As someone who has been downloading torrents for the last decade I can’t imagine doing without them. Torrents have allowed me to access information that would otherwise be out of reach especially financially.
So to hear there are Kenyans who don’t know how to download torrents or have never even heard of the word is mind boggling to me, you’re missing out on so much.
But don’t fret there is a first time for everything and this article will take you step by step on how to download torrents.
What are Torrents?
Instead of the normal form of downloading that you’re used to, that involves requesting for a file from a central server and downloading it to your local machine. For Example, downloading a file from a website means you’re moving the file from the websites servers to your local computer.
Whereas, torrenting means there is no one individual or server holding the file rather it’s being hosted by multiple people and you will download it from all the active hosts simultaneously. These hosts are referred to as seeders .
The more seeders a file has the faster you will download it. So, when looking to download a file especially from a torrent site such as piratebay always ensure it has the most seeders. You can do this by clicking the seeders tab as shown below(If it hasn’t been arranged automatically from the highest seeders to the lowest.).
Next to the Seeders is Leechers this refers to the number of people who downloaded the file and didn’t seed back to those who are searching for it.
Once you finish downloading the file be sure to leave it seeding. This means once your download has completed it automatically stops downloading and starts uploading. Meaning just as someone made the file available to you so in turn you’re making it available to someone else. Once a file has no seeders it cannot be downloaded. So always remember to give back when downloading torrents.
Another thing to note especially in our example diagram is the first result of the search. It may appear to have the most seeders thus the most suitable to download but as you will see this is not the case.
Security
As much as torrents are heaven sent especially for those of us in third world countries, they have a downside. You have to be careful and extra vigilant when downloading torrents as anyone can upload a malicious file and pose it as secure. Although once you know how to spot “fake files”, downloading torrents will be a breeze and you won’t have to worry about viruses.
Back to our example, as you can see the first result is disguised as “Scarface” the movie we searched for and intend on downloading. It’s even more enticing due to the fact that it has 38 more seeders than the second result. But here is what to look out for to know this is more of a virus than a movie.
- The “Type” (listed on the left) of file is listed as Application rather than Video(HD-Movies) how can a movie be an application for windows??
- You should always look for files uploaded by a verified user or moderator even if the seeds are much less compared to the alternatives. This ensures the torrent you’re downloading is 100% safe. As they say, better safe than sorry. So how do you know a file that has been uploaded by a moderator or verified user?
It has the green skull at the bottom. So in this case the second file is your very best option to download.
How to Download Torrents
Once you have identified the right file to download through the guidelines stated above, the next step is to download the file. Now, downloading torrents is a bit different from the normal downloading that you’re used to although not at all difficult.
You need a torrent client such as:
Which is available for windows, mac and linux. It is my favourite client by far and is absolutely free.
Once downloaded the next step is to go back to piratebay or which ever torrent site you’re downloading from and:
- Click on the little red magnet known as a magnet link as underlined in orange below.
- Once clicked, your browser, if chrome, will open a dialog similar to this. Tick the box and click open.
- Qbittorrent will then open asking you which folder you’d like the file to be downloaded to. Make sure to select a location with ample space for the file then click Download torrent.
- That’s it your file has started downloading.
Another way of downloading torrents that is less common but still in use is downloading what is known as a torrent file.
In such a case, once the torrent file has downloaded which is a very small file around 13kb that contains information about the file you want to download, double click on it. This will automatically open qbittorrent or your torrent client of choice, select the file destination and the torrent should start downloading.
Top Torrent Websites in 2021
I personally use all of them and can vouch for them.
Be sure to also follow our extensive guide on how to download free udemy, coursera, CBTNuggets e.t.c courses through torrents that will help you advance your career skills and stand out from your peers.
In case of any questions please leave a comment I’ll be happy to help. 🙂