BitTorrent

[blacklilly]

Having decided I need more visual stimulation (and Firefly is coming to an end) I was looking at Bittorrent etc for downloading stuff. Has anyone used any of these sites? I'm rather concerned about viruses and the idea of 'hosting' - does this actually give people access to my hard drive? The idea of letting people download off of me is dubious, for the same reasons that I'm an eBay seller, not normally an eBay buyer - I trust myself, no one else.

Comments

some advice from computer geek justin

[(Anonymous)]

Well, first of all, how could you need more visual stimulation in a place like Japan? Here's my views on downloading stuff:

I use uTorrent, for no particular reason other than that it seems to work well, and takes less resources than other downloady things. This program will tap into the same network as all the other bittorrent clients. You can search for things using the program, though isohunt, mininova, and torrentspy seem to be the best for finding most things. I use a website called eztv to find television shows.
Downloading using these programs only allows access for other users that are downloading the same thing, as well as things that you leave on the program after you are done. Leaving the complete file accessible is called "Seeding". "Leeching" is downloading it. If you read the comment boxes on the search sites, people are always complaining about no one seeding. Anyway, they can't get at your hard drive, unless you set up some thing to share all of it yourself.
As for viruses, you won't get them if you do a few simple things:
1. Only download files ending in playable formats, like mp3, avi, wma, etc. NEVER download zipped files. The minute you unzip them, it 95% likely that you computer will go into tailspin.
2. Only download things that have been downloaded a thousand times or more. They'll usually be safe
3. Read the comments on a file before you download. Someone who has been wronged will be sure to tell the world about it.

OKAY, there's a mouthful. Hope that helps. Of course, I try not to download for free things that I should be paying for. I'm sure you do the same. But TV shows, music that I bought long ago on cassette, etc. NO PROBLEM. If you want to download music real cheap try these two sites:

Legalsounds.com

and Allofmp3.com

they sell music legally for 9-18 u.s. cents a song (I think that's 4-10 pence, yeah?)

Let us know how you're doing sometime, ok?

Love Justin and LIz

P.S. torchwood is really good, i think!!!

Re: some advice from computer geek justin

[kittygoth.livejournal.com]

Hey there, you guys, I only just found your post. The visual stimulation is no problem - alwasy something to look at around here, but it`s just the lack of film and tv shows i miss. I didn`t start watching Torchwood as I knew I@d become absorbed and then get withdrawal symptoms, but i also want to check out things like BSG and Heroes, especially as I have an Xmas holiday ahead with dwindling funds and only the drunks for company!

Thanks for the advice, I`ll check them out.

xx