A Beginners Guide to Bittorrent [Part 3 - Indexing Sites]

Now that you have finished setting up your torrent client we can talk about indexing sites.
The most famous indexing site in the world is probably "The Pirate Bay". You can absolutely use this site since you are a beginner and will not have access to any private indexing sites or trackers.

A Beginners Guide to Bittorrent [Part 2 - Torrent Client]

So the bittorrent client is probably the most familiar part of the torrent network. Many people have used uTorrent or Vuze. These are both good options, but have gotten too big for their britches in my opinion. I would suggest trying a program from a smaller developer.

Deluge

I like Deluge. They are free and cross platform! They are basically what uTorrent used to be years ago. Download the program and install it. I am going to assume that you don't need help installing a program. If you aren't sure how, the rest of this guide is going to be a little more difficult that you probably want to tackle. You can always check the Deluge website for install instructions on your platform.

A Beginners Guide to Bittorrent [Part 1 - Introduction]

Check out MaximumPC's post on the new Bittorrent model!

By now you are sure to have heard of Bittorrent. It has been a mainstream term for more than a decade now and has become nearly as popular as p2p clients such as Napster and Kazaa once were.

Unlike those networks, however, bittorrent has no centralized servers and cannot be easily shutdown. The bittorrent network relies on several key components: users in the form of peers, trackers which regulate traffic, and indexers which store torrent files or magnet links.

The target of most DMCA shutdowns is the index site. Without links to a torrent, the swarm cannot find and download files. This is the reason that sites like The Pirate Bay are constantly under attack. They host no actual pirated files, but they do host the links or instructions needed to let your computer find those files in the swarm.

All of that nonsense is boring though, and you are here to get started using Torrents. I don't blame you, the protocol is an essential part of any computer users toolbelt. It can be used for just as many legal file transfers as it can for illegal.