With µTorrent 3.0 now released (from www.utorrent.com), here we'll look at a few of a favourite new features in this latest version of the popular BitTorrent client. Top of the list is the ‘Drop files to send’ box, which makes sharing your own files using µTorrent much, much easier. You can literally just drag a file from Windows Explorer onto the box and it will automatically start seeding it for you and create a URL that you can send to anybody you want to have the file. It’s an excellent way to quickly share large files with friends and family.
When you drag a file or folder onto the box in the bottom-left of the µTorrent window, a new pop-up will appear, listing the files and allowing you to add an optional message. Once you’ve done that, µTorrent will give you a TinyURL web address.
Copy and paste this URL into an email to your friends and family, and then all they have to do is go to the web site and click on the download link to get the torrent. The link will have a µTorrent download link if they don’t already have it installed. µTorrent will also start seeding the file from your system (remember that the file will only be available for as long as you’re seeding it).
It’s not just your own torrents that can be shared using this system. If you’re downloading a torrent and you think your friends would also like to grab the files, you can click on the torrent name and then click the Send icon at the top of the window. As with drop to send, this creates a TinyURL web address that you can send to anybody to let them get hold of the file.
Ratings and comments
BitTorrent is better than most peer-to-peer networks when it comes to fake files, since the web sites that post torrents often do some policing of their contents. It’s not immune to fakes and scams, however, and the best way to avoid these is to actually look at the comments associated with the torrent on the site you downloaded it from. On major torrent-sharing sites, most fakes will quickly have a user comment to that effect, allowing you to avoid suspect and infected files. Files that are password-protected also frequently have their passwords listed in the comments.
Now µTorrent 3.0 has commenting built right in. It’s a controversial feature, with fears that it will open the door for spammers, but it allows you and other users to rate specific torrents as well as add comments to it.
To see comments, click on the torrent name, then in the lower panel click on the Ratings tab. In the bottom-right, you’ll see the comments associated with the torrent; to the left of that you’ll be given an opportunity to give it your own star rating (out of five) as well as add your own comment.
Comments are stored by the swarm and your comment will remain even after you’ve quit the torrent. That is to say, other users connected to the torrent will download your comment to their system (and you’ll download theirs), and thus the comment and rating will continue to be shared by them even after you’ve gone.
Streaming
One other way to spot fake or poor-quality media files is to play them before they’ve finished downloading. Normally you can’t do that — BitTorrent downloads file segments out of order, meaning that you have to wait until a download is complete before you can watch any of it. However, µTorrent added streaming in version 2.1 and now version 3.0 is taking that to the next level, with improved support for as-you-download playback.
If you choose to stream, µTorrent will prioritise downloading file segments at the beginning of the file and then try to download the rest in order. That way you can start watching the file soon after the torrent starts and if your download is fast enough, perhaps even stream it straight through as it downloads. It gives the torrent a more YouTube-like ‘watch-it-now’ feel than the normal ‘download and watch it later’ model that BitTorrent users are used to.
To stream a torrent, click on the Stream button in the playback column next to the torrent name (you might have to scroll to the right to see it). If there are multiple media files in the torrent, you’ll be asked to choose one to stream. The Stream button will change to a counter, letting you know when you can start playback. When the counter completes, click on the Stream icon to play back.
