A few years ago, I wrote a post on how to torrent for beginners. It gave poor advice and isn't worth reblogging. Unfortunately, I can't make the thing unrebloggable, so instead I'm writing a new one.
You will need:
A working internet connection
A copy of qbittorrent
An adblocker, ideally uBlock Origin
Especially if you're in Germany or the USA, a vpn. I recommend mullvad (though make sure to use a p2p server).
Install qbittorrent here for the operating system you use. This is what you'll use to download torrent files. Once installed, it should look like this:
2. Find ext.to on your browser of choice. Although this website is largely safe, it's also filled with ads--this is where your adblocker comes in. The front page should look like this:
3. Find something you're interested in, but avoid the apps section. ext.to has very little moderation on who uploads, so although visual/aural media is 99.999% likely to be safe, software is less likely to be. For example, here's a copy of Avatar: Fire and Ash:
There are three important things to look at here: the number of seeders (green number), the number of leechers (red number), and the contents of the torrent (the section under Torrent Contents). In general, you want the seeders--those uploading the file--to be as high a number as possible, and the leechers--those downloading the file--to be as low a number as possible. As for the contents, what you need to check here is the file extension. mkv is a common file extension for video and there are tons of seeders on this file, so it's extremely likely to be safe to download. Avoid files with exe or msi file endings.
4. Click the magnet button just below the seeder/leecher information. Your browser should ask you if you want to open the link with qbittorrent. Tell it you do. qbittorrent should then show you a popup that looks like this:
Tell it where you want to download and bingo:
5. That's pretty much it! Let the file finish downloading, navigate to where you downloaded it to, and play it. That's pretty much all there is to it.
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This isn't technically necessary, but I'd strongly recommend it: keep seeding any file you download (i.e. keep it in the same place you downloaded it to and don't delete it) for as long as possible, or at least until your ratio reaches 1.0, as seen here:
A ratio of 1.0 means you've uploaded the entire torrent to at least one other person. This is how torrenting survives--if nobody seeds a torrent, there's no way to download it.
Anyway, that's all! Go forth and torrent, and best of luck to you.
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