I'm considering downloading utorrent and downloading a few torrents here and there...Will this cause problems with my MBP or is it safe because its a Mac and they can't get viruses? HELP! 
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Macs & torrents?
- Thread starter belladonna624
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I prefer transmission since Utorrent seems to be getting banned on some higher end torrent sites.
The reason why I previously used utorrent on my old laptop, is because before downloading in utorrent, a pop-up was shown and you could un-click all the "extra" files in the torrent, so you only had to upload the video. I've noticed torrent files contain a lot of unnecessary crap you don't need, which I never knew if they could contain a virus or not and if they didn't I just assumed it's extra junk I don't need to download to my computer..
Well good too know because I had never ever heard of it before! I'll check it out, thanks!
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Transmission is my personal choice as well. Its definitely one of the best torrent clients out there as it was optimized for the performance technologies that were introduced in Snow Leopard.
Do I need to turn my firewall off to increase downloading speed? Or is that unsafe and should I just deal? Trying to download a full season of a show but looks like its going to take hours..
Do I need to turn my firewall off to increase downloading speed? Or is that unsafe and should I just deal? Trying to download a full season of a show but looks like its going to take hours..
Maybe there are not enough seeders? Maybe you limited the download speed? Maybe your ISP does not provide you the download speed to download a complete season in less than x hours? Maybe your ISP is blocking ports? Maybe you have to wait a bit until the torrent downloads at full speed?
Anyway, your firewall settings can stay as the are?
PS: Maybe set the priorities of the single episodes, thus the first episodes arrive before the middle and last ones, thus you can watch those while the rest downloads?
Yeah your right, I should have done that.. It's been downloading for about an hour now, should be up to full speed. There were thousands of seeders but on Transmission it says "Downloading 25(or so) of 60 peers." And on my old laptop before buying a Mac, my internet connection downloaded torrents pretty fast, so I don't think it's the ISP. Otherwise, I have no idea what to check or do.
It might be your router. A lot of lower end ones don't like torrents very much. I upgraded my router, and went from 1mbps to about 10mbps.
Do I need to turn my firewall off to increase downloading speed? Or is that unsafe and should I just deal? Trying to download a full season of a show but looks like its going to take hours..
You should download your torrents from a private tracker instead of a public tracker if you find it slow and you will never complain about speed ever.
The same way as public tracker, with one difference:
you have to register on this torrent website and seed more to have a good ratio.
Once you join a private tracker you have to keep up your ratio on torrents from that tracker. Your current ratio isn't relevant.
It depends on what you download. If you're pirating apps, you could end up installing a trojan. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 10 years ago. If you practice safe computing, the only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which cannot infect your Mac unless you actively install them, and they can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.I'm considering downloading utorrent and downloading a few torrents here and there...Will this cause problems with my MBP or is it safe because its a Mac and they can't get viruses? HELP!
Leave your firewall enabled. It will not affect your download speed.Do I need to turn my firewall off to increase downloading speed? Or is that unsafe and should I just deal? Trying to download a full season of a show but looks like its going to take hours..
- Make sure your built-in Mac firewall is enabled in System Preferences > Security > Firewall
- Uncheck "Open "safe" files after downloading" in Safari > Preferences > General
- Uncheck "Enable Java" in Safari > Preferences > Security. Leave this unchecked until you visit a trusted site that requires Java, then re-enable only for your visit to that site. (This is not to be confused with JavaScript, which you should leave enabled.)
- Check your DNS settings by reading this.
- Be careful to only install software from trusted, reputable sites. Never install pirated software. If you're not sure about an app, ask in this forum before installing.
- Never let someone else have physical access to install anything on your Mac.
- Don't open files that you receive from unknown or untrusted sources.
- Always keep your Mac and application software updated. Use Software Update for your Mac software. For other software, it's safer to get updates from the developer's site or from the menu item "Check for updates", rather than installing from any notification window that pops up while you're surfing the web.
I have been using transmission for as long as I can remember. I love that program. Much better than anything else I have tried.
That would be illegal and talking of such things is against the forum rules.Do I need to turn my firewall off to increase downloading speed? Or is that unsafe and should I just deal? Trying to download a full season of a show but looks like its going to take hours..
Most viruses come from either pirated apps or porn. So...buy your apps and look at porn on the web. Should clear most of it up.
Since there are no viruses for Mac OS X in public circulation at this time, it is safe to look at "pirated" porn, one should stay away from pirated applications though, as they can contain other kinds of malware.
Prove that he's illegally downloading them...
Anyway, if your ISP is like mine, it will restrict DL speeds for certain times of the day. I get a maximum of 5KB/s up until 12am when they release the chains and allow the full 40Mb potential, up until 10am