man everyones doing a good job pointing things out
however i did write on myself ... here goes
Disclaimer: Using torrents is LEGAL ...
its what u download that could be ILLEGAL
Hence be careful how and what you use
I am not responsible on how you use the following information
Getting to the guide :
What is BitTorrent?
BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files.
It is peer-to-peer (p2p) in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, You have to understand the idea behind a torrent is totally different than the conventional p2p we know. There is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers. The tracker only manages connections, it does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed, and therefore a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth.
The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (transmit outbound, also called seeding) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound, also called leeching). In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better as the number of people interested in a certain file increases, in contrast to other file transfer protocols.
Glossary:
Seeder: is a person who you're downloading from. A person who has the whole file and is letting people to download from him/her.
Leecher: is one who downloads.
Reseeder: is one who starts seeding an old torrent on whim/request
Peers: People downloading from you.
Torrent file:is what contains the tracker information, and other file information as well as file checking information.
Tracker: The tracker is the backbone to the whole system, your client will announce to the tracker at a designated interval, your current status of the transfer. The tracker will then send you a list of all the people/clients it is tracking, and their status, your client will then decipher this list and contact all the other clients and ask for the pieces you need to complete your download.
(BTW ... you have to click on the torrent ... and then ur torrent software will start the download ... if u have the individual window kind of torrent like bittornado .. then multiple windows will be open .. and ull have to keep these windows open to continue seeding .. if u have something like azureus ... then once the torrent is done .. it moves to the lower frame which is for seeding .... as long as the torrent is there you're seeding ... once u stop .. and remove from list ... yiu are no longer a seeder )
List of Clients
BitTorrent Official Client
http://www.bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/download.html
BitTornado (Formerly Shadow) (RECOMMENDED)
http://www.bittornado.com
Azureus (java client) (RECOMMENDED)
http://azureus.sourceforge.net
UPnP NAT Fast Resume Shad0w
http://aaron2003.myftp.org/upnpclient.html
TorrentStorm
http://www.torrentstorm.com
ABC[Yet Another BitTorrent Client] (RECOMMENDED)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pingpong-abc/
BitComet
http://www.bitcomet.com
burst!
https://sourceforge.net/projects/burst/
XBT Client
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbtt/
Torrentopia
http://www.torrentopia.com/
G3 Torrent
http://g3torrent.sourceforge.net/
Personal Torrent Collector
http://www.ptc-bt.net/
Shareaza
http://www.shareaza.com/
Flash! Torrent (Formerly burst plus!)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/burst-plus/
TurboBT
http://turbobt.sourceforge.net/
Effusion (Java Client)
http://www.azrael-uk.f2s.com/az/effusion/
snark (Java Client)
http://www.klomp.org/snark/
BTManager
http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmanager/
SimpleBT
https://sourceforge.net/projects/simplebt/
BitAnarch
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitanarch/
m1lk
http://sourceforge.net/projects/m1lk/
Bit Spirit
http://www.lanspirit.com/bitspirit/index2.htm#Download
ByteTorrent.BTChange
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bytetorrent/
BitTorrent Macintosh (Tomato)
http://sarwat.net/bittorrent/
MarBitTorrent
http://www.marbit.com.pl/MBTorrent/start.html
CTorrent
http://ctorrent.sourceforge.net/
Leecher/Bad Clients
JerkTorrent
This is a known leecher, avoid it
BT++(Sends Bad Data)
http://btplusplus.sourceforge.net/
Nova Torrent (Site currently down)
http://blackflaw.dyndns.org/
Torrent Makers/Extras
TorrentSpy - BitTorrent MetaInfo Handler
http://sourceforge.net/projects/torrentspy/
MakeTorrent
https://sourceforge.net/projects/burst/
completedir
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bittorrent/
PS: List of torrents has been sourced from zeropaid.com !
A few poitns have been sourced from torrent sites FAQ's as well !