Bittorent Releases Torrent Client for Chrome Browser

BitTorrent released a new torrent client, but, unlike what you’re already used to from the company (hint: uTorrent), this is integrated straight into the web browser, Google Chrome, that is.

It is a simple extension, currently in alpha, called BitTorrent Surf, which is already available for download from Chrome Web Store.

The core functionality of a torrent downloader is deeply rooted into this extension, so you won’t have trouble connecting to peers or downloading the files. What is more important, though, is searching for the stuff you want to download.

With BitTorrent Surf you can employ multiple websites to find what you’re looking for. The result is a super search function that looks into multiple sources to retrieve results.

BitTorrent Surf displays the estimated torrent health together with the number of people sharing and downloading the file as well as the total downloads to date.

How to Use BTGuard to Completely Anonymize your Bittorrent Traffic

If you're using BitTorrent without taking special measures to hide your activity, it's just a matter of time before your ISP throttles your connection, sends you an ominous letter, or worst case, your ISP gets a subpoena from a lawyer asking for your identity for a file-sharing law suit. Here's how to set up a simple proxy to keep your torrenting safe and anonymous.

Note, you don't need to be doing anything illegal. Maybe you just want to keep Big Brother out of your business and from throttling your connection. Either way, if you really want to keep your activity private, your best bet involves routing your BitTorrent connection through an external service. BTGuard is a dead simple BT-focused proxy server and encryption service, and it's my service of choice. Below, I'll explain what it does, how it works, and how to set it up to privatize and anonymous your BT traffic.

How BTGuard Works

When you download or seed a torrent, you're connecting to a bunch of other people, called a swarm, all of whom—in order to share files—can see your computer's IP address. That's all very handy when you're sharing files with other netizens, but file sharers such as yourself aren't necessarily the only people paying attention. Piracy monitoring groups (often paid for by the entertainment industry either before or after they find violators) also join BitTorrent swarms, but instead of sharing files, they're logging the IP addresses of other people in the swarm—including you—so that they can notify your ISP of your doings. A proxy (like BTGuard) funnels your internet traffic—in this case, just your BitTorrent traffic—through another server, so that the BitTorrent swarm will show an IP address from a server that can't be traced back to you instead of the address that points to your house. That way, those anti-piracy groups can't contact your ISP, and your ISP has no cause to send you a harrowing letter.

But wait, can't the piracy groups then go to the anonymizer service (BTGuard) and requisition their logs to figure out that you're the one downloading the new Harry Potter? Theoretically, yes, but the reason why we chose BTGuard is because they don't keep logs, so there's no paper trail of activity leading back to you. All the piracy monitors see is BTGuard sharing a file, and all your ISP sees is you connecting to BTGuard—but not what data you're downloading, because it's encrypted.

If you subscribe to an ISP that throttles BitTorrent traffic, and aren't using an anonymizer service, you have an additional problem. Your ISP can still see what you're doing, and if they detect that you're using BitTorrent—even if you're using it for perfectly legal purposes—they'll throttle your connection so you get unbearably slow speeds. When you encrypt your BitTorrent traffic, your ISP can't see what you're using your connection for. They'll see that you're downloading lots of information, but they won't be able to see that it's BitTorrent traffic, and thus won't throttle your connection. You still have to be careful of going over your ISP's bandwidth cap, however, if that exists.

BTGuard offers you both a proxy (to combat spying) and encryption (to combat throttling)—though many torrent clients have encryption built-in as well.

First, BTGuard isn't free. At $7/month (as little as $5 if you pay for a year in advance), it isn't very expensive, and we think it's well worth it if you want to torrent anonymously. A law suit settlement, if it comes to that, will cost you at least a couple thousand dollars, which equals a couple decades of BTGuard subscriptions, so keep that in mind, too. The other potential downside is that piping your downloads through another service may decrease your upload and download speeds. How much depends on what torrent you're downloading, who from, and a lot of other factors, but just know that it's a possibility. In my experience, more popular torrents stayed at their top speed of 1.4 MB/s (my bandwidth cap) with a proxy, while other less popular torrents (which flew at 1.4MB/s without a proxy) would fluctuate around 200 or 300 kB/s with BTGuard in place. Again, though, a little longer wait on downloads is well worth the protection you get.

Lastly, proxies aren't supported by every client, which means you'll have to use one with more advanced features. uTorrent (for Windows) and Vuze (for Windows, Mac, and Linux) both support proxies, but sadly Mac and Linux favorite Transmission does not. (If you're absolutely stuck with a client that doesn't support proxies, check the end of this article for some alternative solutions to the anonymity problem.)

How to Set Up BTGuard

BTGuard has a one-click install process, but we're going to show you how to do it the manual way, since it works in any BitTorrent client that supports SOCKS5 Proxy—not just the ones supported by BTGuard's installer. It'll also give you a better sense of what exactly BTGuard does, so if you run into problems, you'll have a better idea of how to fix it.

Step One: Sign Up for BTGuard

First, sign up for an account over at BTGuard.com. It'll just take a minute, and then you can get to configuring your client. Their BitTorrent proxy service costs $6.95 a month, but you can get discounts by buying multiple months at a time (up to a year's service for $59.95). Once you're done, you should receive an email telling you that BTGuard is ready to go.

Step Two: Configure Your Client

Next, open up your torrent client of choice and find the proxy settings within its preferences. In uTorrent, for example, this is under Preferences > Connection. Your client may have them in a different place (Google around to find out where), but no matter your client, your settings should look like this:

• Proxy Type: Socks v5
• Proxy Host: proxy.btguard.com
• Proxy Port: 1025
• Username: Your BTGuard username
• Password: Your BTGuard password

You'll also want to make sure you're using the proxy for hostname or tracker lookups as well as peer-to-peer connections, so check all boxes that say anything like that. You'll also want to disable connections or features that could compromise the proxy, so check all the boxes under uTorrent's "Proxy Privacy" section, or anything similar that your client may have. Hit Apply, exit the preferences, and restart your client. Your proxy should now be active.

Step Three: See If It's Working

To ensure that it's working, head over to CheckMyTorrentIP.com. This site can tell you what your IP address is, and compare it to the IP address of your torrent client, which will let you know whether your proxy is working correctly. To test it, hit the "Generate Torrent" button, and open the resulting torrent in your client. Then, go back to your browser and hit the Refresh button under the "Check IP" tab. If it's the same as your browser IP—which you'll see next to the Refresh button—then your proxy isn't working, and you'll want to double-check all of the above settings. If it shows a different IP address (often from another country like Germany or Canada), then BTGuard is successfully tunneling all your traffic for you.

Step Four (Optional): Enable Encryption

If you want extra security (or if you're trying to protect your connection from being throttled), you'll also want to encrypt all that traffic. Many clients have this feature built-in. In uTorrent, for example, just head to Preferences > BitTorrent and look for the "Protocol Encryption" section. Change your outgoing connection to Forced encryption, and uncheck the "Allow incoming legacy connections" box. From there, you should be good—your ISP shouldn't throttle your connection after this is enabled.

If your client doesn't support encryption, or you want a more powerful encryption behind your torrenting, BTGuard offers an encryption service as well. Just head to their Encryption page, download the software, and install it to C:\BTGUARD (this is very important; don't change the installation directory). Then, start the BTGuard Encryption program (accessible from the Start menu), and open up your BitTorrent client. Change your proxy server from proxy.btguard.com to 127.0.0.1, restart your client, and you're golden. Again, this isn't necessary if your client already supports encryption, but it is an extra layer of protection if you really want to keep everything private.

BitTorrent isn't the safe place it once was, and if you're going to use it to share and download files, we highly recommend getting some sort of protection from the services above so you can avoid DCMA notices and throttled speeds. Got any other tips for keeping your file sharing on the down low? Share them with us in the comments

Pirate Bay's Web Host PRQ Has Been Raided By Swedish Police

Rumors are flying after the Pirate Bay's website took a dive on Monday just as news broke of a raid by Swedish police on its hosting company PRQ – but the group says the two facts are not related.

"Dear internet. We have not been raided. We are not shutting down. We like turtles, waffles and you," the group said on its Facebook page. "Sorry for not fulfilling your pirate needs tonight. It's ok if you cheat on us with another site, just once. We know that you still love us, deep down in your cursed pirate heart."

The site's problems appear to stem from a power outage on its servers rather than the boys in blue making their call. So far, the site has been down for around nine hours, and internet users looking to get their dose of purloined files will have to go to other providers.

While it is true that the Pirate Bay's Swedish hosting company did receive a visit from local police, this does not appear to be the cause of the outage. In an interview with Nyheter24, the current owner of hosting firm PRQ Mikael Viborg said that the police had taken four servers, but at this point it isn't clear what they contained.

"PRQ is known to host the things that no one else wants to host, and not ask any questions. It can be any of those that are targeted. Until we get more details about the servers, I will not speculate on it," Viborg said.

In comparison with some of PRQ's customer base, the Pirate Bay is about as offensive as puppies frolicking in beige flowers. The ISP, which is run by two of the Pirate Bay's founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, believes in hosting all content, no matter what its interests, and as such carries content for groups such as South Park's favorite pederasts, the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

Cofounder Svartholm himself won't know too much about this, of course. After a lengthy period of being incommunicado, Svartholm was tracked down in Cambodia, where he was arrested by the local police and deported to Sweden, where has will be facing charges related to the hacking of IT consultancy business Logica.

Top 10 Most Popular File Sharing Websites Right Now

BitTorrent is no longer the dominant player when it comes to file-sharing on the Internet. The five largest English language websites dedicated to swapping files are all related to centralized file-hosting services, also known as cyberlockers.

Here are the 10 Most Popular File Sharing Sites as derived from our Rank which is a constantly updated average of each website's Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank from both Compete and Quantcast. "*#*" Denotes an estimate for sites with limited Compete or Quantcast data. If you know a website that should be included on this list based on its traffic rankings, use the comment box below to share it.

FilesTube

FilesTube is a metasearch engine, specialized for searching files in various file sharing and uploading sites such as RapidShare or Mediafire, and now also including sections for Video, Games, Lyrics and Software. It is owned by Polish company Red-Sky. Established in 2007.

FilesTube removes illegal content from its search results on request. As an attempt to rid the problem of illegal downloads, Malaysia has currently blocked access to FilesTube and other several file-sharing websites online.

26,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 249 - Compete Rank | 179 - Quantcast Rank | 144 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

4Shared

Officially the most popular site here, 4Shared offers a decent free option for those who are reluctant to reach for a credit card. A free account provides 10GB of free storage space which can be used to upload files below 2GB. Interestingly there are also apps available for the iPhone, Android devices and BlackBerry phones as well as an outdated Symbian version too.

Premium accounts provide 100GB of space and vastly improved download speeds, and the cheapest I could find started at $6.50 a month based on a year’s subscription.

24,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 436 - Compete Rank | 148 - Quantcast Rank | 73 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

MediaFire

MediaFire include unlimited storage and a limit of 200 MB per file (4GB for Pro users and 10GB for Business users). MediaFire provides users with the ability to create image galleries from folders of images and view and share common document, presentation, and spreadsheet file types inside the web browser. MediaFire's free account service does not require download activity in order to preserve files, and is thus often suitable as a temporary or secondary backup solution although MediaFire does not officially support free data warehousing (long-term storage for inactive accounts).

13,300,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 476 - Compete Rank | *800* - Quantcast Rank | 59 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

Rapidshare

A free membership allows you to upload all you want, with no restrictions. That’s right – unlimited file size and unlimited storage for free! However, if a file is not downloaded within 30 days it is earmarked for deletion – so be warned.

Premium accounts start at around €10 for a month’s access and removes this 30 day limit, as well as the usual download speed restrictions.

12,960,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 736 - Compete Rank | *650* - Quantcast Rank | 100 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Website

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software. In brief, Dropbox allows users to create a special folder on each of their computers, which Dropbox then synchronises so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of the computer it is viewed on. Files placed in this folder are also accessible through a web site and mobile phone applications.

5,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 461 - Compete Rank | 1188 - Quantcast Rank | 158 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Website

Box

Box (formerly Box.net) is an online file sharing and Cloud content management service for enterprise companies. The company has adopted a freemium business model, and provides 5GB of free storage for personal accounts. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and WebOS devices

3,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,714 - Compete Rank | 1,082 - Quantcast Rank | 1,038 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

HotFile

Hotfile allows users to upload and download files with any web browser. Non-registered users are allowed to upload up to 400 MB at once. After a successful file upload, the user is given a unique URL which allows others to download the file. Non-registered users have to wait 15 seconds in the download queue and might need to enter a CAPTCHA and have to wait 30 minutes to download another file after a previous download session ends (even if the file did not download completely).

2,800,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 868 - Compete Rank | 4,569 - Quantcast Rank | 80 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

Uploading

Uploading.com provides fully functional file hosting service to users all over the world for free. One can upload multiple files up to 2 Gb (10 Gb for premium accounts) each to their service and download the files required absolutely free of charge. However there are some limitations for the download speed and waiting timeframe before a download begins.

2,350,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 3,026 - Compete Rank | 2,737 - Quantcast Rank | 580 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

DepositFiles

With maximum file sizes of 2GB, unlimited storage and no deletion policy, this host is a beast. The site’s layout is clean and not littered with distracting adverts and there are a variety of ways to upload including queuing up multiple files.

Granted, as a free user your download speeds will be limited, but for around €9 a month, you can lift those limits.

2,100,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 5,552 - Compete Rank | 2,895 - Quantcast Rank | 348 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

FileServe

Another cyberlocker for all your uploading needs, FileServe provides free accounts that are good for files under 1GB. The site says that split archives are allowed too, so with some clever archiving you should be able to overcome the size limit.

Premium accounts are competetively priced and remove download/speed limits and increase the size cap to 2GB.

750,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,852 - Compete Rank | 10,238 - Quantcast Rank | 974 - Alexa Rank. Most Popular File Sharing Websites

Top 10 Best & Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012

Last year I posted the best p2p software clients and here again I've listed the world's most popular BitTorrent sites. At the start of 2012 The Pirate Bay continues to pull in the most visitors, followed by Torrentz and KickassTorrents.

This list is based on traffic rank and reports from Compete and Alexa, though we are all aware that Alexa isn't perfect and that Compete has plenty of flaws, but putting the two services to use at the same time on similar niche proved worthwhile.

So here we are, a compiled list of the 10 most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year.

Don't forget to use BTGuard to protect your Bittorent Traffic, So be careful and good luck.

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Tornado Torrent Search is a free meta-search engine for Torrents. It indexes most popular torrent sites and other search engines. The database will be updated every minute for new torrents. Seed and Leech amount will be shown on every search result page to give more information about the torrent quality. Tornado is a new torrent search engine, but it grows rapidly. The site is absolutely free and works without registration.

1. The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay (commonly abbreviated TPB) is a Swedish website that hosts magnet links, which allow users to share electronic files, including music, computer games and software, via BitTorrent. The Pirate Bay bills itself as "The world's most resilient BitTorrent site" (as of 2012, "The galaxy's most resilient...") The Pirate Bay is currently ranked as the 78th most visited website in the world and 20th in Sweden by Alexa Internet, has over 5.5 million registered users and, as of February 2012, hosts more than 4 million torrent files. According to the Los Angeles Times, The Pirate Bay is "one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading" and "the most visible member of a burgeoning international anti-copyright or pro-piracy movement".

2. Torrentz

Torrentz is a Finland-based[2] meta-search engine for BitTorrent that is run by an individual known as Flippy. It indexes torrents from various major torrent sites such as yourBittorrent and offers compilations of various trackers per torrent that are not necessarily present in the default .torrent file, so that when a tracker is down, other trackers can do the work. It was the second most popular torrent website after The Pirate Bay in 2010[3], and it currently has a traffic rank of 145 on Alexa.

3. KickassTorrents

Founded in 2009, KickassTorrents is one of the youngest sites in the list, and this year it moved up to the top 3. Responding to the increasing worries about domain seizures, the site moved from its kickasstorrents.com domain to kat.ph a few months ago. The site continues to innovate and release new features every other week, and it currently ranks 257 on Alexa.

4. IsoHunt

IsoHunt is a BitTorrent index with over 1.7 million torrents in its database and 20 million peers from indexed torrents. With 7.4 million unique visitors as of May 2006, isoHunt is one of the most popular BitTorrent search engines. Thousands of torrents are added to and deleted from it every day. Users of isoHunt perform over 40 million unique searches per month. On October 19, 2008, isoHunt passed the 1 petabyte mark for torrents indexed globally. The site is the third most popular BitTorrent site as of 2008. According to isoHunt, the total amount of shared content was more than 13.44 petabytes as of September 29, 2011.

5. BTjunkie

BTJunkie was a BitTorrent search engine operating between 2005 and 2012. It used a web crawler (similar to Google) to search for torrent files from other torrent sites and store them on its database. It had nearly 4,000,000 active torrents and about 4,200 torrents added daily (compared to runner-up Torrent Portal with 1,500), making it the largest torrent site indexer on the web. During 2011, BTJunkie was the 5th most popular BitTorrent site.

6. ExtraTorrent

ExtraTorrent is one of those robust torrent indexes that doesn’t make the news very often. Compared to last year the site has moved up a spot and is now the 6th most popular torrent venue.

7. Demonoid

Demonoid is a website and BitTorrent tracker created by an anonymous programmer (supposedly of Serbian origin) known only by the pseudonyms "Deimos" and "Zajson". The website indexes torrents uploaded by its members. Demonoid.com was ranked the 538th most popular website overall in December 2010, according to Alexa. Demonoid's torrent tracker had an estimated three million peers in September 2007. The site had over 252,427 torrents indexed as of May 3, 2009 (torrents uploaded prior to August 4, 2005 were removed to free server resources).

8. EZTV

Unlike the other sites in the top 10, TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Despite its fair share of downtime this year, EZTV has managed to get a spot in the top 10 for the first time in its six year existence.

9. Bitsnoop

BitSnoop is another newcomer that gained a large audience this year. This didn’t go unnoticed by the RIAA, who filed a complaint at the U.S. District Court of Columbia and obtained a subpoena to reveal the identity of BitSnoop’s owner a few months ago.

10. 1337x

1337x is also new to the top 10, and focuses more on the community aspect than some competitors. The site’s owners say they started 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” Its 10th place this year proves that they’re getting the success formula right.

Bittorrent Client Released uTorrent 3 Final

After what felt like an eternity, the final version of the popular lightweight Bittorrent client uTorrent 3 has been released today. The final version is build 25406 and existing users should see update notifications when they start their client on their system, or by manually checking for updates by selecting Help > Check for Updates. Users of uTorrent 2.x can download the latest version of the program from the official website, where it is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit application for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The release notes are as usually available on the official forum. Version 3 of uTorrent adds features such as a portable mode, streaming, torrent ratings or drag and drop sending of files. The complete list of changes and fixes is available in the forum.

The drop files to send feature is incredibly easy to use. Just drop a file that you want to share on the drop area, and uTorrent will create the torrent for you. The program displays a tiny url link that the recipients of the file need to open. The torrent is then added to their uTorrent version. If they do not have uTorrent it is installed on their system.

Streaming needs to be activated in the uTorrent options before it becomes available. All suitable media players are automatically available for selection in the options.

The Stream button becomes then available in the torrent listing. A click on the button loads the stream url in the selected media player. It is then possible to play the media in the player directly, even if it has not been downloaded completely yet.

Depending on your previous version, you may see a different looking client with additional features that you had not had access to before. This includes uTorrent apps which more often than not provide access to media and file releases of companies and organizations. You find some apps among the available ones that add features to uTorrent, a chat for instance.

The getting started guide in the client seems to be new as well. It offers a step by step guide, a beginners guide and links to faqs and information about the program (correct me if I’m wrong here).

The developers have fixed a boat load full of issues, from crashes and stability issues over freezes and hangs to cpu optimizations.

Users should take a look at known issues before they update, if they want to make sure that the program works on their system without difficulties. The list displays confirmed problems and issues that are not fixed in the uTorrent 3.0 stable release.

Most of the bugs listed seem to be limited to display issues, only a few indicate stability issues.

On a personal note. I’m running uTorrent 3.0 since the first alpha and did not have a single problem ever since. The update to version 3.0 went without difficulties. Some users in the release thread are on the other hand reporting problems with the version.

Have you made the update to uTorrent 3.0 yet? What is your impression of the new version.

Best Torrent Download Sites, 2011

As of June 5, 2011, the Top 5 Torrent Download Sites are listed below. This list is a compilation of recommendations submitted by hundreds of readers. This list is in random order, and will be updated weekly.

Warning: How to Spot Fake Torrents

Related: The Best Torrent Client Software

Related: How to Speed Up Torrent Downloads

Malware Warning: please be careful and install a reliable antivirus like Avira before visiting any download sites.

Copyright Infringement Warning: We do not support the illegal sharing of movies and music files. Please read what local copyright laws apply to you and your area of the world before uploading or downloading copyrighted movies and music.

5. Torrent Cafe

This young new private site needs users, but About.com readers already like the service.  The interface is not as clean as some of its competition, but the seed-to-leech ratios are excellent right now.  Sign up and give Torrent Café a try... let us know what you think of it.

http://www.torrentcafe.com

4. Fenopy

Fenopy has some compelling features. Fenopy is fully integrated with IMDB and Last.fm radio, so it has some friendly methods for browsing and discovering movies and music. A graphics gallery of large and motivating thumbnails adorns the home page, and the fake finder feature is also very useful for avoiding bad files. Definitely give Fenopy a try.

http://fenopy.com/

3. Isohunt

Isohunt is offered at three different servers:  'Isohunt Lite',  'Isohunt.hk'. and the original Isohunt.com. The Canadian Recording Industry Association has forcibly compelled Isohunt in April of 2010 to change its torrent indexing, or else be prosecuted for secondary copyright infringement.  Accordingly, Isohunt Lite is formatted to be a form of 'Web-wide torrent Google', but with the sorting, ranking, and user rating features of Isohunt.com.  Isohunt.com continues to operate under an umbrella of threat of being shut down, so don't wait to use this service while you can. Details of the CRIA lawsuit are available at the Isohunt Lite web page above.

August 2010:  Isohunt.com has been fueled by adult advertising.  It's not quite pornographic, but Russian dating service ads abound.  This will be a turnoff for some users, but the Isohunt.com service is still one of the very best torrent indices you will find online.
http://www.isohunt.com

2. BitSnoop

NEW: BitSnoop was recommended by reader Melody, who speaks very highly about its navigability, reliability, and clean design. Using a growing community of users to help police the content, BitSnoop offers minimal advertising and reassuring tagging of good torrents. Look for the green 'verified' tags, and you're bound to find good downloads here. Definitely try BitSnoop.com, and let us know what you think of this newer site.

http://www.bitsnoop.com

1. Demonoid

Demonoid is the benchmark private torrent site. All other private P2P communities compare themselves to Demonoid, and even with the massive competition, Demonoid still remains a top site in the eyes of downloaders everywhere. If you successfully get a registered membership at Demonoid, do not abuse it. Thousands of people are happy to take your spot if you do not share files and maintain your requisite ratio.

http://www.demonoid.com/

Source: http://netforbeginners.about.com

Top 20 Best Peer to Peer (P2P) & Torrent Software Clients

Users can use software that connects in to a peer-to-peer network to search for shared files on the computers of other users (i.e. peers) connected to the network. Files of interest can then be downloaded directly from other users on the network. Typically, large files are broken down into smaller chunks, which may be obtained from multiple peers and then reassembled by the downloader. This is done while the peer is simultaneously uploading the chunks it already has to other peers.

Due to the vastness of the p2p landscape,  searching for the most efficient file sharing app as dictated by your needs and preferences can prove tiresome – that’s why we thought we should make this task easier for you by listing 20 of the best peer-to-peer programs currently in use.

Considering the vast psp softwares availabe, searching for the most efficient file sharing apps can be tiresome, most espcially with the increase of malware, viruses and spywares - for that reason i though it would be good to make this task easier for you by collating the best peep to peer file sharing softwares.

Note: Make sure you know what you are downloading, coz most software disguises as being genuine whereas they are habouring viruses and some hackers uses this medium to penetrate into your system.

Don't forget to use BTGuard to protect your Bittorent Traffic, So be careful and good luck.

20 Best p2p (Peer to Peer) File Sharing Apps and Softwares

1) µTorrent:

The program is designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet.

2) SoulSeek:

Soulseek is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network and application. It is used mostly to exchange music, although users are able to share a variety of files. It was created by Nir Arbel, a former Napster programmer. The server used is composed of two networks since 2006. Since 6 July 2008, there has been an attempt to merge them with the arrival of a new stable release.

3) DC++:

DC++ is a free and open-source, peer-to-peer file sharing client alternative to the original client, NeoModus Direct Connect (NMDC); it connects to the same file-sharing network and supports the same file-sharing protocol. One of the reasons commonly attributed to the aforementioned popularity of DC++ is that it has no adware of any kind, unlike NMDC.

4) Vuze:

Vuze (previously Azureus) is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to by .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content.

Content is presented through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games and others. Additionally, if users prefer to publish their original content, they may earn money from it.

5) LimeWire:

LimeWire is a free peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) client program that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other operating systems supported by the Java software platform. LimeWire uses the gnutella network as well as the BitTorrent protocol. A free software version and a purchasable "enhanced" version are available.

6) eMule:

eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network.

The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, fast recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. Furthermore, eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

7) Shareaza:

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.

One unique thing about Shareaza is that it hashes its files for all networks, and then distributes those hash values on G2 which then allows it to download one file from several networks at once. When another Shareaza client connected to G2 finds such a file, it is given the hash values for all networks and can search on the other networks with their respective hash values, which increases the number of sources and the download speed of the file. Shareaza also uses its G2 network to find more sources for torrents.

8 ) BitComet:

The BitComet program is a multi-threaded multi-protocol hybrid download manager and BitTorrent Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing application. It supports simultaneous download tasks. To complete a particular download, it can draw parts of files from many sources across different P2P and client–server protocols.

9) aMule:

aMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application that works with the EDonkey network and the Kad Network, offering similar features to eMule and adding others such as GeoIP (country flags). It was forked from the xMule source code on August 18, 2003, which itself is a fork of the lMule project, which was the first attempt to bring the eMule client to Linux.

10) giFT:

giFT is a collection of various software components geared towards improving the overall usability of a multitude of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. This goal is accomplished by unifying the components such that a user of the software may choose any of the available interfaces to access any of the available networks. The central application, giftd, uses a plugin-based architecture capable of using multiple networks simultaneously through a single user interface.

11) Ares Galaxy:

Ares Galaxy is an open source peer-to-peer file sharing application that uses its own decentralized supernode/leaf network. It was spun off from the gnutella network in 2002, and is currently hosted on SourceForge.net. Ares Galaxy has a simple, quick access interface with a built in audio/video viewer. The latest versions also support the BitTorrent protocol and Shoutcast radio stations.

12) ANts P2P:

ANts P2P is an anonymous peer-to-peer open source file sharing software written in Java. The software was initially conceived in 2003 to explore the potentials offered by a number of novel routing protocols (ARA, ants-based routing, MANET routing protocols) based on swarm intelligence. A report (in Italian) about the initial phases of the project can be downloaded from the software website. A short summary in english is available on the ANts P2P website.

13) BitTornado:

BitTornado is a free BitTorrent client for transfer of computer files over networks, including the Internet. It is developed by John Hoffman, who also created its predecessor, Shad0w's Experimental Client. Based on the original BitTorrent client, the interface is largely the same, with added features such as

• upload/download speed limitation;
• prioritised downloading when downloading batches (several files);
• detailed information about connections to other peers;
• UPnP Port Forwarding (Universal Plug and Play);
• IPv6 support (OS support required);
• PE/MSE support as of version 0.3.18

14) FrostWire:

FrostWire is a Peer-to-Peer file sharing program for the Gnutella network and BitTorrent protocol. It is built on the LimeWire source code, and it is written in the Java programming language. Development of the program has been active since the program was first released in September 2004.

Since LimeWire was closed down on 26th October 2010, LimeWire was put under a court injunction to stop them from distributing the software and developing it, FrostWire has become increasingly popular as it is almost identical to LimeWire 4.x series and has the same features.

15) Morpheus:

Morpheus was a file sharing and searching peer-to-peer client for Microsoft Windows, developed and distributed by the company StreamCast, that originally used the Opennap protocol, but later supported many different peer-to-peer protocols.

On April 22, 2008, distributor StreamCast Networks filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after a long legal battle with music companies; all of their employees were laid off and the official download at www.morpheus.com stopped being available, though for a small period the website remained online. As of October 29, 2008 the official Morpheus website is offline, including all other websites owned by StreamCast Networks including Morpheus.com, MusicCity.com, Streamcastnetworks.com and NeoNetwork.com

16) gtk-gnutella:

Gtk-gnutella is programmed in C with an emphasis on efficiency and portability without being minimalistic but rather head-on with most of the modern features of the gnutella network. Therefore, it requires less resources (such as CPU and/or RAM) than the major gnutella clients. It can also be used as headless gnutella client not requiring Gtk+ at all.

gtk-gnutella has a filtering engine that can reduce the amount of spam and other irrelevant results. gtk-gnutella supports a large range of the features of modern gnutella clients. gtk-gnutella was the first gnutella client to support IPv6 and encryption using TLS. It can handle and export magnet links. It has strong internationalization features, supporting English, German, Greek, French, Hungarian, Spanish, Japanese, Norwegian, Dutch and Chinese. gtk-gnutella also has support to prevent spamming and other hostile peer activity.

17) Acquisition:

Acquisition is a Gnutella-based peer-to-peer client that is also capable of supporting BitTorrent designed specifically for Mac OS X. It is based on LimeWire and is a shareware product, priced from $25. Acquisition is more noted for its focus on user interface and integration with Mac OS X than for its originality in features, making full use of Apple's Cocoa APIs, and has integration with iTunes.

18) Cabos:

Cabos is a free gnutella file sharing program. It is based on LimeWire's source code, and has a similar feel in terms of interface. However, it lacks the chat and library features found in LimeWire. Also, while LimeWire is completely written in Java, the GUI of Cabos is written in REALbasic

19) MLDonkey:

MLDonkey is an open source, multi-protocol, peer-to-peer file sharing application that runs as a back-end server application on many platforms. It can be controlled through a user interface provided by one of many separate front-ends, including a Web interface, telnet interface and over a dozen native client programs.

Originally a Linux client for the eDonkey protocol, it now runs on many flavors of Unix-like, Mac OS X, Windows and MorphOS and supports numerous peer-to-peer protocols.

20) KTorrent:

KTorrent is a bittorrent application for KDE which allows you to download files using the BitTorrent protocol. It enables you to run multiple torrents at the same time and comes with extended features to make it a full-featured client for BitTorrent.

Do you use any other P2P/Torrent clients to share and download content? Do let us know through your comments and also join our Facebook Fan page, follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed

Azureus

Esplêndido cliente BitTorrent com download de múltiplos torrent
Os fãs incondicionais do BitTorrent, tanto como seus inimigos descobrirão em Azureus um cliente de BitTorrent alucinante, desde sua interface estéticamente muito bem feita, até o grau de controle oferecido, passando por fartas opções implantadas. Este é um exemplo claro, no qual o aluno acabou por superar o professor.
Azureus é multiplataforma devido as suas raízes java, motivo pelo qual encontraremos versões tanto para Mac, como Windows ou ainda o GNU/Linux.
Por trás do Azureus está um a série de vantagens a respeito do BitTorrent, começando pela possibilidade de baixar uma série de arquivos .torrent de forma simultânea, um sistema de gerenciamento de prioridade dos arquivos na fila, a possibilidade de modificar a taxa de upload sem necessidade de reiniciar o cliente e até um cliente IRC para papear com usuários Azureus.
Entre suas opções mais destacáveis, devemos destacar a possibilidade de saber com grande precisão o número de seeders e leechers disponíveis, assim como identificar a procedência de cada uma das partes enviadas e mostrar a porcentagem de disponibilidade das partes dos arquivos .torrent, agrupar em uma só janela o conjunto de downloads, repartir a largura de banda entre upload e download, e muito mais.
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