Why are people who download Torrents called Pirates? Because they arrrhh!

The method of downloading I’m going to cover in this guide is a
Peer-To-Peer technology called BitTorrent.
I can't guarantee you protection from being caught,
  so be aware that you use it at your own risk.
If you follow the instructions on Protecting Yourself
you should never have any problems,
so please make sure you read them.

MONKEYBAWL does not suggest for one moment that you download any
illegal Torrents. There are plenty of legal ones too you know.
Yeah, right!

Part One : BitTorrent & µTorrent
BitTorrent is a protocol or client that you need to install before you can expect your computer to understand how to handle Torrents.
It’s available for free here; http://www.bittorrent.com/

Download and install it, and then forget about it. It’s going to work away in the background, using up so few resources that you won’t even know it’s there.

Next, you need µTorrent. This is the GUI, or Graphical User Interface that you’ll use to keep an eye on, and take control of the Torrents you’re downloading or sharing with other users.

You can get µTorrent, (completely free also) from here; http://www.utorrent.com/

Part Two : Torrent Sites
If you do a Google search for Torrent Sites, you’ll end up with links to loads of them. Not all of them are equal though. Some of them ask you to register with them, giving them an E-mail Address. There's a special name for the people who run these sites; They're called "fuckers", or at least that's what I call them. Giving them your E-mail Address would kind of defeat any efforts you make to hide your identity, so I’d recommend that you don’t use these sites.

My own personal favourite is www.mininova.org  The reason I like MiniNova over all the others is because it has good Administrators, who regularly remove anything containing Viruses and Porn. They can't be expected to police everything though, and some nasty stuff can slip through. For this reason, ALWAYS read any comments posted about any torrent you fancy downloading.

Take a good look around MiniNova, because there’s a helluva lot more to it than what you first see when you go to the site. Check out the FAQs in the forum.

Part Three : Protecting Yourself And Avoiding Detection
Before you go downloading anything else, I’d strongly recommend that you get yourself a copy of ‘Peer Guardian’ and ‘Hide IP Platinum’ (Hint; see that search box on MiniNova? Use it.) They’re both pretty small programs, and shouldn’t take too long. If you have problems getting anything to download for you at this stage, check that µTorrent is allowed through your Firewall.

Peer Guardian downloads a list of sites and IP Addresses associated with the Recording and Film Industries and those who work on their behalf, and prevents your computer from connecting to them.

Hide IP Platinum disguises your computer’s IP Address, so nothing you do can be traced back to you.

When you have both of these programs downloaded and installed, set both of them to start when your computer powers up, otherwise you won’t always be protected. Now restart your computer.

Part Four : Understand What You’re Doing
It is very important that you understand as much as possible of what you’re doing. I’m sure none of you are going to be downloading any illegal stuff, but it’s so easy to 'accidently' click on the wrong Torrent, and end up with U2’s next album the week before it hits the shops. This could make some nasty people very angry.

Read the Help files in µTorrent, Peer Guardian and Hide IP Platinum, making sure that you understand them as well as you can.

The Help section on MiniNova is probably the best guide you’ll ever find to this Torrent malarkey, so don’t forget to have a good look at that too.


So that's it. All you need now is a patch to go over one of your eyes, and a bigger hard drive. There's a couple more programs I'd recommend you get, just to make your life as a Pirate easier, namely ConvertXtoDVD and WinRar. GetDIZ might also come in handy, as a lot of Torrents contain Info in GetDIZ format. Although these can be read in Windows Notepad, they look a lot better when viewed properly.