Download torrents on your PC

Among the most popular methods for downloading files from the Internet, we also have .torrents. The Bit Torrent protocol works when a file provider initially makes his/her file available to the network. This is called a seed and allows others, named peers, to connect and download the file. Some Bit Torrent clients have their own search engine to look for movies, CDs, games, applications and more, and some others do not, which means you´ll to have to look for them in torrent portals. There are lots of clients to choose from, making it very difficult for the average user to tell a difference among them, since some of them look exactly the same thus creating confusion among users. Here we take a look at some of the more popular ones. We introduce you to µTorrent, Azureus, BitComet and BitTorrent.

µTorrent

This is, without a doubt, one of the best BitTorrent clients that we came across on the web. High download speeds and low system resource consumption are combined in µTorrent, meaning that downloads finish as fast as possible without causing your PC to grind to a halt.

One of the more interesting features of this program is its ability to download individual files within a .torrent, along with its support for RSS channels, avoiding the need to search for download addresses.

The only downside to this program is the user interface. Although the various features of µTorrent are clearly shown, it has a pretty primitive appearance. The only con we find in µTorrent is the lack of a search box for torrents, therefore we have to have torrents on our own and it can be difficult to learn how to search if we are new to this type of clients.

Azureus

Azureus is an alternative with two important things to bear in mind. Firstly, it’s written in Java – which we’ll talk about below – and secondly, it’s clear designed to make the most of P2P systems to view videos, in particular film trailers.

Now, the fact that it has been developed to run on the modern Java platform is both good and bad. On the upside, this program has an extremely attractive interface, along with a wide variety of features and options. The only problem is that if you don’t have Java installed on your machine, the program won’t work.

When it comes to downloading, Azureus presents the user with a very handy set of features and useful statistical information: you can set the download and upload speeds, get varied information about each file and each .torrent file in use, and see the average number of peers available for each torrent.

BitComet

BitComet is a pretty “regular” BitTorrent client. It uses few system resources, achieves good speeds, supports multiple downloads, and has an effective, solid interface. It all adds up to a package which is not very different to what is offered by other programs of this type.

However, one really interesting thing about BitComet is its ability to make use of DHTs (Distributed Hash Tables), allowing it to find seeds without the need to connect to a tracker service and thus happily bypassing the protection measures put in place by private trackers which only allow access to registered users. The only downside is that some of these sites have started to simply block all BitComet users.

BitTorrent

This application started out as an open-source client, and this was always its biggest strength. However, it went proprietary with the release of version 6, when it started to base itself on µTorrent.

This really shows, since now it’s more or less a faithful copy of that other program, discussed above. The only difference is the inclusion of a “Get Stuff” menu, which provides access to various parts of the official BitTorrent web site – one for movies, others for TV, Music and Games – from which you can search for seeds.

As you can see, the variety of features on offer is pretty big, with the differences between the various programs being fairly well defined. You must bear in mind that some torrent clients are banned from some trackers, so in case your torrent file doesn’t seem to start –making sure there are seeds first- try another one.

Since µTorrent features a user-friendly interface, is lightweight and pretty straightforward, it´s the best torrent client for low and high-end systems. It may not present as many features as other clients, but it´s size together with its minimalistic interface definitely makes µTorrent a winner when it comes to downloading torrents.

You do not know how to organize your daily activities? Forget meetings? We bring you EssentialPIM, a great application that includes all the necessary elements like an agenda and a calendar to organize your life and manage your time in the best way.

The best agenda comes with the hand of EssentialPIM

EssentialPIM offers four modules to manage its options: Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Contacts and Rough draft.

If we chose the option “Calendar” it will appear on the screen an agenda divided per time and date. On the top left part, EssentialPIM offers a menu in which we will be able to choose how we want the agenda to be visualized, for example in days, weeks, months or years. Under this option we found a menu with the actions that we can carry out that goes from adding an appointment or looking for one previously added.

To add an appointment we must click on the cells that indicate the schedule and choose the option add. This way, EssentialPIM will open a new window in which we will be able to specify the subject, the place, and all the information related to the appointment. Then press “OK” and it will be added to the agenda, automatically.

If we chose the module “Tasks”, it will appear on the screen a menu in which we will be able to locate all the tasks previously added without the necessity of tracking them by the calendar.

On the other hand if we select the option “Notes” we will have the possibility of writing notes and add them a series of options to make them different. This way we will be able to edit them, add day and time, and more.

On the “Contact” option we will be able to add people to our agenda, by filling a simple form that will be opened when we click on the “Add Contact” option. It also gives us the possibility of making a search on all the contacts added to locate them easily.

This form allows us to add information about the contact we are going to add. Once we have added the necessary data press “OK” and the contact will appear automatically.

Another option that EssentialPIM offer is “EPIM Today” where we will see the screen divided into the five days of the week, so that we can visualize all the appointments that appear in the agenda in that period of time.

In this section we also have, on the menu located on the top-left part of the screen, the possibility of adding appointments, tasks, notes and contacts.

The last option is “Trash bin” in which we will be able to see all the appointments, notes, tasks and contacts we have eliminated and through the menu we will be able to recover or eliminate them.

Using EssentialPIM can seemed difficult at first sight but when starting using it; we will manage to learn how to use it. All we need to do is to add our appointments, notes and contacts, and we will be able to join them and set up with all its functions.

Clients for Gnutella, another alternative to download P2P

Gnutella is a file sharing network protocol based on a direct exchange of sources between clients and servers. This enables to download content from many servers, and to obtain better data transfer.
Gnutella is therefore an interesting option when downloading files from the Internet. Nowadays, we have lots of popular software like P2P that use Gnutella network. Next, we will talk about the five most popular: BearShare, iMP3Tunes, FrostWire and Cabos.

FrostWire

FrostWire is a P2P project inspired on LimeWire, a well-known client similar to this one in its most important features as well as in its design and operation.

FrostWire has an attractive interface and protects from malware and spyware. It is compatible with the Bittorrent network, reason why it allows the downloading of .torrent and .magnet files. It also features a player with iTunes integration that enables files search by type (music, video, text, programs, etc.).

The advance users will not find many original or new options, reason why, this is the ideal software for those who don´t understand much of P2P transferences.

BearShare

BearShare is one of the most popular and well-known P2P clients that ensure quick location and download of virtually any type of file available on the P2P network.

This software allows searches different contents simultaneously, features different options to set up parameters, control bandwidth and download from multiple and safety sources. On the other hand their functions stand out for communicating and chatting with other BearShare´s users, as well as playing online music.

One disadvantage might be the user registry that might bother their users as well as some stability problems.

Cabos

Cabos is Gnutella file sharing program based on LimeWire. Cabos provides simple sidebar user interface, firewall to firewall transfers, proxy transfers, Universal Plug and Play, iTunes + iPod integration, and international searches.

All in all, Cabos do not offer many options; many of them present in any other clients, for example, a player, a previewer or compatibility with other files exchange networks. Despite these disadvantages, this is an excellent application to start with in the files transferences through the P2P system.

iMP3Tunes

iMP3Tunes is an award winning file sharing program allowing users to download mp3 music files from the gnutella network. Users can also search for and download movie files, software titles, games, documents and images.
Other features include the ability to preview files while downloading, advanced techniques for locating rare files, an extremely intuitive user interface, and enhanced parental controls through the use of built-in keyword filters. Download your favorite music and movie files, and stay safe while doing so.

iMP3Tunes has one little disadvantage this version comes in English language only.

These are the four best applications based on the Gnutella network. The all work properly and will help us to download files to our computer. If we  want music, we should try iMP3Tunes.
Choosing from this type of programs is a personal election than a technical question.

If we are thinking of recording the content of a music CD in our computer we will need an application that allows us to do so. For example CDex, an application destined to rip CD that gives us the possibility of storing all our music in the hard drive.

Ripping your CDs was never so easy thanks to CDex

By its sound quality and reduced size, the MP3 has been set as the standard music format for all computer and portable devices. This reality also shows that music CDs, are now being obsolete before the functionality of the MP3. The problem we often have is how to convert one into the other.

The solution comes with the ripper, that is to say, an application able to read CD, DVD, HD DVD or Blue Ray in the reproduction format and record its content to the PC to edit, store, duplicate or create backup copies. We will now talk about CDex, a program that although does not stand out by its popularity or the amount of it options, it does it by the simplicity of its use.

When running the software, we recommend you to set it in your own language to avoid errors and complications. Go to “Options” and select the option “Languages”. From the drop-down menu select the language icon. We will then see how all the elements of the interface change.

Now we are ready to start converting. As we see on the image, CDex automatically recognizes the presence of an audio CD ready to be ripped in our reader and show us its tracks in detail. We can also specify on each track the name of the album, the artist, the genre and the year. To do so, fill in the boxes “Title”, “Artist”, “Genre” and “Year”. If we want to rename a track click with the mouse´s right button on it and select “Rename track”

We can now start to convert songs to the MP3 format, simply select the tracks to convert and click on “Extract CDs tracks to compressed format”, that is the second icon of the panel on the right. Another way of doing this faster is by selecting the tracks and then pressing the “F9” key. The delay of the extraction is determined by the size of the file.
We have finished! To see the location of our new MP3 files press the “F4” key. When the CDex set up window is opened, select the tab “File name”. In the box “Extracted Tracks” we will see the destiny of the files in our hard drive.

Ripping with CDex is really simple. We must only insert the CD we want to rip on the reader and the program will read it automatically. Then select the tracks you want to copy and press the F9 key so that the process starts.

FTP: file transference to servers

Nowadays, the amount of files present on the Web is greater than earlier on, as well as the devices to carry them. One of them is FTP (File Transfer Protocol), a system that enables file transference from a computer to another one, generally between client-server, through an Internet connection.

Let´s compare the most popular and effective four for the common users, so that it can be easy for you to choose between them, they are: FileZilla, SmartFTP, Core FTP Lite and WinSCP.

FileZilla

This is “Mozilla” FTP administrator which is, without a doubt the most popular one offering some interesting features. One of them is that it features the option “Favorites” to add all the sites we frequently used.
Its interface is similar to Windows Explorer, it shows the local folders and the remote ones, making possible the files transference from one to another by using the drag-and-drop system.

It also offers another feature that enables the files downloading, editing the files code and queue the files you want to download or upload.

A problem that this application has is that having a great variety of options it becomes difficult for the inexperience users. That´s why it is necessary to learn how to use the main options first.

SmartFTP

SmartFTP is other application extremely easy to use thanks to its intuitive interface. Also features the drag-and-drop system and allows resuming the incomplete or erroneous files. In addition to this, it supports praxis, that is to say, that keeps a registry of the all the activities we made, and the multiple connections.

SmartFTP stands out for its speed when transferring files; in addition to this, it allows simultaneous file transference and offers the possibility of moving complete folders. This application features backup tools, firewall support and Windows XP interface.

One disadvantage we found when using this application is that the only language available is English. Another disadvantage is its limited license, since it is a 30 days trial.

Core FTP Lite

Core FTP Lite stands out from the rest by some features that makes of this software one of the most popular, since it is able to make transferences between sites, has browser integration, command line and more.

Another important features are related with the possibility of connecting through a firewall, that is to say, offers bandwidth control that allows determine the transference speed during a download to improve the connection, and the possibility of changing its aspect so that we can change it as we want.

Again, with this application we have problems with the language, since the only available is English. In addition to this, the transference speed is very low reason why it can take long when downloading.

WinSCP

Similar to the previous ones, WinSCP allows files transferences from a computer to another, but in this case, between one local and another connected to a server, to upload it later on the Web.

Something particular of its interface is that we can set it up so that it works in two ways. With the files explorer format or with two modules, one for each computer, between them you will be able to exchange files. Another particularly is that it supports different protocols like SCP and SFTP, and has a text editor integrated to the application.

WinSCP can also store all the information in different sessions, if the computer is used by many users. It allows saving the set up we have made to the program in a configuration file and not in Windows, which also makes possible to use it in a portable PC or in any other computer. To finish, it is necessary to mention that the program has some problems when transferring heavy files.

Having considering all the variables we have analyzed we can say that the most complete program, the one that help us to develop our work better and offers more options is Core FTP Lite. Nevertheless, one of the most used due to the amount of variants it offers is FileZilla. Between those two programs we can find the best options when choosing a FTP administrator.

Usually happens that when we listen to our favorite songs we want to sing them or understand what they say. The problem is that if we search them on the Web we cannot coordinate the lyric with the music. In order to overcome this difficulty we have a software like Minilyrics.

Minilyrics Lyrics for your favorite songs

Sometimes is not easy to search the lyric of a song on the Web, since it is difficult to find this kind of sites and also that matches our expectations. Minilyrics is a small but practical application that will allow us to read the lyric of the song that is being played on our favorite multimedia reproducer.

The use of Minilyrics is very simple: when a song is being reproduced, it automatically connects to the Web sites’ data base that has great amounts of lyrics, and from the song ´s information (title, artist, album) Minilyrics offers us two simultaneous ways to visualize the lyric: in a lucid box and in an animation.

The Control Panel of Minilyrics is very easy to use: the lateral button “play” and its buttons located on the left run the reproduction of the song, whereas the arrows pointing up and down forward or rewind the lyric visualized in 0.5 seconds.

It can also happen that it finds several lyrics simultaneously. In case the one that Minilyrics selected does not satisfy us we will be able to select another one by clicking on the magnifier icon. This option will allow us to choose between all the lyrics found on the search through the key words provided by our reproducer.

The problems start when the lyric we want is not found. This can be due to many reasons. Against this, Minilyrics opens a window, “Search and download lyrics”, offering a list of possible letters, between them, we can find the one we are looking for.

Another problem that often happens is that Minilyrcs does not detect the accentuations in the names of the artists or the songs. In this case it is possible that our lyric appears on the list “Search and download lyrics” but the software could not run it automatically. Again, we will click on the magnifier icon and we will select it manually.

On the Windows tasks bar we will see that the Minilyrics icon indicates that the software is still being run. When clicking with the right button we will access to a complete menu. In it, we will be able to set up some functions in the “Preferences” option to continue enjoying Minilyrics.

Minilyrics is a small and simple software that can entertain us per hours. The only thing we need to do is to play any track in our computer, and the software will automatically track the lyric and will show us so we can sing it.