can start you need to download a client (like Azureus or BitTornado) the software that will do the downloading. This client will do nothing own its own. You can't use it to search like you could with Kazaa or Napster. You do the searching via web sites.
Clients: http://a.scarywater.net/torrent/clients/
Now Find the Web Sites: Next you need to find a web site that has TV show torrents. These sites go up and down all the time, since they're violating all kinds of crazy laws.
TV Show sites:
www.tvtorrents.com
www.torrentspy.com
Now Download a Torrent File: After you find a site and find the TV show you want to download, you'll end up downloading a file called a ".torrent" (eg south.park1004.dsr-loki.avi.torrent). Wow it downloaded amazingly quick for a full TV show huh? Guess what. That's not the actual TV show.
Now Open the Torrent File in the Client: With that torrent file now safely on your hard drive, you open that file in a bit torrent client mentioned above. It might take a few minutes but eventually the client will start downloading the file. If your torrent file is downloading very slowly, you'll probably need to open a port through your firewall software. Google around on "port open bit torrent firewall" for tips on how to do this. If its not downloading at all, then there's probably no seeds.
On Opening Ports: http://www.dessent.net/btfaq/#ports
Can't See the Show: If the show you downloaded doesn't seem to play in your media player (for example you get sound but just a dark screen), it's likely because you don't have the most up to date codecs. A good one stop codec shop is the "k-lite" codec pack. Alternatively, get Videolan. Videolan is a media player that seems to work with anything.
Codecs: http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/
Videolan: http://www.videolan.org/
How does bit torrent actually work?
In a nut shell, when you download, you're part of a chain. What you download, your bit torrent client turns around and uploads to the next guy. As long as at least one person has 100% of the file and is uploading (ie a seeder), everyone can (eventually) download the file. Because it's essential what gets downloaded needs to get uploaded to the next guy, you should not be alarmed that your computer is uploading. In fact, faster you upload, faster the whole bit torrent protocol will let you download. In other words, people who upload slowly don't deserve to download quickly. Bit torrent works better when many people have the whole file and are seeding. When many people have the file bit torrent ceases to be like a single bucket brigade and more like a bucket brigade that is sending you buckets from all directions. If many people have the whole file, or large parts of the file, Bit torrent breaks up the file into small packets, sends you different packets in some mysterious fashion, and then stitches them all back together when you've downloaded it 100%.
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