How to start using Torrent?

Using Torrent is easy - believe it or not. This article is for absolute beginners. I will write about the advanced tips and trick in my later articles.

The requirements are you should have a good internet connection preferably an unlimited one with an average download speed of at least 50 kbps, good storage space and a Torrent Client. Installing a Torrent client is as easy as installing any other piece of software. Just go to your favorite search engine and type download torrent client. You will find a lot of websites which provide you free downloads of torrent clients. Just download one, click on the installation/ executable(.exe) file and follow the instructions to install it. My best torrent client is bit torrent. I recommend you to use bit torrent which provides a lot of features which are not available in many other torrent clients.

Just after you have installed this small piece of software you are ready to get going with your search. Just go to any torrent website and start searching what you want. It can be literally anything. I have found and downloaded movies of 1950s and 1960s from Torrent. My best torrent website is www.kickasstorrents.com. The reason why I like this website is that it is a 100% non profit. These guys do not show a single misleading ads and show a lot of information beside the torrent you want to download. They show the health of the Torrent file, the number of peers and seeds connected to the torrent file, whether the torrent is verified or not and also the comments of the users after the download. This helps you take a decision on whether to download a particular torrent or not. If the health of the file is high, the torrent is verified and there are a lot of positive comments on it, you do not need to worry about the quality of the file. It will work after the download.

The speed of the torrent download depends on the number of seeds. If there is a huge number of seeds then the download will be faster. Now you should understand how torrent works in comparison to a normal download. In a normal download you download the file directly from a server connected to the internet. But in Torrent you are downloaded bits and pieces of a file from your peers' systems who are connected to the internet. The Torrent software makes it possible.

I will tell you in brief how this entire process takes place.
1. The person who wants to share a file creates a torrent file of his particular file. The torrent file is very small(a few kbs) in size. The Torrent File contains information about the IP of the person and the folder in which he has saved the file.
2. He then goes to the various Torrent Websites and posts announcements about the Torrent he has created. This will create a link of the Torrent file which he has to upload and brief name and description of his torrent file.
3. Once his peers get interested in his torrent, they click on the announcement link and open the torrent file with their torrent client. The Torrent client connects itself to other clients who are downloading and uploading the particular file.
4. It is a rule for Torrent users that if you are downloading a particular file you should also upload the same amount/ or more data so that this process never stops. The upload happens automatically while you are downloading. The upload speed does not hamper your download speed and thus it can go on simultaneously. Although you can stop/ regulate the upload/ download speed, you should not do it unless you have any particular reason. Let the upload and download speed be maximum so that you help others while you take help.
5. Once the Torrent File is downloaded completely you can view and share it. Some players like VLC player also let you view/ listen to some file types even if they are not completely download. Another speciality of Torrent unlike normal browser downloading is that, if you get disconnected from internet in between the download, the next time you connect you can resume the download.

So this is how a torrent works. Welcome to the world of Torrents. Do let me know if you have any questions through comments below.

Download Unlimited free of Cost? Why Torrent? Is it unethical to use it?

Torrent, almost everyone using the internet might have heard of it. Almost 1% of the internet users are advanced Torrent Users, 20% of people using the internet are active users and another 20% know about it or have used it occasionally. More than 50% of the internet users do not know about it or have never used it. So what is Torrent? Is it as bad as some copyright protectors say? Or is it as good as thousands of pro-piracy advocates claim? Or is it just controversial? Lets find the answer. This is not a web page, but a blog and therefore comments and discussions are most welcome. It will benefit us all.

Torrent is actually a peer-to-peer(P2P) sharing tool to share huge amounts of data among peers through the internet. The unique features of Torrent are:-
1. It is free.
2. It is for the people and by the people.
3. It requires a good internet connection.
4. It is really easy to use.

Now lets go back to our initial question, why is Torrent controversial? My answer is that because it screws up the profits of big software giants, movie and music production houses, game production companies and virtually any digital product in the world. Torrent is a tool which helps people to share movies, music, software, games, photos etc. through the internet. The idea of building Torrent was not to promote piracy but to help people to share data with their online peers across geographical barriers. Over time Torrent has evolved as a tool wherein people have started sharing pirated digital products with the entire world.

If Torrent had been illegal, The Pirate Bay which is one of the largest Torrent Websites would not have survived the Legal Proceedings against it. After some production houses of Hollywood filed a copyright infringement case against The Pirate Bay, the servers and all equipments of the owners of Pirate Bay were confiscated following a subsequent raid on their premises. But it was only a matter of 3 days and Pirate Bay was back on Track again. This sparked huge pro-piracy protests against the government and the Hollywood and finally Pirate Bay got a huge fan following. Their logo at that time depicted a pirate ship firing canons at the HOLLYWOOD.

So we know that Torrent is not illegal, but what about the morality and ethics. What about the huge losses which people suffer due to Torrent. Yes I agree that it is immoral and unethical to share pirated versions of software through Torrent and we should refrain from it as far as possible. Only opensource software should be shared through Torrent. Only software, games, movies and music whose shelf life is over should be shared over Torrent.
Unfortunately some people use Torrent to share the latest movies, music and cracked versions of software and games. Movies and Music get shared almost on the day of release on Torrent. Software and games get shared as soon as some hacker finds the crack to it. But this is not good and people with good ethics should not download these. Even if you download a new movie from Torrent and like it, do consider paying a visit to a theatre so that the Theatre owner and the movie producer also gets his due.

The best way to use Torrent is to share your wedding video with the world, share your new music video shot in your college with all your online peers across the world or to share the new piece of Java Application you have developed with your Techie Friends.

Stay Tuned, I will soon write a post on how to Use Torrent and also about my best Torrent Sites and Clients so that you can get going - Coming up within a week.

How to install XAMPP and troubleshoot for problems?

These articles written by me are meant for absolute beginners in web development and if you are an expert, you may benefit as well if you read on. In this article I will explain about how to set up a web server in your desktop to create and test a website locally.

The open source web services software bundles are LAMP, WAMP, SAMP, MAMP and XAMPP. Sorry if I have missed out some. I will write about XAMPP in detail because it can be used universally across all operating systems.

In the other software packages keeping AMP(Apache, MySql and PHP) the same L stands for Linux which is for Linux Operating System, WAMP stands for Windows Operating System, S stands for Sun Solaris OPerating System and M stands for Macintosh Operating System.

XAMPP is an abbreviation. It denotes an assembly of services which help you build dynamic web pages and run them on a server.
X-Universal or Cross Platform i.e. it runs across all operating systems.
A-Apache is a Linux based web server
M-MySql is a database technology
P-PHP is an extensible language which supports dynamic web development
P-Perl is a high level language

XAMPP is an Open Source software bundle with a GPL(General Public License) developed and distributed by the Apache Friends.

Now how do you install XAMPP and get started with it?

1. Go to the apache friends website and download it. This is the link as on today but someday it may change so its always better to search for the keyword download XAMPP in Google before to go to the link in case you dont find it here - http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

2. Now go ahead and download the .exe(executable) file of XAMPP by selecting the operating system in which you are working with. The current version of XAMPP for Windows, Mac and Linux is 1.7.3. XAMPP is always updated by a group of active and experienced developers and therefore to be abreast with the latest technology download the latest stable version. Do not download a beta version if you are not an experienced developer to ensure hassle free development.

3. On downloading the executable file just double click to install it just like you do for any other software. Follow the simple instructions on screen to complete the installation. At the end of the installation a window will open up in command prompt(CMD) if you are in windows. There will be certain options which you need to select. Let the default options be selected and just press the return/ enter key for a few times to end the installation process.

4. At the end of the installation process you will find around 7 options and x for exit. Choose X to exit or 1 to open the control panel. If you have chosen all the default options a shortcut to the control panel would also be installed in your desktop. You can also find the control panel inside the XAMPP folder in the directory/ drive in which you have installed XAMPP.

5. Once the Control Panel is opened Click on Port-Check button to check whether the ports which are necessary for Apache, MySql and other services are free or not. The ports 80, 81 and 443 are required for Apache to work properly whereas the port 3306 is required for MySql to work properly. If any of these ports are occupied by another program you gotto do the trouble shooting.

6. The common culprits which interfere with XAMPP are other web servers like IIS(Internet Information Services) Server etc or some applications like Skype. In case any other web server is interfering please go to the control panel of the particular web server and stop all the services. If Skype is interfering Select Tools Menu - Click on Options Sub Menu - Select
Advanced Tab and Connections Tab thereon. In the connection tab you will find a checkbox saying Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections. Uncheck this checkbox and log out of skype. Now if you check the ports again you will see they are free and you are ready to go ahead with your real time development.

7. Start the services Apache and MySql by clicking on the start buttons and you will see the text running when they start. This denotes that the services are up an running. Now you can start off your development in the htdocs folder which is inside your XAMPP directory.

In my future blogs you will also learn how to build a real website/ web application in your XAMPP folder which you can later launch in a live web server.

Speed up your System. Performance Matters!!

Speed and performance matters a lot, specifically when you are into software development using IDEs and also using other big software(in simple words). The most important factors influencing the speed of your system are:-
1. Random Access Memory - This is the most important factor which determines the speed of your applications or software. In very simple words RAM is the temporary memory of a computer which is utilized by an application in runtime. An application while running has to save some data in the memory temporarily which it has to access more frequently. Higher the RAM, the faster will be the speed of the application. When multiple applications run together the RAM is put into test and a RAM with higher space in it sails you easily through this test of speed. At times when your computer might hang, one of the reasons behind it may be the exhausting of the RAM by the different applications you open at the same time. A system with a higher configuration of RAM hangs less frequently.
2. Processor - The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions called a program. The program is represented by a series of numbers that are kept in some kind of computer memory. There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. The operating system is a GUI which interacts with the processor. The processor fetches the instruction sent by the operating system, decodes it, executes and tells the operating system what to do. The operating system decodes the user's instruction into machine level language which the processor understands and thus works the computer. The performance or speed of a processor depends on the clock rate and the Instructions Per Clock (IPC), which together are the factors for the Instructions Per Second (IPS) that the CPU can perform. Lets not get into these technicalities and understand that a multi core processor will perform much better than a single core processor. For example a dual core processor should ideally perform almost twice as better as a single core processor. Processor is hardware device and its speed depends predominantly on the ability of the chips to understand and execute the instructions. The speed of a processor is calculated in Hertz. The common unit to measure speed is Ghz or Giga Hertz because processors are now becoming faster and faster. It is common to have a 2.0 to 3.0 Ghz processor. The higher the speed of your processor the better is the speed of your computer.
3. Hard Disk - The hard disk also plays an important role in determining the speed of your computer. The hard disk is where your operating system, all your programs and applications and also your data is being stored. The speed also depends a lot on how your maintain your hard disk. You should leave some space in your hard disk for temporary files to be created in case certain applications need it to speed up your operations. You should also clean up your disk regularly, defragment your hard disk once in a while and also check for disk errors and correct them to improve the access to the data in your hard disk and thus improving the performance to a great extent. If you have too many applications running at start up, your computer will take a long time to start up. Have minimal and important applications running in the backend. End all programs which are not vital for the system to run to improve the spped.
4. ReadyBoost - Programs like ready boost which work only on Windows 7 or Vista speed up your computer to certain extent. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory. Do not go for any software which claims to improve your processor speed as you never know it may be a spyware. Purchase programs which are legitimate and proven. I generally do not go for any free or paid programs unless they are released by a credible corporation or organization. Like anything you find in the Microsoft, Sun or Linux site is the safest to be used. Use your deligence before you install any program into your system.