While invite-only web is becoming a slight trend, I’m here to share three niche-specific and very reliable private sites that I use to get my complete media fix. Let’s get started.

PassThePopcorn

PTP has been around for quite a while, and through a legacy of staff drama and domain name changes, it still stands today as the best private torrent site for movies.

High-quality rips are added to PTP faster than almost anywhere else on the net, and speeds are generally top notch. PTP is at around 23,000 (of 25,000) users with a daily activity rate that hangs around 40%. Monthly, it’s at more than 90%. PTP is hanging right under the 100,000 total torrents mark. They’ve got over 53,000 individual movies, more than 80,000 subtitles, 533,000+ user ratings, 3.5 million total snatches, and a seeder/leecher ratio of 85.49. That’s impressive. The site is very smooth and easy to navigate, also.

As a little added bonus, PTP has some of the most active forums I’ve seen across private trackers. The community is very involved. This is where I go when I want movies. If you’re fortunate enough to be an active, invited member than you can tag along with me. My username there is Craig.

What.CD

What.CD is the premiere private tracker for music. Even their splash page is mysterious and makes you want to join up. Like PTP, What.CD has been going strong forever. The site has not changed much over the years, and that’s a good thing. It’s here to stay.

Here are the current stats that What.CD boasts:

• Maximum Users: 200,000
• Enabled Users: 147,441
• Users active today: 31,864 (21.61%)
• Users active this week: 75,651 (51.31%)
• Users active this month: 120,045 (81.42%)
• Torrents: 1,274,496
• Releases: 588,517
• Artists: 442,475
• “Perfect” FLACs: 298,750
• Requests: 158,012 (70.30% filled)
• Snatches: 66,631,197
• Peers: 8,836,049
• Seeders: 8,687,317
• Leechers: 148,732
• Seeder/Leecher Ratio: 58.40

Those numbers are completely insane! If you’re an audiophile and love your FLACs, this is the place to be. I’ve never gone to What.CD and left without finding what I wanted. I’m CSS over at that tracker.

TvTorrents.COM

TvT is the up-and-comer of this list. It’s much different from PTP and What.CD. It doesn’t run on Project Gazelle like those two, the tracker software that What.CD made famous. The invitation and credits system is completely different also.

Again, just like the others, this is absolutely at the top of its class. Sometimes shows are uploaded as briefly as 15 minutes after their live airing. They’ve even got sections of the website that shows recently aired episodes of the most popular TV series’, complete with the matching user-contributed torrents (if there).

These guys are really doing it right, and their approach is definitely changing the way a lot of people watch “TV”. No more sitting and waiting, you don’t even have to set the TiVo. TvTorrents.com has everything you want, from Dexter to the most obscure foreign sitcoms. I’m over there too, self-named.

Now how do you get an invite to these awesome trackers? That’s on you. Just know that they are out there and hold all of your cravings and desires! In the event that you do get invited, you’ll want one of these clients to speed up your downloads. Might also want to check this article out too, it could save you some worry.

Don’t Forget: The Free A-Z Torent Guide

If you know any other quality sites, get at me in the comments. No begging for invites, either!

Today, I will give you a list of the best Bit Torrent clients out there right now – each suited for somewhat different needs. However this list is not about the small technical aspects of each client, but is rather aimed at the average person who wishes to download files using BitTorrent.

Tixati [Windows & Linux]

Tixati is a fairly new BitTorrent client that would appeal to beginner and veteran torrent users alike. The interface is very slick and easy to use, and if you’re not sure what every little thing means, you can easily focus on what you know.

Tixati can supports magnet links, DHT and all the other usual things such as RSS. It’s highly customizable, with a wide array of bandwidth throttling options, different download and upload priorities and impressive control over user interface. With all those options in mind, Tixati is also aimed at beginners, and keeps prompting you with helpful messages and tips as well as the most important settings which you have to configure.

Deluge [Windows, Mac & Linux]

Deluge is a minimalist BitTorrent client with far less options than Tixati, but it will definitely appeal to those who simply want to download torrents and maybe glance at some statistics.

The interface is simple enough to use, although no helpful tips are provided for beginners.  Deluge is  a bit of a hefty download as it requires you to download and install the GTK+ runtime environment. If this is not a problem for you, Deluge offers all the usual basic features such as bandwidth throttling, and a set of plugins you can install to increase its functionality (RSS, for example, is supported only though a plugin).

Try this client if all you want to do is download, or if you’ve been around torrents for a while and don’t mind working a bit for customization.

Vuze [Windows, Mac & Linux]

If you’re looking for a bit torrent client that will download torrents and that’s it, please don’t try Vuze. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Vuze did something different than most other clients – they offer much, much more than just downloading torrents.

Vuze ia a Java application (decide for yourself whether this is a pro or a con) which you can use to do anything from playing HD media, to searching for files; from playing games to managing RSS subscriptions. It even integrates with your iTunes library. Too much? It might be, but if you’re looking for an all-around solution, Vuze is a terrific option. Despite all these features, the regular torrent options are still rather accessible.

Download Vuze if it seems just too good to be true. Beware of the third party software it offers on installation, though.

uTorrent [Windows, Mac & Linux]

It’s hard to compile a list like this without mentioning uTorrent. uTorrent is probably the best-known BitTorrent client, and it still works very well. But despite its name (micro), uTorrent doesn’t feel so tiny anymore. It seems to have gone though a bloating process in the past few years, and is now a full-blown BitTorrent client for the masses, complete with third-party programs you need to opt out from during installation.

These problems aside, it’s still a very good BitTorrent client which offers everything from DHT and magnet links to drag-and-drop interface for adding files. By way of helping newbies, uTorrent offers a Setup Guide which helps you test your network and configure it in order to get the best performance. This is pretty useful even if you already know what you’re doing. uTorrent also offers a rating system to help other users know which torrents are better than others.

If you think you can stomach the slight bloatedness of the client, be sure to give it a try.

Worth Mentioning: BitTorrent [Windows & Mac]

This is not really another client, as BitTorrent and uTorrent are pretty much the same thing nowadays. Take uTorrent, change the main color from green to purple and jiggle the UI around a bit, and you get BitTorrent.

BitTorrent actually feels a bit less bloated, and offers about the same features as uTorrent does. The UI is cleaner, with less options in it, which could be a pro or a con, depending on how you look at it. BitTorrent is also not available for Linux (as far as I could see), which could be somewhat of a deal breaker for Linux users.

Bottom Line

I’m always in search for a balance between functionality and minimalism. When it comes to Bit Torrent clients, Tixati is the surprising winner for me. It has all the option an average person could want, but still feels lightweight enough and easy to understand.

Which client do you use? Have any recommendations for clients we missed? Share in the comments.

Image credit: Shutterstock

When a call is made from one Skype user to another, certain packets are sent to start the call. If the right packets are blocked by the caller, then the recipient’s end of the call can be slightly delayed, and the call disconnected before any notification appears. The caller, however, will have obtained return packets containing the recipient’s IP address.

An IP address in itself can be bad news when it ends up in the wrong hands, but the flaw is deeper still. It’s possible to geolocate an IP address, and if a user has a mobile device with a data connection and Skype installed, a hacker could make numerous terminated calls to roughly work out the user’s movements.

Researchers also found that this method could be used to expose people using BitTorrent. Once an IP address was obtained through Skype, it could be compared to BitTorrent users in an attempt to find a match. The methods used were not targeted (out of 50,000 users, only 400 were matched with a Skype account) but does open the possibility of random blackmail by hackers or investigation by law enforcement.

How do you stop this threat? Your options are limited. Firewalls do not help unless you block Skype entirely. Blocking unknown contacts doesn’t work, either – the initial packets are still sent. It’s really up to Skype to fix this issue by changing their code. In the meantime, if you love to fileshare and you also use Skype, maybe you should stop one of those two activities.

Source: Futurity, Scribed

One highly pirated form of media is music. In fact, there’s a pretty high demand for music as it doesn’t take much before you’ve already spent $100 to fill your iPod by about 5%. So here comes an interesting thought – what kind of music do people want the most, or in other words, which are the most pirated?

In case you’re wondering how I got my results, I simply organized a list of current torrents by the number of seeds each one has. A seed is a system that has the complete torrent on their system and is ready to upload any parts of it to other systems. The number of seeds represents the number as tracked by the torrent site, but there are more than likely plenty more seeds when combining other trackers. As for where I got my list of torrents from, you can do some Googling to find out if you don’t already know, or look here and here.

The Top 10 List

The following top 10 list are torrents, so some may be complete albums while others are just songs.

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne (Deluxe Version) [Album]

The combination of Jay-Z and Kanye West seems to be pretty popular as this album hits the top of spot with 9,495 seeds. This is pretty impressive, considering that there aren’t that many torrents that reach a seed number that high.

2. Lil Wayne – The Carter IV (Deluxe Version) [Album]

Lil Wayne has always had success, and this is proven again as his album The Carter IV is the second most pirated music torrent. His genre, like most on this list, is Hip Hop and Rap.

3. Adele – 21 [Album]

Adele is the only artist on this list that doesn’t have too much in common with any of the others. Instead, this album has pop, soul, blues, rock, alternative, R&B, and indie rock as its listed genres.

4. David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj & Flo Rida – Where Them Girls At [Song]

Where Them Girls At is the first song on our list of torrents. Therefore, it can probably be described as the most pirated song, as most of the others are entire albums.

5. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem [Song]

LMFAO is the only artist group on this list that does hip hop and a number of electro and techno genres. Party Rock Anthem‘s genre, for example, is electro house.

6. Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You [Album]

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a household name for quite some time now. This recent album is proving to be a success for them as well.

7. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pit Bull – On The Floor [Song]

Jennifer Lopez has lots of fans as her career is currently at one of its peaks. She produces some great music, and having a song that features Pit Bull is also a plus. This song has elements of dance-pop and electro-house.

8. Black Eyed Peas – The Beginning (Deluxe Version) [Album]

Yes! The Black Eyed Peas do in fact have something in this top 10 list! By the time a song or album has been well received by the public, it doesn’t take long before they have something new to offer. Their latest album is pretty popular in the 8th spot on our list.

9. David Guetta – Nothing But The Beat [Album]

This is the second torrent in our top 10 list where David Guetta’s work appears. His music is very popular, and that trend won’t be going away anytime soon.

10. Rihanna – LOUD [Album]

In the last spot on our top 10 list is Rihanna’s latest album. She’s been a household name just like Red Hot Chili Peppers, and her career is still going strong. Her album barely made the top 10 list, which is still a good “achievement”.

Conclusion

Overall, the list is pretty impressive, considering the number of seeds they have. You can see that Hip Hop and the like are well-sought after, which for me isn’t such a surprise. However, if you go outside of the top 10, you’ll start to see other genres appearing.

What are your thoughts about pirating in the music industry?  Should being in the top ten most pirated list be considered an indicator of an artist’s popularity or success? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The most popular torrent client, uTorrent, has been getting a lot of extra effort put into it to simplify its use while expanding its feature set. I must say that the uTorrent developers have done an excellent job to do all of this while still keeping the program lightweight. One of the newer features that you’ll find is called add-ons.

µMap

µMap is one of my favorite addons. To me it’s always been quite interesting to see where certain peers are located. There are a couple of different ways to view these maps, and you can organize them by client type, country of origin, or swarm. This way you can easily identify any trends that may be interesting to you.

This app can also show you how closely it can identify your location as well. If µMap can find you within a smaller area than you’d like, you can try to use a free VPN service to mask your actual location.

uChat

uChat lets you chat with other people who are currently downloading the same torrent as you are. This could be a great way to kill some time while your torrent is downloading. You could also find a new online friend who shares similar interests with you, or you could learn about other torrents that you might be interested in. You’re not automatically signed into uChat when you download torrents, so you won’t be disturbed when you don’t want to be.

Skins

If you can already customize your uTorrent client with apps, why not change some visuals as well? With Skins you can easily do that! You can choose from a number of skins by simple browsing or searching via keywords. If you’re a little artsy you can even create a skin yourself.

4. Tetronimoes

So you’ve just added a new torrent to your client (such as a nice DVD collection of your favorite Linux distribution), and have nothing better to do other than to simply sit there and wait. Socializing with strangers might not be something you’d like to do either. After all, you can’t browse the web or you’ll use up bandwidth that could go to the torrent. Instead, you can go ahead and play some Tetris thanks to the Tetronimoes app. Now you can play a classic, lightweight game, and in no time at all you’ll see your torrent completely downloaded.

5. Khan Academy

As a student, I find this app to be very valuable. Khan Academy offers various different college courses whose class videos can be downloaded via torrent. This can be a great advantage to anyone who wants to catch up, get ahead, and simply learn something new that could be beneficial to their work or other activity. Don’t forget to allow some space on your hard drive for this. Khan Academy offers plenty of classes, and you should expect one class worth of videos to take around 2.5GB.

These are the top 5 apps that I personally recommend. Of course, you are never obligated to completely agree with this list, so it’s always best to browse through all the available apps in your uTorrent client. You could also check out this list of other apps. Personalization is always the best feature you can get out of a well-designed program. Also, don’t forget that uTorrent is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so everyone can enjoy them.

Is there an app that you believe should’ve been on the top 5 list? Which app would it be and why do you think so? Let us know in the comments!