In simple terms BitTorrent clients are any program that uses the BitTorrent protocol to download files. A BitTorrent client is a piece of software acts as a download centre. You open torrent files you find on the internet in a torrent client and it then downloads the file for you.
In the past few years as BitTorrent has increased in popularity to be the most popular file sharing method on the Internet, the numbers of BitTorrent clients has increased. There are literally hundreds of differentBitTorrent clients to choose from but experienced users gravitate to one of the top two clients.
These bittorrent clients are Azureus and uTorrent.
Azureus Vuze
(Please note, the new release is known as Vuze)
Azureus is an extremely powerful BitTorrent client best suited to those with a good technical understanding. It places a higher load on your computer but it comes with all the bells and whistles.
Azureus also boasts a plugin system which allows third parties to further enhance the features of this extremely powerful BitTorrent client.
Azureus is a java BitTorrent client requiring Java to be installed on your computer. Most modern computers have java already installed but if you dont, it is a simple matter of installing Java before Azureus will even run.
Azureus is the top dog of BitTorrent clients and offers more features and plugins than any of its competition. This power comes at a cost though placing relatively high demands on your computer. The sheer numbers of options and customisation you can do with Azureus will certainly confuse many. Accordingly we recommend the Azureus BitTorrent client for those with a good technical understanding.
You can download Azureus at azureus.sourceforge.net and if you need to install Java on your computer you can grab a copy from here as well.
Because it is built on the Java platform there are versions of Azureus for Windows, Apple and Linux computers.
uTorrent
uTorrent is a very small, efficient but feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows which uses very little of your computer resources. It was purposely designed to use as little computer power, cpu load, memory and file space as possible whilst still offering a fully featured client.
For the majority of new users, uTorrent is a fantastic first choice to download Music, Movies, TV shows and just about anything.
uTorrent is a Windows only solution and you can download a copy at their website, www.utorrent.com