Why can your friends download the latest movies and games, and why can't you do that?

Many people think downloading a movie for example can simply be done by typing the name of the movie into Google, click on the first hit Google finds and click on the 'download this movie' button and a couple of hours later the movie can be watched in the living room.

In fact the reality is a bit different. Downloading movies, games and software is quite simple and can be done in several ways but it isn't as easy as I said above.

How can I download movies, games and software?
You can download movies, games and software in several ways. A very often used way is to download these using 'Torrents' or using 'Newsgroups'.
Because I want to help you on HOW to download moviesetc. using Torrents, I only write a short introduction about WHAT Torrents are and WHAT Newsgroups are.

I think it is less interesting for you to know how torrents or newsgroups work if you want to download movies, games or software.

A short introduction about…

…What is a torrent? BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol. (A peer is any computer running an instance of a client.) BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting and bandwidth resources. Instead, when data is distributed using the BitTorrent protocol, each recipient supplies pieces of the data to newer recipients, reducing the cost and burden on any given individual source, providing redundancy against system problems, and reducing dependence on the original distributor. To share a file or group of files, a peer first creates a 'torrent'. This small file contains metadata about the files to be shared and the tracker, the computer that coordinates the file distribution. Peers that want to download movies the file first obtain a torrent file for it, and connect to the specified tracker, which tells them from which other peers to download the pieces of the file. (Source: www.wikipedia.org) More information about torrents and its techniques can be found here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent …What are Newsgroups? A newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. The term is somewhat confusing, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to read newsgroups. Typically, a newsgroup is focused on a particular topic such as "pigeon hunting". Some newsgroups allow the posting of messages on a wide variety of themes, regarding anything a member chooses to discuss as on-topic, while others keep more strictly to their particular subject, frowning on off-topic postings.

The news admin (the administrator of a news server) decides how long articles are kept before being expired (deleted from the server). Usually they will be kept for one or two weeks, but some admins keep articles in local or technical newsgroups around longer than articles in other newsgroups.

Newsgroups generally come in either of two types, binary or text. There is no technical difference between the two, but the naming differentiation allows users and servers with limited facilities the ability to minimize network bandwidth usage. Generally, Usenet conventions and rules are enacted with the primary intention of minimizing the overall amount of network traffic and resource usage.



Newsgroups are much like the public message boards on old bulletin board systems. For those readers not familiar with this concept, envision an electronic version of the corkboard in the entrance of your local grocery store.
(Source: www.wikipedia.org)

More information about newsgroups can be found here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup

Now let me explain to you how to download movies via Torrents:

Step 1:
The first thing you do, is ask yourself: What do I want to download?
For example: a Lord of the Rings movie.
Okay, you know what you want? Good.

Now you have to find a torrent to download a 'Lord of the Rings' movie.

Step 2:
There are several websites where you can find torrents. I will recommend you a few torrent sites which are very good torrent sites.

• www.torrentspy.com
• www.thepiratebay.org
• www.torrentsearch.com
• www.torrentreactor.net

In my example I will describe how to download a torrent via torrentspy.com.

Now, go to torrentspy.com and type in the search area 'Lord of the Rings' and click the 'torrent' button.

Step 4:
Well now, you see 7 columns, namely:

1. Torrent Name: the name of the torrent.
2. Category: What kind of torrent is it. Is it a movie, a game, music or an application.
3. Size: This is the size of the complete file when it is completely downloaded.
4. Files: how many files are going to be downloaded with this torrent.
5. S: how many seeders are available. So, how many people seed a part of the complete file.
6. D: Downloaders. How many downloaders does this file have.
7. Health: this is the health of the file. The more green it is, the better. So you should get the files which are having the best health status.

If you point your mouse for a few seconds on a filename there is a balloon shown up as shown in the picture above which tells you the complete filename.

In the screen above you can choose which files you are going to download. For example if you are looking for the movie 'Fellowship of the Ring' of 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, you search for a filename which says 'Fellowship of the Ring' in it AND you pick one with a good Health status.
When you found a good file you click on the filename.

The next screen is shown.

Click on the 'Download' button.
Then the next screen appears.

Now you are being taken to the website of 'fulldls.com' or where ever the torrent is located, OR you simply get a popup window to store the torrent file to your computer.

Okay, now you have your torrent file. Can you watch the movie already?
The answer is: NO you can't.

What you have done is just downloading the torrent. And this torrent file WILL download your requested movie, game or software (in my example, the movie 'The Fellowship of the Ring'.)

So what are we going to do now?

Now we need a program where we can import this torrent file and download movies.
Such a program is called a BitTorrent client.
There are several BitTorrent clients available on the World Wide Web.
For example:

• BitComet
• Azureus
• BitTornado
• Shareaza

After you have installed BitComet you can use it for downloading movies, games and software via the torrent files you downloaded.

Step 8:
Now go to your torrents download folder (in my example 'D:my torrents') and double click on the torrent file you want to download.

The next screen is shown:

To unpack .RAR files you need the program WinRar. You can download WinRar at www.download.com.
WinRar unpacks all the .RAR files to a usable movie file.

Step 10:
After you have unpacked al the downloaded .RAR files you can watch you movie on your computer or you can burn them on a DVD to watch it in your DVD player.

You have successfully:

• Downloaded your torrent file,
• Downloaded the movie using this torrent file,
• Unpacked your downloaded .RAR files.

Congratulations!!! You have successfully downloaded a movie using a .torrent file.

For downloading games or software you simply follow the steps above. The only thing different is that you search for something else in step 2. Here you simply search for the game or software you like to download.

Success. Download movies, games or software!

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