Windows: Ever since ourTunes stopped working after iTunes 7, many iTunes users have been looking for ways to easily download music from shared libraries over the network. AIR app Aethyr fills that gap, once again eliminating the need for an external drive. More »
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Recently, I’ve felt that my download speeds have been a little uneven, and I’m starting to wonder if my ISP is limiting or throttling my downloads. How can I tell for sure? More »
BitTorrent's been around for a whopping ten years, but it continues to evolve and remains one of the best file-sharing tools available. If you really want to make your downloads soar—and keep Big Brother out of your business—this guide's for you. More »
Mac only: uTorrent, the most popular BitTorrent client on Windows, has moved from alpha to beta for OS X, boasting a completely native Mac client with a brand new interface. Most Mac users are probably happy with Transmission, but the lightweight uTorrent is definitely worth a look—not only is the new UI much better than the old one, it's much nicer than Transmission's if you download a lot of torrents at once. Furthermore, uTorrent can definitely compete with Transmission on lightness, while still having some of the more advanced features of something like Vuze (though Transmission continues to gain advanced features with each update). If you're a recent Mac convert looking for a more familiar torrent client, or just a heavy downloader unhappy with Transmission's more minimal UI, the new uTorrent beta is definitely worth a look. More »
BitTorrent – ?Torrent – Transmission – File sharing – Windows
Windows only: uTorrent is far and away the most popular BitTorrent client among Windows users, and they’ve recently pushed out a shiny new 2.0 release, bringing with it bug fixes, performance improvements, UDP support, automatic bandwidth regulation, and more.
We explained the UDP update when uTorrent 2.0 beta came out way back in August of last year, but in a nutshell it means better performance for torrent trackers and ultimately for you, the user.
We also discussed the new transfer cap when the release candidate hit the streets, but again, simply put, it allows you to set bandwidth transfer caps to limit how much your client uploads or downloads over time to help avoid going over ISP caps.
As for uTP (which is kind of like your router’s Quality of Service functionality):
uTP is an alternative communication method for BitTorrent traffic that allows the client to automatically regulate its bandwidth usage to avoid adversely impacting your internet connection. This will allow you or other users on the network to download their torrents but still allow others on the network to function with little difference. This does not require any additional setup.
In addition, uTP in this version has added its own form of STUN, a method of getting incoming connections without direct connectivity to the Internet. This allows µTorrent to punch holes through routers and firewalls to increase connectivity and improve speeds. It is even possible to connect two firewalled peers through uTP’s NAT traversal feature.
In a nutshell, uTorrent 2.0 is a download any BitTorrent lover will probably want to grab in short order.
uTorrent 2.0 is a free download for Windows. The app is available for the Mac, but this 2.0 release doesn’t apply. Note: Be sure to skip the Ask.com toolbar when you're installing—unless of course you want it, which you don't.
Last week we asked you to share your favorite BitTorrent tracker, then we rounded up the results so you could cast your vote on the top five contenders. We’re back with the results.
Before we dive in, it's worth noting that this week's Hive Five required a little in-progress clarification. Our initial call was a request for best public trackers, but a lot of votes were for best indexers—to read more about the differences, see the actual Hive Five. We chalked that up to us not explicitly stating the difference between a tracker and an indexer and when the Hive Five was compiled, we opted to focus on the aspect of the two that the end user really cares about: downloading and using torrent files. With that in mind, the results:
The Pirate Bay, though no longer a tracker in its own right, took home the largest number of votes to weigh in at 29%. Following with a not-so-shabby second place was Demonoid (27%) and then the popular isoHunt with 19%. Rounding out the Hive Five was BTJunkie (15%) and KickAssTorrents (5%).
Have a BitTorrent-related tip or trick? Let’s hear about it in the comments. If you have an idea for a future Hive Five, send an email to tips at lifehacker.com with “Hive Five” in the subject line.
A great BitTorrent client is all well and good, but you need a great tracker to get the actual torrent files and stoke the bandwidth burning fire in your client of choice. Here’s a rundown of five of the most popular options.
A bit of clarification is in order before we share the list of the top five contenders with you. In our call for contenders we asked for you to share your favorite BitTorrent trackers, but we didn't explain the difference between a BitTorrent tracker and a BitTorrent indexer. The difference isn't immediately clear to the end user—nor does the difference even matter to many end users—and because we didn't make the difference crystal clear the votes were a mix of both sites that tracked and indexed and just indexed torrent files.
Since the purpose of the Hive Five is to help readers find tools and the ability to find torrents is more important to the majority of users than whether or not the place they find the torrents is also acting as the tracker for those torrents, we’ve opted to overlook the confusion in an effort to share a list of where Lifehacker readers go to search and download torrent files. The following list contains both true trackers and indexers. If you’re curious about the technical details between a tracker and an indexer you can read up on them here and here.
The Pirate Bay is no longer the full-service tracker it once was thanks to some rough battles with the law, but it remains in service as an indexer. The Pirate Bay has been and remains one of the most publicly recognizable faces of the torrent phenomenon and is still a popular destination for torrent seekers. It no longer indexes its own tracker but instead organizes torrents indexed to other trackers. The Pirate Bay is known for having, even now, a wide selection and a well-organized, easy-to-browse site.
BTJunkie is one of the largest torrent indexers on the web with over four million torrents and several thousand added daily. BTJunkie amasses such a high number of torrents by employing crawlers that dig through web sites looking for torrent files to index. The quality of torrents is ranked both by an algorithm and by user input which helps filter out low quality or malicious torrents.
Another enormous indexer, isoHunt has nearly two million torrents and a huge user base. In addition to being able to search torrents and sort them by age, number of peers, and other common search factors isoHunt has an additional variable, appropriately called isoHunt Rank, that is a compilation of all the other factors like age, number of comments, user feedback, and more. Sorting by isoHunt Rank allows you to see which torrents are best overall instead of just best in some subcategory like number of seeders or age.
Demonoid is a semi-public tracker. Registration is traditionally closed—it opens a few times a year to let new users in, or you can be invited by an existing member—but the site is still quite functional even without registration. Registration gives you access to the deep archives of Demonoid, but even without it you have access to over a quarter million torrents—the most recently added ones—available for download. Demonoid has built a name for itself by having a low number of bogus torrents and a high level of user participation.
KickAssTorrents is a new kid on the torrent indexing block, but it has quickly built a name for itself by offering a user friendly experience. KickAssTorrents is the only torrent search engine that offers correction of spelling mistakes—search for Unutu for instance and it will ask "Did you mean Ubuntu?"—which is a small thing but highlights the level of detail put into the construction of their search engine. In addition to indexing regular torrents KickAssTorrents also indexes httpTorrents, which allow users who cannot access the BitTorrent cloud due to their location or firewall restrictions to access torrents.
Which BitTorrent Indexer is Best?(answers)
Have a favorite torrent hangout that didn’t make the list? Have a BitTorrent-related tip or trick? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
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If you’re a BitTorrent lover but aren’t too keen on all the pop-ups, racy ads, and clutter that’s everywhere on most torrent sites, new BitTorrent site Nerrot is the cleanest, most bare-bones torrent site we’ve ever seen.
Just head to the homepage (this is also the only page on the site), type in the most accurate search you can come up with, and submit your search. Nerrot searches for the closest match with the highest ratio of seeders/the healthiest swarm, then automatically downloads what it determines to be the best torrent file for your search.
Nerrot is refreshing in its simplicity, but the fact remains that for a lot of torrents, it’s still going to be worth your time to read through comments and check different versions yourself before downloading. For those times you don’t really care, Nerrot is like the Google “I’m feeling lucky” search of BitTorrent sites.
All-things BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak broke down the numbers and rounded up the 25 most popular torrent sites of 2009. The results represent several best-known sites (like The Pirate Bay), but also probably a few you're not all that familiar with. Incidentally, number 20 on the list, Demonoid—a hybrid public and private tracker that we've always liked despite its recent downtime—is back up and running. And while we’re on the subject, feel free to share your BitTorrent search engine of choice in the comments. [Top 25 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2009 (Warning: Link contains one very small but NSFW thumbnail image of one of the sites)]
Windows only: uTorrent, the most popular BitTorrent client on the planet, has released a new 2.0 beta complete with bug fixes and new features, including UDP tracker support.
UD-wha? As all-things-BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak explains, UDP trackers are much less resource intensive than HTTP trackers, and most torrent sites out there support UDP—meaning that if uTorrent, the most popular torrent client, were to support it, that's great news for all the torrent trackers out there. On the surface that might not seem like the most exciting news, but it will likely mean browsing your favorite torrent site in a browser could be significantly speedier now that your BitTorrent client isn't slowing down the tracker with all those HTTP requests. Hit up the uTorrent forum for a list of all the changes and fixes in the beta if you’re ready to try it out.
uTorrent 2.0 Beta is freeware, Windows only.
