So you've finished setting everything up, downloaded some torrents, and are now wondering how you can share your own files with other people? µTorrent makes the process very simple, and after only a few short steps you will be able to share your files easily. Despite its outward appearance, the .torrent file creation facility's simplicity does not mean it is lacking in functionality, and in most cases, it is all people need in a .torrent file creation utility. The only required step in creating a .torrent file is to select a valid source, though you should configure the rest of the settings appropriately if needed.
After you create the .torrent file, you need to find a way to share it with whoever you want. If you're only targeting a few people, it might be easier to send the file to them directly. If you're targeting the general public, you should upload it to a website that allows .torrent file uploads. Public .torrent index sites often allow for this. The .torrent file can also be uploaded to private trackers, but you should be aware that some private trackers require that you redownload the .torrent file from their tracker in order for it to work.
Select Source
- The combobox displays the path of the file or directory that will be made into a .torrent file. You can edit this path manually if you know the file or directory's location. Previously used locations are saved in the combobox and can be used again.
- The Add file button lets you select a specific file and automatically places its path in the combobox above. Selecting a single file disables the "Skip Files" feature.
- The Add directory button lets you select a specific directory and automatically places its path in the combobox above. Only by using this button can you make use of the "Skip Files" feature.
- The Skip Files field allows you to skip files using specific filters. This field only gets activated if you use the "Add directory" button. Wildcards can be used to specify multiple files.
Torrent Properties
- The Trackers edit control lists all of the trackers the .torrent file will use. Only HTTP, HTTPS, and UDP trackers are supported. Trackers are separated by a newline. Those that are not separated by blank lines will be used as backup trackers for adjacently listed trackers. Backup trackers will not be used unless the previously listed tracker fails. Note that having µTorrent use multiple trackers simultaneously does not necessarily improve the .torrent itself, so don't be discouraged from selecting some trackers to be backup trackers. If you're not sure what tracker to use, try checking your favorite .torrent tracker for the tracker URL to use when creating new .torrents for it. Alternatively, you can use the embedded tracker in µTorrent here. This edit control can be left blank if you wish to use only DHT to track the .torrent file, just be sure that you do not make the .torrent file private.
- The Web Seeds edit control lists all the web seeds the .torrent file will use. Only HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP web seeds are supported. Web seeds are separated by a newline. For single-file torrent contents, the target file can be linked to directly (even if the file name differs from the name described in the .torrent file). This isn't necessary, though; for both single and multiple file torrent contents, the directory containing the desired files can be listed, and clients that support web seeds should automatically append the path and filenames described in the .torrent file onto the listed directory to obtain the full URL to the desired files.
- The Comment field allows you to place whatever comment you want in the .torrent file.
- The Piece Size dropdown menu allows you to select the size of each piece in the .torrent file. Selecting too small a piece size for large source files creates a needlessly large .torrent file and extreme protocol communication overhead, while using too large a piece size means more wasted bandwidth for people who often experience hashfails, since they'd have to redownload entire pieces over for each hashfail that occurs. Unless you are absolutely sure you understand what the option is used for, and the consequences that come with using it, it is recommended that you let µTorrent automatically detect the piece size for you.
Other
- Start seeding tells µTorrent to automatically add the torrent job to the torrent jobs list and start it. Note that if you plan on uploading the .torrent file to a private tracker, you might have to redownload the file from their tracker before it works, so this option might be useless to you if that is the case.
- Preserve file order tells µTorrent to create the .torrent file with files and directories sorted by name, in ascending order. By default, µTorrent sorts files in the .torrent file by size, in descending order.
- Private torrent tells µTorrent to set the 'private' flag in the .torrent file, which tells clients that support this flag to not announce this torrent job over DHT, and disables LPD and PEX as well. Accordingly, if you plan on leaving the Trackers edit control blank in order to make the .torrent file use DHT, you should not enable this option.
- Create Encrypted tells µTorrent to encrypt the .torrent file.
Related
- Website allows you to manually enter website info to be stored as metadata within the .torrent file.
- Rss allows you to manually enter RSS info to be stored as metadata within the .torrent file.
- Similar Torrents allows you to manually enter similar torrent info to be stored as metadata within the .torrent file.