[SGVLUG] getting & using BitTorrent

[Michael Proctor-Smith]

On 10/6/05, Emerson, Tom <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:
> SuSE 10.0 went "gold" today [perhaps you've noticed slight pauses on the 'net?]  One of my old servers isn't liking the 9.x series [the SuSE "installer" hangs during boot] so I thought I'd try the 10.0 "live" to ensure 10.0 at least runs [then I can figure out installation later]
>
> Realizing that "everybody" [who wants it NOW] will be hitting ftp.suse.com and it's mirrors, I figured I'd try BitTorrent [I hear it works better when more people try to get the same file, and day-1 of a new ISO release should ensure plenty of downloaders...]
>
> got the "official" rpm, installed it, read the chapter on firewalls so I poked a hole through mine to allow the 688x range in, and then did the classic "so, now what?"
>
> As the FAQ's point out, you don't actually "start" a client in the traditional napster/kazaa sense, but apparently you "click a link" and your browser should know what to do (there is some vague indication of an "application/x-bittorrent" mime type that gets "installed", but as many helpless others have claimed, "it didn't [appear] to work"
>
> what /actual/ helper program do I need to point this too?

I have never set up it to work with my browser, as there is a curses
based interface. I tend to ssh into my box at home fire up a screen
session and the btdownloadcurses.py --url 'URLTO.torrentFILE' That way
I can leave it and check on it from anywhere.