Following up on an earlier post relating to torrent support at Sidepodcast, I figured it might make sense, having covered the reasons for using peer-to-peer technology, to also look at how it works from a user perspective.

Within the past couple of weeks, links to torrent files have been appearing all over this site. You'll find them beside episode names within the archive pages, in the small panel to the right of audio shows and beneath the transport controls in videos.

In order to use these .torrent files, you'll need some client software and recently we've been getting a lot of mileage out of Vuze. The software runs on Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems and it's free to download from the homepage.

Once installed, you can click on any of the torrent links on this site and Vuze will download the associated episode, partly from our server but additionally pieces will come from any other user who's also done the same.

You can track progress using the Download tab on the dashboard, and once complete the episode will play within the application. We've mostly been avoiding P2P software because until recently Vuze (formerly Azureus) was a bit geeky to work with, and to see just how geeky it used to be, try hitting the Advanced button. I'm sticking to simple windows for the time being.

Additionally, by using the integrated search bar, entering sidepodcast will bring up a list of audio and video that we've uploaded onto the Vuze network. It'll take a very long time to get everything published though, so for the time being we recommend using the various links dotted around this site.

There are of course other torrent clients available, and if you know of any good ones please do let us know. Also if you use Vuze, tell us what you think of it and feel free to add us as a friend by looking up sidepodcast.