Pros and Cons of Torrents

pokeplayer984 · **on:** February 24, 2009, 11:52:11 AM

Decided it might be fun to do this. List any pros and cons you may know about Torrents.

I'll start.

Pros: Get stuff for free.

Cons: Takes longer than normal download; can make you an easy victim to hackers

I think that's a good start.

Okay, what pros and cons do you guys know about torrents.

Go ahead and list.

See ya later!

Kor · **Reply #1 on:** February 24, 2009, 12:51:12 PM

One advantage is it is sometimes the only way to get something that is not available on dvd.

action9000 · **Reply #2 on:** February 24, 2009, 01:46:41 PM

The second I start downloading a torrent, I basically lose my internet access.

Probably something to do wither either my ISP or my router but while i have a torrent running, I can't even keep a connection to MSN.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #3 on:** February 24, 2009, 02:32:04 PM

One disadvantage I heard of about torrents, but actually applies to any download, is that you could end up with a nasty virus.

pokeplayer984 · **Reply #4 on:** February 24, 2009, 04:52:08 PM

Quote from: DarkHououmon,Feb 24 2009 on 11:32 AM

One disadvantage I heard of about torrents, but actually applies to any download, is that you could end up with a nasty virus.

Tell me about it! Over a year ago I downloaded a torrent for an anime movie. Guess what it really was? Antivirus XP. Nice!

: (Though very clever I must admit. <_<)

DarkHououmon · **Reply #5 on:** February 24, 2009, 06:28:17 PM

Antivirus XP? Is that the same as Antivirus 2009? A friend of mine had it on her computer, not knowing it was dangerous. She did get rid of it, though, when I told her that it was bad.

pokeplayer984 · **Reply #6 on:** February 24, 2009, 08:51:02 PM

Antivirus 2009, Antivirus 2008, XP Antivirus, Antivirus XP, XP Antivirus 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009, they're all the same. Rouge Antivirus programs designed to harm your computer. It doesn't stop there either; System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Vista Antivirus 2008, etc. It goes on!

I bet I've missed quite a few, but I doubt even LBTlover could list them all.

Yet they're so easy to fall for. Just look at those names. People who don't know about them can easily fall for them any day of the week. -_-

DarkHououmon · **Reply #7 on:** February 24, 2009, 09:00:09 PM

Yeah, I heard there were a ton of rogue antiviruses. But they're pretty easy to spot, based on the type of advertising that they do, like telling you your system is infected, something that only your currently installed antivirus would do.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #8 on:** February 24, 2009, 10:49:01 PM

Sorry but when you're a member of Demonoid, there are no cons to downloading torrents.

Mumbling · **Reply #9 on:** February 25, 2009, 02:07:08 AM

Sure there are. I am a member too. It can go too slow and virusses still pop up so now and then.

Sableye · **Reply #10 on:** February 25, 2009, 07:20:40 PM

Quote from: pokeplayer984,Feb 24 2009 on 09:52 AM

Cons: Takes longer than normal download; can make you an easy victim to hackers

I disagree. Torrents can be faster than normal downloads in some cases.

Pros:

+Can get fast speeds
+Useful for large files (such as dvd isos)
+You can find stuff that may be hard to find in stores

Cons:

-Viruses

Although, if the website has a comments section, sometimes people will post on whether the torrent is infected or not. I usually try to scan the files before opening them up anyway.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #11 on:** February 25, 2009, 07:39:31 PM

I disagree. I have never seen a case where a torrent was faster than a normal download. The only way this would be possible, far as I know, is if the torrent is smaller than normal downloads. But the torrents I see are 1 gig, 2 gigs, 3 gigs, maybe even higher than that.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #12 on:** February 25, 2009, 07:46:45 PM

Quote

Sure there are. I am a member too. It can go too slow and virusses still pop up so now and then.

So long as you're not trying to download a 5 year old torrent there'll be plenty of seeders and the amount of viruses on demonoid is so close to zero you might as well say it's virus free. If you got a virus after downloading torrents, it wasn't a torrent that was tracked by demonoid. Now if you download a torrent from a link on demonoid and it uses other trackers besides demonoid, then it's your own fault if you get a virus. If you download torrents that are tracked exclusively by demonoid, the chances of you getting viruses are next to nothing.

Petrie. · **Reply #13 on:** February 25, 2009, 10:05:34 PM

Con of torrent: depending on ISP, they don't like seeing transfers out of your computer (as in sharing files)

Sableye · **Reply #14 on:** February 26, 2009, 08:44:53 AM

Quote from: DarkHououmon,Feb 25 2009 on 05:39 PM

I disagree. I have never seen a case where a torrent was faster than a normal download. The only way this would be possible, far as I know, is if the torrent is smaller than normal downloads. But the torrents I see are 1 gig, 2 gigs, 3 gigs, maybe even higher than that.

Well, with some websites I may get speeds of 80-100KB/s. With torrents, I could probably download the same file maybe more than that, assuming that there are a sufficient amount of seeders and leechers. However, good speeds requires a properly configured bittorrent client and router, so if the firewall/router is blocking incoming connections and such, then that might be a problem.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #15 on:** February 26, 2009, 09:16:07 AM

Quote

I disagree. I have never seen a case where a torrent was faster than a normal download. The only way this would be possible, far as I know, is if the torrent is smaller than normal downloads. But the torrents I see are 1 gig, 2 gigs, 3 gigs, maybe even higher than that.

Just download something from Cnet.com like a trial of AVG Free. You'll get really slow speeds like 16kps sometimes. I've had torrents that downloaded at 3.5mbps (3,500kps) before.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #16 on:** February 26, 2009, 12:09:36 PM

I haven't had a torrent work for me at all recently. Well a few times they work but it takes so long and since my connection disconnects at least once a day (though sometimes it doesn't) any download that takes a day is at risk of being disrupted. The last torrent that worked for me was a game (which ended up not working in the end).

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #17 on:** February 26, 2009, 12:45:15 PM

Well that's a problem with your computer, ISP, or setup. It's not normal to have those sort of problems. I'd have that looked into if I were you.

NeptuneNavigator2001 · **Reply #18 on:** February 26, 2009, 01:20:58 PM

Don't think I can add to this list of pros and cons.

I've experienced quite a few of them myself, but oh well.