Although torrents are commonplace today, back in the day it all started with
*BitTorrent*. Torrent sharing consists of sharing large files, like movies,
software, or games anonymously and quickly with other peers. The file you
want to download is cut up into small segments shared by users, creating what
is called a swarm, and does not go through a central server, significantly
reducing the bulk of file transfers, The Bittorrent client is actually the
first P2P application to use this technology and became immensely popular
when it was released. Torrents are considered by online users as a great way
to download recently released movies or TV shows. Thanks to a
*straightforward, uncluttered interface* BitTorrent appears as a friendly
torrent client that beginners will feel comfortable with. In fact, the latest
version looks uncannily like uTorrent although the functionality is nowhere
near as good unfortunately. Once you've found the torrent you want,
download it to your Mac, open it up inside BitTorrent and let the client do
its job. The speed at which you download will depend on the number of seeds,
that is people who have the complete file and are sharing it. The more seeds
there are the quicker files will download. However, a frequent complaint with
BitTorrent is that downloads rarely start and when they do, they can be
notoriously unstable. You can improve things slightly by changing the
settings of *multiple torrent downloads* but there are few diagnostic tools
to help you work out the problem. At the very least, you should choose the
right port and setting upload and download rate limits to avoid hogging your
bandwidth. It's also good to set your downloads by priority to monitor more
precisely how your torrents are doing. Compared to the exhaustive Azureus,
Bittorrent is very simplistic. And compared to uTorrent, it doesn't work half
as well despite similarities in appearance. It doesn't provide many
statistics and doesn't let you customize the interface. Integrating a
search box is a great idea, but it limits searches to the BitTorrent website,
not considered the most thorough source by torrent aficionados. *BitTorrent
may have once been a good starting point in the P2P world but there are now
several other clients which are far more effective.*Download *BitTorrent
7.2.2* in Softonic
