INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

Bittorrent is an amazing technology when it comes to file sharing.  Unlike FTP or HTTP uploading/downloading, bittorrent uses a group (known as a swarm) of computers to collaboratively work together to share data and disperse it between each person wanting to obtain the file(s) that are being shared in the torrent.

In this series of tutorials, I will be showing you how to install a bit torrent client (uTorrent), which is used for creating, downloading, and sharing torrents, how to install your own tracker, and how it all works together so you can begin sharing your files over your local network or over the Internet.

HOW IT WORKS

Understanding this will help you out tremendously and it was my lack of understanding that made it so difficult for me to first figure this all out.  Torrents are a little more complex than other methods of file sharing, so there's a few extra steps that one has to take, but it's well worth it.  So I will try to break it down and make it as easy as I can to grasp.

Torrent Files

This was probably the single most difficult thing to grasp at first.  Torrent files are basically just "information" files about the file(s) you are wanting to share with others.  It doesn't contain the actual file(s) themselves, just all of the information others will need to have to begin obtaining it. 
Torrents divide files into hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individual pieces and then sends them to the swarm (other computers downloading/having the files).  From my understanding, the torrent file defines each little piece and tells the downloader's bit torrent client how to reassemble all of the little pieces to form a single, whole file again once the download has completed.  By using this method, different computers participating in the swarm can have different parts of the file(s), which allows them to also share those with the rest of the computers without having to have 100% of the file themselves.  This allows the swarm to share bandwidth for downloads and not make it solely depend on the seeder(s) to provide every piece of the desired file(s).
It also contains the tracker(s) so the bittorrent client knows who to ask to find the other participators that form the swarm so they can download from all available participators and not just a single source.

Bit torrent Client

This is a program such as uTorrent that manages all of the torrents a user is either sharing or downloading.  Most of them also allow you to use them to create the torrent files so you can start sharing your own files with others.  Some bit torrent clients even have built-in trackers, such as uTorrent, that is only suitable for short-term and small torrent shares with others.
The bittorrent client also keeps track of where the actual files the torrent file is referring to are located so when someone requests it, it can start sending them.

Bit torrent Tracker

I refer to this as the coordinator.  This piece of the puzzle is responsible for keeping up with everyone.  Since each torrent has a tracker link in it, the tracker keeps in touch with each person's bit torrent client so it knows who all has the file(s), who all is currently participating in the swarm, and how much of the file(s) each user has to contribute.  It connects everyone together.
There are methods of sharing torrents without a tracker, but the only one I know of is manually specifying every participant's IP address in the torrent and keeping them updated.  In a world of dynamic IPs, this just isn't logical in most cases.  There are other tracker-less technologies out there, but I don't know about them and they get much more complicated.

Many tracker programs also offer a website front-end that lists the torrents available so people can navigate to it with their web browsers and choose which files they would like to download.  The one I use in this tutorial, RivetTracker, does just this an even provides a RSS feed for people to subscribe to.  RSS feed subscriptions can be done with uTorrent and many other bit torrent clients.
There are other trackers that are more complex and even offer ratio downloading/uploading as well as users, forums, blogs and more.  They tend to be more complicated and therefore I decided to use a very simple one that still provides a front-end for visitors to access and download torrents from.

Seeders / Peers / Leechers

The Seeder - A seeder is a computer that is contributing to the swarm and has 100% of the file.  When you initially begin sharing a torrent with others, you are considered to be the "initial" seeder and others will have to first obtain 100% themselves before they can also begin seeding.  It's a good idea to seed consistently for at least 3-4 days until you have several more seeders before you disconnect your seeding computer.  Otherwise, you may leave others stuck at a certain percentage in the download unable to finish until you return.

The Peers/Leecher - Peers and leechers are others in the network who are contributing however much they already have, but don't have 100% of the file(s) yet.  They are still very important to the swarm, because they contribute bandwidth by sharing whatever parts of the file the already have.
Leechers is generally a reference term to those who only download and don't contribute in uploading/seeding.  It's good etiquette to at least keep a 1-to-1 ratio on uploading/downloading a file.  This means if you download a 100MB file, you keep sharing it until you've uploaded at least 100MB of that file to others.  The more contributors in a swarm, the faster the downloading is to those seeking the file.

Now that we've got that all covered, let's proceed on to the next step,

Step 1 - How To Install a Bit torrent Client, uTorrent.

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