This guide is one of a series of guides that are the TorrentSpy FAQ (part of the *Spy FAQ family).
A BT (BitTorrent) Client is a program that will manage all of your downloading and uploading you do using torrents. There are many BT clients out there, each offering different pros and cons - all will download at the same speed, but they differ in terms of advanced features such as DHT, and ease of setup & use. Only use one client at a time, as running more than one will slow things down.
Here is a list of recommended BT clients you can use:
| Client | Platform | Note | Recommended by: |
| Azureus | multiplatform | - complex and a resource hog
- lots of excellent help available
| volunteer mod-squad |
| Tomato | Mac | | volunteer mod-squad |
uTorrent
(aka µTorrent) | Windows | - extremely light on resource usage
- very easy to get started with
| volunteer mod-squad |
For a large list with comparisons of features between all BT clients, click here.
After you install your BT client, you'll need to configure it. See: Improve Torrent download speeds. You may need to check this guide as well: Problem downloading the .torrent file?
Here is a list of NOT recommended BT clients (and the reasons why some trackers / other clients ban them):
| Client | Banned | Reason | Recommended by: |
| ABC | | randomly reports bad stats to the tracker |
| Acquisition | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| BitComet | by trackers and clients | - still banned by some trackers
- update 7jan2007 BitComet is now being banned by some clients, due to "selfish" client behaviour - see details here
| site owners |
| BitLord | by many trackers | banned by many trackers - based on old buggy BitComet code. |
| BitSpirit | by many trackers | randomly sends DHT packets to its own public tracker |
| BitThief | by trackers and clients | being banned by some clients, due to "selfish" client behaviour - see details here |
| BitTorrent | | (aka Mainline) users caught cheating with this client, old and decrepit |
| Bittorrent++ | by many trackers | ??? |
| BitTyrant | by trackers and clients | being banned by some clients, due to "selfish" client behaviour - see details here |
| burst! | by many trackers | no longer maintained |
CTorrent
and clones | by many trackers | communicates with the tracker incorrectly (aka not following BT spec) |
| ed2k | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| eDonkey2000 | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| eXeem | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| G3 | by many trackers | consistently reports bad stats to the tracker |
| Mainline | | See BitTorrent |
| MLdonkey | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| Opera | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| Qtorrent | by many trackers | Does not identify itself correctly and gets caught by another client ban. |
| Rufus | by many trackers | constantly reports bad stats to tracker |
| Shareazza | by many trackers | not a proper Torrent client. |
| SuperTorrent | ??? | Apparently contains adware |
| Torrent101 | ??? | Apparently contains adware |
| Torrent Station | by many trackers | Does not uniquely identify itself. |
| Torrentstorm | by many trackers | development and bug fixes ceased 30th March 2005. |
| Turbo Torrent | by many trackers | rumoured to do bad things |
| XBT Client | by many trackers | by default does not identify itself on the swarm or can be configured to pretend to be another client. |
| Ziptorrent | by many trackers | does not identify itself correctly (specifically it lacks version number). Being used principally by spoofers, taking advantage of this bad code decision. |
Asking for further help
Further assistance
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Author:
- MaggiePixel and other members of the TorrentSpy/IRCSpy forums and mod/admin team.