From Wendy Boswell,
Your Guide to Web Search.
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This article about BitTorrent search engine Isohunt is in three parts:

• What are BitTorrents?
• Isohunt BitTorrent Search? Download a BitTorrent Client First
• Use Isohunt To Find The Best BitTorrents

Want to search for torrents? Download a BitTorrent client

Before you go crazy downloading BitTorrent files from Isohunt, you're going to need to back up and download a BitTorrent client.

What is a BitTorrent Client?

A BitTorrent client is merely the software program you need to use in order to access a BitTorrent network (such as Isohunt). BitTorrent clients connect to a "tracker" that have that same BitTorrent client you do, or are also downloading the same BitTorrent file. There are many BitTorrent clients out there to choose from, and here are just a few.

BitTorrent Clients for Windows

• BitTornado:Freeware, only allows you to download one stream at a time which cuts down considerably on "choke" time. Encourages file sharing, or "seeding".
• BitComet: Freeware. "Multiple simultaneous downloads, ability to select download files in one torrent and set file priority." You can also preview videos before downloading.
• ABC (Yet Another BitTorrent Client): "ABC is an improved client for the Bittorrent peer-to-peer file distribution solution. ABC is based on the latest stable build of BitTornado, which extended from from Original Bittorrent Core System, coded by Bram Cohen."

BitTorrent Clients for Mac and Linux

• BitTorrent:For Windows, Macs, and Linux.
• BitTornado: Works well on Windows and Linux.

Most Popular BitTorrent Client

Probably the most popular BitTorrent client would be Azureus, a Java-based BitTorrent client. From the Azureus site: "Azureus implements the BitTorrent protocol using java language and comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users, including multiple torrent downloads,upload and download speed limiting, both globally and per torrent, and advanced seeding rules."

Word of caution: These BitTorrent files are protected under copyright law and you run the real risk of getting in big trouble by downloading these files. If you want to know your rights and the risks that you're potentially taking by downloading BitTorrent files, please read Peer to Peer Networking-Background of Copyright Issues.

Okay, so now that you've got your BitTorrent client picked and ready to go, you can start your torrent search up on Isohunt (finally!). Go to the next page in this article to learn more about searching on Isohunt for BitTorrent files, or back up to learn more about BitTorrent clients and what BitTorrent files are.