Today, BitTorrent clients are still used thanks to their great functionalities. But we could really explain what are BitTorrent clients? , most likely not.
That is why we bring here a post where we will educate you on the subject. You can find out from what BitTorrent clients are, how to use them, and although it sounds great, Not everything is like that. These carry many risks, since these downloads are illegal.
Legality is not the only threat which we face when making downloads for these softwares, there are others that we will explain later, what they are and how to prevent them.
Index:
What is a BitTorrent client and what can it be used for?
When we talk about a BitTorrent client we mean a program or application that must be installed on a user’s computer, which establishes a peer-to-peer connection or also known as P2P , which allows us to download files that other users uploaded to the same network which we wish to access to download. These are based on the philosophy of sharing equally for everyone.
These programs / clients, we can find available for various operating systems . Its use is very common for many users, as it allows us to download and upload files. Mostly is used for downloads of movies and game installers , but this method is constantly under war, since the US department considers this as a threat to copyright .
Is it safe to download content from the Internet using torrent links? Risks and precautions
When we download files of any kind by means of Torrent links we can submit to different risks . So, if we are going to download files through these links, we must be aware of the possible risks found below:
Possible identity theft
When we share Torrent files, they can ask us to reduce the protection of our computer, since some firewalls and antivirus do not allow this type of platform. When we reduce our computer’s defenses, it is obviously helpless against any threat, which is not good for us.
We run the risk of malicious software (malware) also known as hackers , and can do whatever we want with our information, that is, what the hacker who designed it orders.
The information they can extract are such as, passwords, users, credit card number, social networks and much more. More than half of the world is affected daily by these threats .
Virus
When we download Torrents files, you can come together some viruses embedded within the files , which will complicate our lives. These viruses are designed to end the life of our computer. Once we infect a file, we can lose it forever, Like once our disk is infected, we can lose it forever, so we must take great care of this threat.
There are different computer viruses , then show some of the most common:
- Spyware : Allows the hacker to track or steal all information about our activity on the internet.
- Virus : Replica or clones and corrupts the efficiency of our disk and files.
- Trojans: These are some of the most dangerous, because they are disguised as softwares or legitimate data, and their purpose is completely corrupting the hard drive, resulting in complete disk futility.
- Worms: The purpose of this virus is to tear down the network, while the other groups of Viruses target computers individually.
Legal issues and fines
Legal rights is something that the author always demands, for a certain time. This is because in this way they make a profit from what they have launched. For this reason, when we download a file, which is under current copyright, we are part of the theft , so many security departments worldwide execute different strategies against of this threat .
If we are detected by a security agency, we can receive a DMCA notice, where we are notified of the serious fine of what we do and with notice so that we do not continue doing so. If we ignore this, they can track our location to take us to court .
What to do to protect me?
There are certainly many risks of sharing files via Torrent links. However, this does not take away the wonderful and perfect information sharing , with the help of this platform. If we have already realized this, we just have to follow the advice below to avoid being a victim of what we mentioned previously and thus we will always be protected:
- Let’s update our device: We should always keep our entire computer updated, as there are new threats with new names every day, so if our virus protection software does not recognize them as a threat will pass to the disk of our computer.
- We must protect our identity with a VPN : A VPN will help us protect our location and all our data every time we share files . What we have to take care of is that the provider offers us a VPN that does not keep a record of our data and that allows us P2P files.
- Firewall : Its function is very similar to that of an antivirus. So when these are active on our computer, all activities that are considered suspicious, or the presence of any malware on our computer, will be automatically blocked.
List of the 15 best clients to download P2P content on the Internet
Now that you know all the latent dangers that exist in the world of P2P downloads, as well as the means to protect you, we proceed to present you the list with the best clients to download content via Internet torrent. These 15 programs will undoubtedly become your best friend in the world:
qBittorrent.org
This is a client that has been offering free and completely secure services for a long time . If we look for a reference of this type of customers we can find a huge list, since it complies with everything it offers, in addition it has an excellent interface that allows us a pleasant experience.
With this cross platform we can do many things. It has an advanced search engine, which can be an installer through a plugin, as well as we can add trackers, and an open source in Github. This application supports an IPv6 connection, with Proxies, RSS and an encryption protocol.
BitComet.com
If we have Windows as an operating system, BitComet is one of the other alternatives that will allow us to upload and download files in a very simple way. On its website we can find some references of its version and the MacOS version.
Its appearance is very similar to what we saw earlier and because it offers us a totally free (free) experience we will occasionally find invasive advertising. We can use an eMule network file that is installed as a plugin .
µTorrent.com
This application has been offering its services for some years, very similar to those mentioned above, although with the difference that it has a method to obtain money . We can find two versions, one of fast, unlimited download, but paid and the other, with a slightly slower download, very limited and with advertising.
Vuze.com
This is one of the oldest applications that we can find in the market. Formerly known as Azurreus and now as Vuze, but still remains one of the best alternatives, we could say that it fulfills everything it offers and is complete in all its functions. But like the previous case we can find a free version, but with advertising and a paid version that offers a cleaner experience.
Deluge-torrent.org
At the beginning it started with only offering versions for GNU / Linux distributions . It has versions based on Suse, Fedora, Arch or Gentoo. Like there are for Windows, MacOS and BSD Unix. This application is handled all by open source, which leads to transparency.
TotalD.org
It is an application that has little time in the market, however it comes well armed, offering excellent functions that guarantee a good experience. This application has two versions: one free and one paid. Where the free allows us to make limited downloads and with a medium quality, while the paid or premium version offers unlimited downloads and quality of files very high.
Transmissionbt.com
This is one of the simplest applications, but it is a powerful BitTorrent client, which offers all the essentials, as well as : encryption, excellent interface, support for DHT, Pex … and magnet links. We can find it available for most operating systems.
It has a huge community where users communicate with each other, commenting on the things they like about the application and what are their proposals to improve the versions. This application allows you to add plugins to improve its operation.
Tixati.com
Tixati is an open source application that offers a simple and simple service, but very complete in its functions since we can make the downloads we want, which is one of the main features we are looking for us here It has Magnet, DHT and PEX links. This application has an RC4 encryption and advanced options that allow us from event programs to filtering the contents by IP, RSS or other category.
Tribler.org
Other applications that allow us to download and upload files without much entanglement is Tribler, which, like BitTorrent, has different functionalities that improve our user experience.
This integrates its own search engine, which guarantees a fairly short search time, and also has an open source system, uploaded to the Github platform, and has versions available for Windows, Linux and MacOS.
WebTorrent.io
This is one of the most limited applications, but it still has an excellent service if all we want to do is download files or view them through a streaming Torrents player. Web Torrent has an open source uploaded to Github and has a cross-platform system. Although it is a bit limited in its functions, is the most comfortable if we only want to watch movies or download them .
JSTorrent
This is an application that has an online function, since it allows us to enjoy it without having to download and install your files on our computer, so it is considered a peculiar alternative. This is install directly in Google Chrome in the form of plugins, so we know that it does not have options as advanced as the applications that we have previously shown in the list.
BitLord.com
This is another fairly simple application, which we can find available for both Windows and MacOS. It has different functions that allow us to enjoy it a lot, as well as to give us the ability to play files from Chromecast while downloading.
Although at the moment it only allows us to play videos on Windows, but as it is constantly updated it is a matter of time for it to be available to everyone.
FrostWire.com
This is a cross-platform application that allows us to download files easily, although it does not have a large size, so if we are the ones looking for some small sizes, this is the right application for our needs . Because it does not take up much space in our system, this application will always run quickly.
FrostWire has a search engine just simple, but in some advanced way that will allow us to do any search easily but directly.
PicoTorrent.org
To watch movies and stream streaming this is another of the most recommended applications. It has a completely simple interface so it will not take up much space on our computer. Your system is open source uploaded to Github, but for exclusive use on Windows. We can find it compatible in I2P, SOCKS4, SOCKS5 and HTTPS, with a multilanguage interface and totally free of payments.