Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Hey guys,

So there have been a lot of questions popping up about how to download shows and play them etc. I think that it's only fair that others learned the same way that I did: Guess and Check, and reading a lot of tutorials until I got it down.

Here is a little step in the right direction.

1) How to download torrents

Use google to find a torrent program suitable for you. The beginner programs are BitTorrent and BitTornado. I say they are beginner because they are simple download windows just like any other download window you would see in Windows.

The intermediate/advanced are the ones like utorrent, vuze, bitcomet. These are a little more tricky because they can download multiple torrents, can set up rss feeds, can be programmed to adjust speeds with peak traffic times etc.



Once you have your torrent program you will most likely need to forward ports on your computer to get it running and downloading and UPLOADING at its highest potential. For that go here www.portforward.com

They have all the tutorials for your individual program and router

MACS: As far as I know this information applies to you too. I have heard of a specific torrent program for Mac that is called TomatoTorrent. But I have also heard utorrent works for macs also.


2) Playing a downloaded show

Congratulations! You downloaded a gig of random files to your computer and don't know what to do with it.

Now most shows that are traded amongst DMB fans are in the file of .flac or .shn

You have two options: a) Convert the files to a more suitable format (.mp3, .m4a, .wav) b) Play the .flac and .shn files directly.

a) If you want to convert the files: for flac, go to http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html and pick one of those programs.

for .shn, go to http://etree.org/mkw.html and download the mKwconverter. As far as I know, this still works.

I highley recommend dbpoweramp music converter. Google it and go to their website and download the .flac and .shn plugins, once you have its very easy to use.

Just right click on the file and click "convert to".

*NOTE*: dbpoweramp is a 30 freeware program, but there are two ways around it. 1) you can download older versions and use those
2) You know... ;)


b) playing the files directly

Again go to flac.sourceforge.net and towards the bottom of the downloads page you will see that you can download plugins for your favorite media players. the same can be done with .shn through getting the appropriate plugins online.

3) Now what to do after you can play the music files?

Enjoy. But wait there's one more thing you should to. Pay it forward by helping out some of the other people on this forum who may have the same problems you did.

Hope this helps.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Also I wanted to add that this is a very basic tutorial. If you get any errors along the way, you're SOL!

Just kidding post any questions here and I'm sure someone can help out.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

where are the older versions of dbpoweramp...i can't find them...

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

i've been using torrents for a while and have had no problems. i just got a mac and got utorrent for mac. it worked just fine.
but a few days ago, torrents just stopped working. they won't start and have a little infinity symbol under ETA.

any ideas?

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Many things with that, reset your internet and router? is the tracker down? perhaps the ports you forwarded are now being blocked?

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

also too, dont have it set up for random ports, use a set port. also if you changed internet providers that may be a problem as well. I had comcast, since I went to qwest, i can download and seed but cannot up a torrent, because they dont completely open up any ports

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

definitely never got it to work on my mac. downloaded 5 different types of programs and it never worked :(

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

What particularly doesn't work?

If its that the torrents won't download then you may need to double check firewall settings and forwarding your ports on your router. Also make sure people are seeding those particular torrents.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Where do I download a reliable BitTorrent program? Why aren't there ever any links provided? Is it free?

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Google is a good start. Yes they are free.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

I downloaded winamp but it wouldn't convert to mp3 and only seemed to want to load/play one track at a time. I tried flac frontend and couldn't figure it out. Could someone please suggest reliable Flac converter's that are from a place I can trust?

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Nevermind. I downloaded "Switch sound file converter" and that did the trick. All is well in the world. Damn, 6-25-10 was one hell of a show!!

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

There are much more than links provided. There's a whole long FAQ on it.

http://antsmarching.org/downloads/torrentfaq.php

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

What I do is convert the FLAC to WAV using the WinAmp plugin.

I load the WAVs up on iTunes and then do a conversion to mp3.

dbPowerAmp has been good to me, but if I can remember correctly, don't you have to pay for it?



For a Torrent program, I would recommend uTorrent. It's barebones, simple, and doesn't take up much of your computer's resources.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

I use foobar to play FLAC files and convert them to WAV. It's free and easy. http://www.foobar2000.org/

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

I downloaded my first torrent, but it went through frostwire. I used Media Monkey to play it. I tried downloading 2 more shows and I can't seem to get them to play. Is there something I need to do through here or is it just something on my end? I'm not sure how to go about 'reseeding' because I used frostwire, not bittorrent. Someone please help me ASAP!! I don't want to be doing something wrong & get in trouble!! :(

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

ive tired every converter and it wont work at all

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

ive tired every converter and it wont work at all

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Hi. I'm new to this, and it's not clear to me if I am able to get what I'm after. I want a show. To listen to, whenever I want. I can burn it, and share it, because I have downloaded it. This is what I've been accustomed to with B&P's in the past, but I cannot find a place for this on ants.

So will bit torrents allow me to accomplish this, or do I need to look somewhere else?

Thanks in advance for any help . . .

Please email me if you have the answer at easyfella@gmail.com

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Thank you for this post I am clueless to this stuff and it helped me a lot, hopefully I won't piss anyone off by trying this out sorry if so!

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

thanks for the help!

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

I have downloaded every show so far for 2010 along with seeding them all as well. As far as etiquette goes, how long should I keep them "up"? Would it be OK to take down some of the earlier shows and keep the new shows going? I don't want to ruffle any feathers as I really enjoy the ability to DL shows. I've read through the FAQ section for Torrents and nothing is mentioned in regards to the appropriate amount of time you should continue to seed. Thank you in advance for any help.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

In addition with downloading torrents, I have here some ways that you can make your torrent downloads more efficient:

Solution 1:

Select a BitTorrent client, for example BitTorrent, Vuze or uTorrent.

Solution 2:

Select the appropriate "seeds" and "peers." The more seeders, the quicker the downloads. Select torrents with minimal "lechers."

Solution 3:

You'll want to make sure that your upload time is approximately 80 per cent of your ultimate upload speed (which you can confirm by checking any website that does torrent speed tests).

Solution 4:

Try activating "Outgoing Protocol Encryption" and "Allow Incoming Legacy Connections." This will make it harder for your ISP to identify torrent downloading.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

I'm really new to this and worried I'm going to do something wrong and get punished :lorraine I'm downloading my first show using Transmission. My download speed is at 17% which is really slow and not a normal download speed for me. I'm concerned I'm not doing something right because it says "Announce Error unregistered torrent pass" What does that mean and what do I need to do to fix it? Any help would be really appreciated! Thanks!

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

You are not doing anything wrong. Download speeds can be slow if there are not that many other people uploading the show to you. This may be because it is an old show and people have stopped seeding it. You may want to look into setting your ports and firewall as mentioned in the very first post of this thread.

As for the error you keep receiving, many others have had this problem when using Transmission. I would try to use a different torrent program for macs, you can search for those on google.

Hope this helps

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Thanks so much, I switched to BitTorrent and it went perfectly. I really appreciate the helpful response :)

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Is there a problem with downloading torrents at the moment? I am getting a server error when I try on a PC and on a MAC it is just not downloading the torrent (cannot find the attachment)

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

Yeah I'm getting the same thing. Anyone know what's up??

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

same problem. downloading attachment just brings up a blank window.

Re: Torrents 101: Downloading and Playing Them
 

why don't any of the torrents download?

does anyone have any clue what's going on?