Encrypting is kinda important.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Further protection
Encrypting is kinda important.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
How to torrent safely
Even with uTorrent and Bit Che, you aren't completely protected. Here's some tips that can (and probably will) save your ass at some point (and hopefully prevent future frustrations).
Don't download from ThePirateBay. As much nice stuff as they have, the RIAA, MPAA and a few other government agencies from around the world are watching the site like hawks.
Don't download computer programs unless you know what you're getting into. It's very easy to slip a keylogger or a trojan into a program.
Avoid cracked software and keygens unless you know what to look for. A lot of the time, it will either not work at all, have a trojan or do something nasty to your computer.
When using Bit Che, you may sometimes run into a tracker called BTjunkie(ext). As nice as BTjunkie is, the (ext) at the end means it's a member-only thing and getting a membership on that site is confusing, annoying, and fills your inbox with spam. Not worth it, just ignore them.
Have two folders for torrents: one for incomplete torrents and one for finished torrents. It will make things easier for you.
Bit Che will sometimes bring up dead torrents (it will show an error: invalid torrent in uTorrent). It's okay, it's not perfect. Just move on to the next torrent. Sometimes all the torrents will be like that, in which case you might as well give up on trying to get a torrent for whatever you're looking for.
Know how much space you have left on your hard drive. This may sound like common sense, but it's very easy to get carried away and download gigabytes upon gigabytes of stuff in a day.
Make sure you have non-shitty antivirus and anti-malware software that is up-to-date. Again, this may seem like common sense, but it doesn't hurt to use proper protection. It's just a good idea in general because it keeps your computer healthy. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and the professional version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. I recommend those two programs (MS Security Essentials is free if you have a valid Windows product), but I hear the full version of Nod32 and Kapersky Anti-Virus are pretty good, too, but these are just suggestions.
Don't download from ThePirateBay. As much nice stuff as they have, the RIAA, MPAA and a few other government agencies from around the world are watching the site like hawks.
Don't download computer programs unless you know what you're getting into. It's very easy to slip a keylogger or a trojan into a program.
Avoid cracked software and keygens unless you know what to look for. A lot of the time, it will either not work at all, have a trojan or do something nasty to your computer.
When using Bit Che, you may sometimes run into a tracker called BTjunkie(ext). As nice as BTjunkie is, the (ext) at the end means it's a member-only thing and getting a membership on that site is confusing, annoying, and fills your inbox with spam. Not worth it, just ignore them.
Have two folders for torrents: one for incomplete torrents and one for finished torrents. It will make things easier for you.
Bit Che will sometimes bring up dead torrents (it will show an error: invalid torrent in uTorrent). It's okay, it's not perfect. Just move on to the next torrent. Sometimes all the torrents will be like that, in which case you might as well give up on trying to get a torrent for whatever you're looking for.
Know how much space you have left on your hard drive. This may sound like common sense, but it's very easy to get carried away and download gigabytes upon gigabytes of stuff in a day.
Make sure you have non-shitty antivirus and anti-malware software that is up-to-date. Again, this may seem like common sense, but it doesn't hurt to use proper protection. It's just a good idea in general because it keeps your computer healthy. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and the professional version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. I recommend those two programs (MS Security Essentials is free if you have a valid Windows product), but I hear the full version of Nod32 and Kapersky Anti-Virus are pretty good, too, but these are just suggestions.
Torrenting programs
uTorrent: My preferred torrenting client. It's fast, it's simple and I find it to be extremely easy.
Bit Che: A great torrent search client (this will allow you to find stuff a whole hell of a lot faster). However, it can and will set off false positives with antivirus software because there's a script commonly used with viruses that checks to see if the program and its files have been tampered with that is completely harmless. I've used the program for a few years now and I've had no problems aside from false positives, so you can rest easy when your antivirus/antimalware software picks up bit che's files as threats. They're not gonna bite.
Bit Che: A great torrent search client (this will allow you to find stuff a whole hell of a lot faster). However, it can and will set off false positives with antivirus software because there's a script commonly used with viruses that checks to see if the program and its files have been tampered with that is completely harmless. I've used the program for a few years now and I've had no problems aside from false positives, so you can rest easy when your antivirus/antimalware software picks up bit che's files as threats. They're not gonna bite.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Torrenting terms
Seeds: How many people have the entire torrent and are online, able to connect to you and send you the files.
Seed: To upload a torrent (your client does this automatically when you download)
Client: The torrenting program you use (in this case, uTorrent).
Leechers: How many people don't have the entire torrent and are downloading it. They can upload pieces to you when you don't have them.
Ratio: How much you've downloaded vs uploaded. You generally want to upload to ~1.1; that is to say, you've uploaded 1.1x as much as you've downloaded.
Down Speed: How fast you're downloading a torrent.
Up Speed: How fast you're uploading a torrent.
ETA: Time left on a torrent's download.
Tracker: The site that is tracking the torrent.
Hash: (This generally only matters when you're close to finishing the download of a torrent and it keeps going back to, say, 98%, getting close to finishing, and so on) Information in files that lets the torrent client know that it's the right file. If a download keeps hanging around a certain percent and goes past it, only to go back to that percent, you're experiencing a hash failure. That is to say, someone's messed with the data in some way (sometimes by accident, shit happens, lol) and your client notices.
Seed: To upload a torrent (your client does this automatically when you download)
Client: The torrenting program you use (in this case, uTorrent).
Leechers: How many people don't have the entire torrent and are downloading it. They can upload pieces to you when you don't have them.
Ratio: How much you've downloaded vs uploaded. You generally want to upload to ~1.1; that is to say, you've uploaded 1.1x as much as you've downloaded.
Down Speed: How fast you're downloading a torrent.
Up Speed: How fast you're uploading a torrent.
ETA: Time left on a torrent's download.
Tracker: The site that is tracking the torrent.
Hash: (This generally only matters when you're close to finishing the download of a torrent and it keeps going back to, say, 98%, getting close to finishing, and so on) Information in files that lets the torrent client know that it's the right file. If a download keeps hanging around a certain percent and goes past it, only to go back to that percent, you're experiencing a hash failure. That is to say, someone's messed with the data in some way (sometimes by accident, shit happens, lol) and your client notices.
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