BitTorrent is the official client for the
BitTorrent network protocol.
This client has the same name as the protocol, because it was implemented by the same author. It provides the required functionality for this kind of application but there are other clients like
Azureus,
BitRocket, etc, which can be used for this job. BitTorrent has both advantages and disadvantages over the alternatives.
The program has a clean interface. It provides you the minimal information about the loaded torrents. It also provides quite minimal functionality.
By clicking the "Torrent info" button, you can get some advanced statistics of that torrent such as the peer list, the comments of the torrent, the average speed of the swarm, etc.
By entering into the application's 'Preferences' panel, you can modify some of its functionality. Among those options, you can set the path for a completed download, the path for an unfinished download, and the network, appearance, and language options.
The 'Network' section of this program gives you the possibility to choose the maximum upload speed, the average maximum download rate, the listening port for the application, and the possibility to use
UPnP if it is possible.
The 'Appearance' tab gives you the possibility to pick what kind of progress bar the application should use. It gives you as well the possibility to customize the toolbar style by choosing the icon size.
The client gives you the possibility to create your own torrents. This can be done pretty easily, because of the simple interface. The tracking mode can be either a tracking server, or a
DHT network. You can't create private torrents with this application, because the required functionality is missing. A private torrent is a torrent that forces ending the process of the DHT and the PEX (Peer Exchange).
By default, this program has the support for DHT and PEX. There isn't any option that turns this kind of functionality off. The only way to turn this off is when forced by the torrent. Since the application doesn't provide the possibility to create private torrents, this can be done only by torrents created by third party software.
Pluses: it uses lower resources than other clients, it has a clean interface, it is the official client so the implementation of the protocol is the right one.
Drawbacks / flaws: it doesn't have many features, so the advanced users might miss them.
In conclusion: this is a good client for the beginner users of the BitTorrent protocol. For more control and features of your torrents, an alternative client is required.
version reviewed: 4.27.1 beta
