The use of torrent sites is generally seen as an act to the limit of legality, but they are actually a great way to download files and legal content in the fastest way possible, with a speed difficult to achieve with a direct download. The most used program to download Torrent is, of course, uTorrent, which has become popular since its first appearance (even in 2005) both because it made downloading Torrent files easy, and because it was a light program.
It is no coincidence that the real name of uTorrent is μTorrent, with the Greek letter μ which stands for micro .
Over time uTorrent has become a clearly bigger program, available in a free version with advertising and in a paid version, with many tools inside that go beyond simply downloading files.
It is therefore worth reading a guide on how to use uTorrent, which can still be considered one of the best programs to download from the internet .
UTorrent is illegal "> how Torrent download works we have already written a detailed guide that is worth reading if you have never dealt with the subject.
In short, the torrent is a very small file that contains the references for the download from the network in peer to peer of the real, large file.
The torrent file is downloaded from torrent sites, while the actual requested file is downloaded by other connected users who already have and share that file.
The download is fast because the large file is divided into smaller parts that can be downloaded simultaneously, each by a different user.
To access the torrent network and shared content you need a dedicated torrent client, such as uTorrent, which will then be used to download the files.
Download and install uTorrent
The most difficult part of using uTorrent is to download it for free and install it without including sponsored software.
First of all, you need to open the uTorrent website, which recommends downloading the uTorrent web version, to be skipped.
It is better to go to the section of the site to download the uTorrent PC program and proceed with uTorrent Basic, the free version.
There are also two other versions of uTorrent, one uTorrent Pro, with additional security features, then uTorrent Ad Free for the ad-free version that costs 5 Dollars a year and finally the Basic version, the free one.
When the utorrent.exe file is downloaded, double-click on it and follow the instructions in the wizard to complete the installation.
Then press Next on the first window, press it again on the second one, the Warning one, press Next a third time to accept the license and finally, on the fourth screen, press the left button, Decline, to refuse the product installation offer. sponsored which is currently Adware Web Companion but it can also be other.
The fifth screen is another sponsor and this time you have to press the Skip button, almost invisible, to refuse.
As you can see uTorrent makes a very aggressive advertisement which is why many have complained in the past.
In the following screens of the installation procedure you can make an initial configuration and the only option to change is the one that asks you to start the program when the computer starts.
Then disable the Start uTorrent when Windows starts up option and instead leave the options active to allow exceptions on the Windows firewall and to recognize torrent files and magnet links.
Finally uTorrent should be installed on the PC, ready to be used.
Find and download a torrent
As you can see, in uTorrent there is no search engine and there is no content, therefore the sections will be substantially empty (with the exception of advertisements that will appear periodically).
To find the downloadable files you need to visit a torrent site like the one suggested by the program itself (BitTorrent Now) or another of your choice.
I cannot report Torrent search sites here, which are still easy to find on Google.
Unfortunately, since torrent sites often host illegal material, they are obscured or closed from time to time.
To give it a try, we can try to download the Linux Ubuntu ISO, selecting the download via torrent option.
In this way, a small file will be downloaded immediately, perhaps to be saved in a folder of the PC dedicated to torrents, with a name similar to ubuntu.iso.torrent .
Clicking it should immediately open uTorrent which will begin to download the required ISO.
If not, you can open uTorrent, go to the File menu and then press on Add Torrent, selecting the file you just downloaded.
When searching for torrent files in other sites, there will be a Seeding number next to the results
That number tells us how many people share the full content by leaving it available to others.
This seeding number is an indication of how quickly the file will be downloaded, since the higher it is, the more people currently share the content.
Another number could also be indicated, that of the Leecher, who are instead the people who have that file, but upload and download at the same time.
The number of leecher is therefore irrelevant to understand how fast you can download, because the downloads from the leecher are slow and can stop at any time.
On Torrent sites you must always pay attention to what you download and note that the file obtained is one whose name ends in .torrent .
If it ended with .exe or other extensions, it would be better to delete it immediately because it is not what we are looking for and it can be malware.
In some cases it is possible to click on the links called Magnet, which directly open uTorrent to download the file without having to download the .torrent file.
Torrent download
When starting a download from uTorrent, you can choose the folder in which to save the file and select the content to be saved on the right.
Some Torrents, in fact, can be selective and allow you to download only some of the contents by deselecting the others.
The file will then be downloaded clearly showing the progress in the main uTorrent interface, indicating how many people are currently sharing the content (the Seed number).
The progress indicator will appear divided into pieces, which actually indicate the parts into which the file has been divided for a super fast download.
The download can also be paused to continue in the following days.
Doors and Firewalls
While the option to add the program to the Windows firewall exceptions appears in the initial configuration of uTorrent, it may still be necessary to open the ports on the router.
This type of operation should be superfluous in most cases, since going to the uTorrent settings (from the Options menu at the top) you will notice, in the connection section, that the uPNP option is active, which in fact allows the program to work.
However, if the downloads were very slow or did not start, try to open the port indicated in the settings in the router settings instead.
To find out how to do this, I refer you to the guide to open the ports on the router.
In another article, we saw how to optimize uTorrent for fast downloading
If you are not satisfied, there are other alternative Torrent programs to uTorrent
