Features

Thanks to a straightforward, uncluttered interface BitTorrent appears as a user friendly torrent client that beginners will feel comfortable with. We particularly appreciated the integrated search box to look for files on the BitTorrent website. Once you’ve found the torrent you want, download it to your PC, open it up inside BitTorrent and let the client do the rest. 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.

You can set multiple torrent downloads and the downloading speed is fairly quick. It’s easy to configure the client and we suggest choosing 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.

Using BitTorrent

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 anything from movies to operating systems.

Competition

Compared to the exhaustive Azureus, BitTorrent is very simplistic. It doesn’t provide half as 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.

Conclusion

If you’re a newbie to the torrent world, BitTorrent is a good bet. It’s safe, stable and sharp. Associated with the huge database of legal torrents that is the BitTorrent website, it makes for a very rich P2P experience. Advanced users will probably frown upon its lack of options but others should give it a try.

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Vuze’s interface is a complete shake-up to what Azureus users are used to. The BitTorrent developer has decided to focus on online multimedia content and introduce user participation. The first thing the user sees is a "Find, Download, Play" screen to introduce you to Vuze. You can browse files by using the left side menu, divided in time, main channels and tags. The menu at the top also links to hot and new content. Vuze takes the web 2.0 road and you'll see that most of the files have tags. You can write out a comment and leave a rating. The program also makes it a no brainer to send a video by email and link to content directly from your blog or website. Additionally, there are social bookmarking links for each file.

Downloading torrents is as simple as using the search bar, which the gives you options to search the Vuze site and results from the major bittorent sites such as Btjunkie. You can also easily add more sites to that list if you wish.

We won’t expand on the qualities of the Azureus client, for which you can read a review here. Vuze tries to innovate by adding social tools to the program and providing legal content in the Vuze HD Network. There are numerous channels to choose from, yet we were disappointed with the content in general. On some channels there's very little to watch and on others you don't necessarily find what you were hoping for. Much of the content feels cheap and throwaway, even if it is in glorious HD.

On the downside Vuze does nothing to atone for Azureus's principal drawback: the overuse of your RAM and DSL connection. Yes, Vuze is still a resource and bandwidth hog, and there's nothing you can do about it.

The whole interface is really simple, though the program is so heavy you will get some slow down, and the amount of legal content is still limited, Vuze is a promising application for sharing and enjoying legal content.

If you're already hooked on the original Azureus bittorrent client, take a leap into the future with Vuze.

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uTorrent Portable is the standalone version of this reliable, lightweight torrent client. Like its older brother, uTorrent Portable lets you have a few files downloading simultaneously while still using the computer, without much lag.

The program's interface in uTorrent Portable is identical to the desktop version. You have different areas to track the list of active torrents, check extensive data for each one of them and organize your downloads with user-defined labels.

uTorrent Portable makes it easy for you to look for downloads. You can search for new torrents in the box on the top right corner of the interface, and also make use of the RSS feeds reader to receive information directly from your favorite torrent sites.

In short, uTorrent Portable is as good as its regular, installable version: a lightweight, incredibly fast, highly customizable torrent client that makes your downloading experience as simple and automated as possible.

uTorrent Portable lets you enjoy the power and ease of use of this great torrent client anywhere, anytime, without installation.

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The good thing is that this program requires no installation. Simply decompress the file and run the program and you're off. The next step is to select the hub that you want to connect to. The hub looks very much like DC++ but with some important improvements. For example, you can now download from simultaneous multiple users without corrupting the file, it can distribute the parts of files that are not completed and can assign the download speed according to the sources available and the dozens of possibilities in customization of the interface. The improvement of the simultaneous downloading makes a significant improvement to download times and it's much safer than normal single source downloading. The developers point out that segment position and size are decided by file size and chunks speed. You can also set sounds, change the colour scheme or icons, show popup balloons, see emoticons and much more.

A sophisticated P2P application although it's a shame there aren't more users as you won't get many hits on the files you're looking for.

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The application is significantly easier to use than many of its rivals, however, BitSpirit disappoints compared with its peers when it comes to tracking active downloads. If you would like to access information on your current download then you need to access the torrent itself, rather than relying on the application to provide you with this information.

That's not to say that BitSpirit is a total failure though, and the application boasts many assets to challenge the other contenders in the market. For instance, the app uses very little PC resources, leading to quick, smooth transfers that occur without any annoying program restarts. The program is very easy to pick up and use and save for a major bug when utilising the UPNP, BitSpirit is smooth and effective.

Originally a Chinese program, the app includes some horrible menu translations, making it often difficult to select the right menu option to access your download. That said, managing file download locations and tweaking options are both really simple operations. You are furnished with plenty of flexibility for accessing your downloads, giving you a host of options for choosing the source location and destination of the file.

If you're looking for a BitTorrent client that gives you access to files quickly through a simple interface, then BitSpirit is a worthy app. However, if you want a larger selection of files with a minimal chance of file corruption or hanging then you'd be better off sticking with the more reliable uTorrent or BitComet.

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Stream Torrent brings the best of internet video streaming and P2P technology together; it's a free app lets you both watch and broadcast live video on the web.

Like other similar tools, Stream Torrent makes use of the P2P protocol to broadcast video online, helped by thousands of users worldwide who share the workload by sending and receiving data at the same time.

The Stream Torrent interface is simple in design and easy to use. First of all, you need to add channels to your list by clicking the Search button and selecting a keyword from the drop-down menu. You can then add them to your personal menu and open any of them with a double click.

As with any other app of this kind, results can vary a lot in Stream Torrent. The quality and stability of channels depends on signal strength, number of people tuning in to that channel and other factors.

Stream Torrent allows you to enjoy hundreds of streaming online video channels, though their quality varies a lot.

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Like all the best torrent sites and engines, VIP Torrent is based on the Bittorrent protocol although it relies heavily on Java which makes it rather sluggish at times. However, it does connect with hundreds of different P2P networks at the same time meaning that you get a decent amount of hits and download options. The program has a simple wizard to help you configure and setup the client. The main aim of this is to ensure that the ports are opened because without this, you're not going to have very fast downloads. Despite the Java, it still manages to be fairly light on CPU power. The application tries to appeal to a wide range of users by allowing you to select from beginner, intermediate or advanced settings. In each mode, you are presented with a different levels of options based on your expertise. Whatever your level though, probably the most useful innovation is that it displays the "health" of your downloads whilst they are in progress. It's also useful for those that can't wait for a program to download or are worried about fake downloads as it allows you to preview files as they downloading. In addition, it allows you to chat and e-mail other users from which are downloading very easily. It features a very useful health button which allows you to see the status of each of your download file and also a send-to-friend button which enables this option via e-mail, blog entry or webpage.VIP Torrent is a client P2P to share and download all kinds of files.

This is a brave attempt at making an e-mule style client dedicated to torrents although you may find that it still can't replace traditional torrent sites and downloading through a dedicated torrent client in terms of both number of hits and speed.

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