Technology [3]

Sometimes I really want to sit down in the evening, have a cool beverage, sit in the dark, and watch the latest episode of Heroes. Will Hiro make it back to the present? Will Mohinder save Molly? What is Syler up to? These are questions that burn in my mind. My problem is that getting American TV in Mazatlan can be tricky.

The first thing we tried was to watch through ABC's web site. ABC makes a big deal that all their episodes are available for online viewing. We logged on and navigated to Heroes. We waited expectantly while the episode loaded. We got a polite message that online viewing is not available to people outside the US. And all of the usual work arounds like spoofing an ip address were no help.

We looked into local cable and satellite solutions, which all seem to have pros and cons. A big con is price. Also, not all American is available. Yes, I love Heroes, but I also like some less mainstream programming like The Riches and Nip/Tuck, which are not available through any TV service here. So now what?

Chuck provided the answer: BitTorrents. We now have the ability to watch what we want whenever we want, in high quality, without commercials. And we don't need anything more than our existing broadband connection. WOOHOO! And we were able to get all the back episodes that we missed so we are all caught up.

So what the heck is a BitTorrent? Its a method of distributing large amounts of data widely to facilitate file transfer. Its usually used for transferring large files like TV, movies, music, and software. Each file is broken down into tiny components which can then be retrieved from several different sources and then reassembled into one cohesive file once they all reach the destination.

I know, it sounds complicated, but its really pretty simple. When you want to download something, you can simultaneously download pieces from several different sources. That gives you a faster download and doesn't overly stress any single source, because they are only giving you a tiny piece.

Important!

It is not recommended to use BitTorrents to download TV if you are living the US or other countries where downloading television shows may be illegal.

In order to use BitTorrents, the first thing you will need a BitTorrent client. This is the piece of software that will download and assemble the files for you. There is a very extensive list of clients [4] provided by Brian Dessent. I recommend Azureus [5]. It's written in Java, so its platform independent. That means it will run on your computer regardless of what operating system you use, provided you have Java installed – which you probably do. It also performs better than most of the other available BitTorrent clients.

The next thing you need is a way to find the shows you are looking for. There are several out there, but a good place to start is at tvrss.net [6] . This site sources other sites as well, so the listing on TV shows is very complete.

If you decide to use Azureus [7], you will do pretty good with all the default options on the install. There are a few specific things, however, that I feel it important to discuss here. When you open Azureus [8] for the first time, there are a few things I recommend you do:

1. Click on view, and choose the advanced option. This will display several other menus.
2. Click on the help menu and choose check for updates. This will take a little time. If any updates are available, click on yes to all updates. Azureus [9] will automatically restart after all the updates are installed.
3. Install the Safe Peer plugin. Safe Peer works like a firewall that uses a list of known bad ips to protect you from attacks and bad files. To install the plugin:
   1. Go to the plugins menu and choose installation wizard.
   2. Choose by list from SourceForge and click next.
   3. Put a check mark next to Safe Peer and click next.
   4. Choose install plugins for all users and click next.
   5. Click on install.
   6. When the installation is done (it may take a minute), click on close, and then close again.
4. Go to the tools menu and choose ip filters
   1. Uncheck enable. This will disable the default ip filter, which we are about to replace with Safe Peer.
   2. Click on save.
   3. Close the options tab.
5. Go to the plugins menu and choose Safe Peer.
   1. Make sure there is a check mark next to enabled.
   2. Click on the block list tab.
   3. In the box next to block list url, it should say: http://www.bluetack.co.uk/config/spconfig.txt.
   4. Click save.

If you want to explore some of the more advanced options, you may find the AzureusWiki [10] helpful.

One important thing to know about using BitTorrents: Your maximum download speed is based on the speed and number of outgoing connections you make available. It is considered good etiquette to share what you have downloaded with other people looking for the same file. A good rule of thumb is to share each file you have downloaded twice, so don't delete it until its share ratio is at least two.

Check back soon for information how to subscribe to your favorite shows so they will download automatically.

Helpful Resources:

• TorrentFreak how-to's [11]
• Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide [12]
• Wikipedia [13]
• ToriTraders [14]