85 replies to this topic

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I need a primer on torrents.  I have µTorrent, and I've looked around and found the names of supposedly reputable torrent sites.  But it never seems to work.  Most of the links on these sites just open up a bunch of advertising windows, only to finally get someplace where they want you to register (and pay).  When I do get one to download, it usually doesn't play (running a Mac so I use VLC to open .avi files).  And they take FOREVER to download.  What am I doing wrong here?

[Justavictim82]

Piratebay? I don't really torrent anymore but that is what I use when I have to.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Yeah they're still around.  But they're nothing special, imho.  Most of their links just lead to adds/sign-up sites.

[Justavictim82]

I don't know maybe they are different for Macs? I never had that problem when I used them.

[Haflinger]

Use Transmission, it's the best Mac client.

 

And use piratebay. They have the largest index. There are a lot of ads there admittedly but just click on the Magnet link once you have Transmission installed.

[*Anastasia]

Second Transmission if on Mac like you, or Linux, though I'd warn Windows users against it unless they're prepared for it to be a huge CPU hog (admittedly, it seems to work better in Windows 8 than it did in Windows 7). µTorrent is a piece of shit all around, and a complicated piece of shit at that.

Since isoHunt was shut down, the Pirate Bay is indeed your best bet. Use an adblocker. Use several. Also, you'll need to make sure your browser can open Magnet links in your torrent client (it should be able to, but if you have trouble, I'm sure we can figure it out together), because it's gone out of hosting torrent files directly for legal reasons.

[Haflinger]

Transmission integrates directly with Safari, Firefox and others which use their method of linking magnets to the OS without any hassle at all.

[*Anastasia]

Yeah, as it should. And as it used to in Chrome. Then Chrome updated and suddenly it won't open any program links. Still not sure if that's just me or not.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Yeah, the Transmission method seems to be working.  Download still seems slow, but I guess 2.5 hours for the whole 8-episode season ain't the worst thing in the world.  It just means I can't watch it right this minute.  Which, having been raised on Star Trek: The Next Generation, I have come to expect.  Where's my goddam holodeck?

[King Biscuit]

You also might want to look into some sort of 3rd party privacy software.

ISPs have really been cracking down on piracy.

[Haflinger]

Enabling Transmission's encryption features goes a long way towards that.

[the rebel]

torrentz.eu

 

The search engine of torrents and most of the time tends to source torrent sites which work and not fake/pay links.

[Thrash]

thought pirate bay got shut down

[Haflinger]

Nope. The domain name is still in the hands of pirates.

 

The original servers in Sweden it was running on are long gone. However it's being run by different people now.

 

Google has been forced to stop indexing it though, so search results won't lead you to it. Have to go to the site directly.

[*Anastasia]

Nope. The domain name is still in the hands of pirates.
 
The original servers in Sweden it was running on are long gone. However it's being run by different people now.
 
Google has been forced to stop indexing it though, so search results won't lead you to it. Have to go to the site directly.

Still picks up a ton of mirrors, mind, but I tend to avoid them since there's no assurance they're legitimate mirrors and not just malware distributors or similar.

[Redezra]

Yeah, PirateBay is as hard to nail down as Jack Sparrow (get it? Get it?!?)

 

For my torrents, which I use for OS downloads primarily (my ISP hates Torrent downloads, so I have to encrypt a bunch of things and just sit them over on the side for aaaaages. OS downloads are ok for this, and it makes me feel like I'm supporting a community.), I use rTorrent, cause command line is best line.

[Phate]

Yeah, as it should. And as it used to in Chrome. Then Chrome updated and suddenly it won't open any program links. Still not sure if that's just me or not.

Version 36.0.1985.49 beta-m

No issues here.

[*Anastasia]

Version 36.0.1985.49 beta-m

No issues here.

I forgot to post, I actually managed to fix it shortly after this by adding <"magnet": false,> (I also added one for <"steam": false,> to remedy those) in the protocol exclusion list in the LocalState file. No idea why it suddenly stopped handling them, since they weren't explicitly blacklisted there, but whitelisting them seemed to do the trick.

[Imperator]

I forgot to post, I actually managed to fix it shortly after this by adding <"magnet": false,> (I also added one for <"steam": false,> to remedy those) in the protocol exclusion list in the LocalState file. No idea why it suddenly stopped handling them, since they weren't explicitly blacklisted there, but whitelisting them seemed to do the trick.

Google herpaderp, most likely. Good that you found the solution.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Haf's method worked for me, but it only underscored the basic problem, in my opinion, with torrents, which is that they are still kind of clunky.  You can't just search for what you want to watch, click it, and watch it right then and there.  It's just a little bit of a hassle.  Not much, but just enough to make it slightly less convenient than Netflix or iTunes or Amazon Prime.

 

I don't know why HBO doesn't allow people to just sign up for HBO GO online and bypass the cable companies altogether.  If they charged $10 a month and allowed you to stream their stuff onto your computer or mobile device I'd sign up on day one.