How to Create and Publish a Torrent

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Introduction

Before we review how to create and publish a torrent, we need to discuss what torrents are and how they are used. Torrents are computer files with the extension ".torrent" (without the quotes). These files, or torrents, are stored on websites. Data files, broken into pieces, are also stored on websites.

The torrent files are used to maintain metadata about data files and trackers. The data files contain the data to be shared, and the trackers are the computers that coordinate file sharing.

The bitTorrent protocol, which is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol, is used to transmit large amounts of data. A bitTorrent client is used to upload and download data on a bitTorrent server. A bitTorrent client is also used to create and publish torrents.

There are several bitTorrent client programs. For this exercise we will use the Bitcomet bitTorrent client available from bitcoment.com'. BitComet is a BitTorrent, HTTP, and FTP download client.

Things You'll Need

Computer
Internet access
bitTorrent client

Check out the Beginners Guide to Bittorrent By Jorge here on Info Barrel!

Instructions

Step 1 - Start the Bitcomet bitTorrent client program.

Step 2 - Run the torrent maker (equivalent to command line File > Create Torrent).

Step 3 - Select the data file (single file) or file folders (multiple files).

Step 4 - Select "Enable Public DHT Network" from the drop-down box (A DHT network is a distributed hash table network).

Step 5 - In the Tracker Server and DHT Network Node List box, enter at least one tracker address. For this exercise we will use the following three trackers:

http://btfans.3322.org:6969/annouce
http://btfans.3322.org:8000/annouce
http://btfans.3322.org:8080/annouce

Step 6 - Save the torrent.

Photo Credits

Transmission Project - Wikimedia Commons

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Comments

Jan 3, 2010 10:14pm

cashlash
This is all greek and latin to me. Am no programmer. May be I should join that Ning site of yours to learn more about such things.
What other sites are you writing on. I saw you mentioned you wrote on 15 sites. I am about six of them myself.