Free Software p2p Network

Quick Start

bash$ wget http://cryptnet.net/fspn/torrents/rss/knoppix.rss
bash$ mkdir run_bt; cd run_bt
bash$ trss.pl knoppix.rss
bash$ cd content
bash$ btlaunchmany.py ../torrents

Step By Step (with explinations)

Step 1: Download A BitTorrent Program

In order to download files which have been made available with the bittorrent protocol, you're going to need to have a program which implements that protocol. The official implementation is written in python, so you'll need to have python installed as well.

To see if you have python installed already, type python at the command line. If python is installed you should see a prompt similar to the following:

Python 2.2.3 (#1, Oct 15 2003, 23:33:35)
[GCC 3.3.1 20030930 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.1-6)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

To download and install the Offical Reference Implementation of BitTorrent, simply decompress the archive in /usr/local and add the new directory to your path.

Step 2: Download the torrent file(s) for the content you want

You can download a single torrent file, or you can use the FSPN perl script to download all of the torrent files from an RSS feed.

To download all torrent files from an rss feed:

bash$ wget http://cryptnet.net/fspn/torrents/rss/knoppix.rss
bash$ mkdir run_bt; cd run_bt
bash$ trss.pl knoppix.rss

Step 3: Launch BitTorrent

To download a single file, you may start the BitTorrent program as so:

To download multiple files from an RSS feed from FSPN, you must know where your torrent files are currently stored. The FSPN perl script will create a directory named torrents in the current working directory when it is run. The reference BitTorrent distribution includes a program called btlauchmany which will download all torrents in a directory argument into the CWD. To start downloading all of the torrents from an RSS feed, you'll want to issue a command similar to the following:

Step 4: Leave BitTorrent Running After Your Download Completes

It is important to attempt to contribute back at least as much bandwidth as you consumed. The longer you leave your bittorrent application running after your download completes, the easier you make it for others to get the same content.