For anyone wanting to learn the basics of Bittorrents, check out Slyck's Guide to Bittorrents. Normally, you don't get very good speeds in Pakistan (stating the obvious) but if you're looking for something that's not very easily available, either because it's really old or brand new, checking out various torrent hosts is a good bet. The Worldcall users actually started up an official Torrent host called Go4Bytes. Unfortunately, due to people leeching (downloading files and not pitching in to let others upload from them in turn), that idea is bust. However, if you're on Worldcall, you can check out a couple of Trackers created and maintained by other WC users, using which you can get pretty decent speeds.

The first step is to download one of the many Bittorrent Clients out there. I use Yet Another Bittorrent Client (ABC), but googling can get to any number of others that work just as well.

Next, look around for some torrents that catch your fancy. There are a couple of websites I use pretty regularly for my own downloads listed in the sidebar. Once you find what you need, download the tiny torrent file (a few Kb at the most) and double click on it and turn to your Bittorent Client' window, where a dialogue box should have popped up asking you where you would like to save the file you are downloading. This location is worth remembering since if you should ever happen to accidentally delete your download while it is in progress, all you need to do is open up the tiny torrent file again and direct it to the same directory and it will automatically resume your download.

So now you're all set. Check in on the Client's window to monitor the speeds you're getting. Locally, you'd get anywhere from 8-12 kbps on a good day, and if you're on a faster connection somewhere outside Pakistan, you're probably getting several Mbps. A general practice among leechers is to set uploads on the absolute minimum limit allowed for the download. The trouble is that just as you're getting the file transferred to you from any number of people's hard drives directly, whatever percentage of your download is on your PC now is being sent to others downloading as well. By leeching, you're taking files off other people, but not allowing others to copy off yours and you're an inconsiderate jackass. Also, once your download is complete, a good practice is to not delete it from your client window so that the file continues to be shared from your PC to others who are still downloading. I know it seems like a pain in the ass to share and sacrifice some of your own bandwidth when others are leeching mercilessly, but be nice. The more people who are seeding, the faster everyone else is getting the file.

That's all for today, folks, happy sharing!