A torrent client list

BitComet

uTorrent

BitLord

Azureus (Vuze)

BitTorrent (Original client Authored by Bram Cohen himself; no fancy GUI here, but it downloads quickly. Recommended for programmer types and Macintosh users)

BitTornedo – A torrent client which support Encryption.

Acquisition – A torrent client for Mac which is based on Limewire platform.

Arctic - A c++ based bit torrent client which supports both 32 and 64 bit Windows.

Flashget – Another download manager with torrent downloading capabilities.

Opera - Don't be shocked to see opera here. If you are not aware then FYI opera is capable of downloading torrents with the help of inbuilt browser.

Shareaza - A Multi-network supported Torrent client.

Limewire - A client which uses the Gnutella network and support torrents also.

GTorrent – An open source torrent client.

Gnome BitTorrent – Best and the [popular torrent client for Linux based OS with GUI.

POPULAR TORRENT SEARCH ENGINES

Entertane: another metasearch engine, Entertane will pore through other search engines on your behalf, and display the results in a framed interface for your easy browsing.

Isohunt is a Canadian site that has earned the respect of P2P users everywhere. In spite of being sued by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Isohunt team continues to provide solid service and good torrents to the international community. While there are fake files that have polluted the Isohunt database, if you are careful to read the user comments on each potential download, you should have no problem filtering out the good torrents for yourself.

Demonoid :have reestablished themselves outside of the USA as of spring 2008, and have resumed torrent operations. Demonoid is still a private community, and members are held liable for any leeching that their invited friends do in this community. If you are lucky enough to get a Demonoid membership, invite your friends carefully, lest you lose your own membership.

Btjunkie

Mininova

Torrentz this is like the google of torrents it searches over a number of other torrent sites. Very useful site.

ThePirateBay

How to download torrents step-by-step?

You use special Torrent search engines to find .torrent text files around the Net.

A .torrent text file functions as a special pointer to locate a specific file and the swarm of people currently sharing that file. These .torrent files vary from 15kb to 150kb file size, and are published by serious Torrent sharers around the world.

POPULAR SEARCH ENGINES FOR TORRENTS

You download the desired .torrent file to your drive (this takes about 5 seconds per .torrent file at cable modem speeds).

You open the .torrent file into your Torrent software. Usually, this is as simple as a a double-click on the .torrent file icon, and the client software auto-launches. In other cases, this software will even open the Torrent file for you.

The Torrent client software will now talk to a tracker server for 2 to 10 minutes, while it scours the Internet for people to swarm with. Specifically, the client and tracker server will search for other users who have the same exact .torrent file as you.

As the tracker locates Torrent users to swarm with, each user will be automatically labeled as either a “leech/peer” or as a “seed” (users who have only part of the target file, versus users who have the complete target file). As you might guess, the more seeds you connect to, the faster your download will be. Commonly, 10 peers/leeches and 3 seeders is a good swarm for downloading a single song/movie.

The client software then begins the transfer. As the name “sharing” implies, every transfer will happen in both directions, “down” and “up” (leech and share).

*SPEED EXPECTATION: Cable and DSL modem users can expect an average of 25 megabytes per hour, sometimes slower if the swarm is small with less than 2 seeders. On a good day with a big swarm, however, you can download a 5MB song within 3 minutes, and a 900MB movie within 60 minutes.

Once the transfer is complete, leave your Torrent client software running for at least two hours. This is called "seeding" or "good karma", where you share your complete files to other users.

Suggestion: do your downloads just before you go to sleep at night. This way, you will seed your complete files, you will increase your upload/download ratio, and you will have complete downloaded files by the time you wake up!

Enjoy your movies and songs!

Fair warning: you will want a second hard drive once you start serious Torrent downloading. Songs and movies require large disk space, and an average P2P user commonly has 20 to 40 GB of media files at any one time. A second 250GB hard drive is common for serious P2P users, and the recent low prices on hard drives make it a good investment.

Getting Started with torrents

6 ingredients "major" needed for torrents to work

1. BitTorrent client software (there are dozens of choices, all free to install.)
2. A tracker server (hundreds of them exist on the Web, no cost to use).
3. A .torrent text file that points to the movie/song/file you want to download.
4. A Torrent search engine that helps you find these .torrent text files.
5. A specially-configured Internet connection with port 6881 opened on the server/router to allow Torrent file trading.
6. A working understanding of file management on your PC/Macintosh. You will need to navigate hundreds of folders and filenames to make file sharing work for you.

How do torrent downloads work?

For those who already know, this for the lamers and total newbies who have no experience either over the internet or downloading.

A download client is used to open the torrent file of the respective download having enough number of seeders (uploaders) for it to start downloading the files specified.

(those who only leech (only download ) are not welcome to torrents, though there are many who do that their speeds are choked)

A torrent client is an application which allows you to download files using a torrent.

Torrent sharing is about "swarming and tracking", where users download many small bits from many different sources at once. Because this format compensates for bottleneck points, it is actually faster than downloading a large file from a single source.

“Swarming” is about splitting large files into hundreds of smaller “bits”, and then sharing those bits across a “swarm” of dozens of linked users.

“Tracking” is when specific servers help swarm users find each other.

Swarm members use special Torrent client software to upload, download, and reconstruct the many file bits into complete usable files.

Special .torrent text files act as pointers during this whole process, helping users find other users to swarm with, and enforcing quality control on all shared files.

TORRENTS - What is that?

Torrents are just another way to engage in file sharing on the Internet that’s technically more efficient (and complicated) than traditional Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks like KaZaa or LimeWire.

Torrents are actually small control files with the information needed to know where to get a desired file from multiple sources at the same time. With these instructions, it can download chunks of a larger file from multiple users simultaneously (and even out of sequence), and then reassemble the chunks in the proper order on your computer.

This approach is more complicated to set up, but the techie community prefers its speed and elusiveness to other P2P networks. The two stage process pulling from multiple computers makes it nearly impossible to shut down.

Torrents are not illegal, just as guns are not illegal. It’s what’s done with the tool that CAN be illegal. If you use torrents to download copyrighted material such as songs, movies, or software programs, then your actions are illegal — not the use of torrents.

Frankly, the majority of activity in the torrent networks is for illegally downloading copyrighted content: first run movies, pirated software, music from commercial artists, etc.

Torrents can be very useful in moving large quantities of data around many computers across the Internet, but using it to get something for ‘free’ that you would normally have to pay for is when you have crossed the line.

Another concern when downloading files from the torrent networks is contracting various malware from files that are posing as popular content or have hidden Trojans (especially in software program downloads) that can sneak malicious code into your computer while you are running or installing the material.

There are lots of Web sites that offer free downloads that are entirely legal, but you probably won’t want what you can get for free because it won’t be the big name artists, movies, or videos.

If you don’t have to actually download the content, there are lots of ways to listen to and view copyrighted material for free without breaking the law.

WARNING: Many Web sites and ads that you encounter in either search results or banner ads will proclaim that you can download movies and music for free. If the content they are offering is first run movies or brand new music that you can freely download, consider it illegal or a scam.

Malicious software programmers know that they can infect people that are not paying attention and this is one of the most common ways to get your computer infected, so be vigilant when searching for free content!