While file sharing is controversial and often accused of being 'music piracy,' millions of internet users continue to share their files and download files from others, and thousands of new torrent users are added every day.

Before getting started, install reliable anti-virus software on your computer to thwart any viruses you may get while torrenting. Then, read the articles below in order from top to bottom.

Jan 09, 2014  I´ve been downloading from a public network for around a 7 months. Then as a magic trick, every torrent just stay on ¨CONNECTING TO TORRENT¨. I´ve tried by several ways for fixing for 1 week at least. And with the same surprise, something changed, and back to download. Now I have 2 weeks trying every thing. Jul 14, 2017 - With the war on torrents still strong, chances are you can't download any. The way around this is to use freely available public DNS servers.

Important Reminder About the Legality of Torrents

In short: not all torrents are legal, and you could be reprimanded for downloading illegal content.

There are lots of illegal files floating around through torrents. It's important to remind yourself that just because the torrent downloads themselves are free, it does not mean that the torrent data you're downloading is free from copyright. Some countries have laws protecting copyright holders, so that should be considered before downloading torrents.

Not all torrents infringe on copyright laws; there are tons of free images, movies, music and documents that you can share with an unlimited number of people for free. However, it's also really easy to share and download other data too, which might be considered illegal.

Torrents 101: Understand How Bittorrent File Sharing Works

If you are new to torrent downloading, then you will definitely want to read about how the system works.

Torrents (.TORRENT files and magnet links) are pointer files that help torrent software locate the computers of other users who are sharing that specific file or group of files that you're wanting to download.

With the torrent file, you can then tell the software to connect to those private computers for copying their music, movies, documents etc, to your own computer.

Torrent Software: How to Use Torrents

Torrent downloading requires special software that can read the .TORRENT file or magnet link. These torrent software products also need to provide management control over download and upload speeds, priorities, and cataloging.

Cant Download Torrent On Public Network Services

Torrent programs aren't just downloadable tools that work from your desktop. You can also download torrents through your web browser so that you can access the files anywhere and sometimes even stream media files without downloading them.

Torrent Download Sites: Where to Find Torrent Movies and Music

Once you understand torrent swarming and have the right torrent software or online service necessary for using the torrent data, it's time to find the right pointer files that will get you the files you're after.

Nearly all torrent sites are easy enough to use because you can search through their database pretty quickly or browse relevant categories, though some might be littered with advertisements. Other torrent sites are much cleaner private communities that closely guard their catalog of torrents.

Warning: How to Spot Fake Torrent Files

Sadly, there are vandals, thieves and scammers out there who use phony torrent files to put malware on your computer. By disguising their nasty software as attractive movies and music downloads, these scammers seek to deceive you into installing their stuff.

A few of the ways files masquerade as healthy torrents is through RAR, WAV and password protected files.

Another is by renaming a file from something seemingly harmless like videofile.mp4 to videofile.mp4.exe. Instead of an MP4 video, this particular file is an EXE file that can cause serious damage to your computer.

A couple times a year, I hear about someone I know receiving that oh-so-scary letter from their ISP telling them to stop torrenting. ISPs will go as far as throttling your bandwidth (without lowering your bill), and sometimes even reporting you to authorities. The next thing you know, you're being summoned to court for copyright violations. You don't even have to be torrenting anything illegal! In my opinion, this is the worst part—you don't even get the bandwidth that you paid for.

I've seen a few solutions, such as using a private proxy. One that comes to mind is a tutorial from Lifehacker on BTGuard. In my opinion, BTGuard should not exist when it is an easy feat to encrypt the initial connection, or use a completely different alternative. My reason for not liking BTGuard? It doesn't even make you fully anonymous as it claims.

BTGuard acts like a proxy and simply anonymizes your traffic when connected through them. It's a paid service, too, and who wants to pay seven dollars every month when they are downloading free programs like Linux and device drivers? Not only does the cost prove to be an issue, but when you initially connect to the network, you are doing so over an insecure connection! This means that your ISP can see you connecting to BTGuard, and after they see your bandwidth usage, can you honestly think they will believe you are using it for something other than torrenting? Sadly, for now, services like these are all we have.

A free alternative would be to use ItsHidden VPN service. It allows you to make an encrypted connection to them before downloading torrents, but in order to do that, you need to sign up for an account. You can follow a tutorial on how to connect to the VPN here. You can really use any VPN to download torrents, but it is a bit mean to the other VPN users for you to suck up all of the bandwidth, so please refrain from doing that.

Cant Download Torrent On Public Network Windows 7

Today's Null Byte will demonstrate how to get ready for the future. Soon, torrents will be available in what is called an .atorrent file. These new breed of torrents support the Anomos protocol, which is used by the program of the same name. For now though, we can still convert normal torrents using Anomos and download from our other encrypted peers. This means that the more people who use it, the better!

Cant Download Torrent On Public Network Windows 10

• ThePirateBay, the world largest BitTorrent tracker, has plans to offer .atorrent files as an optional download.
• uTorrent, the largest BitTorrent client, has plans to integrate the Anomos protocol in future releases.