• Segmented* HTTP(S)/FTP downloads
• FTP uploads
• Support for SOCKS5 and HTTP proxies
• RSS feed support + special functions for TV shows and podcasts
• BitTorrent support (including torrent creating, DHT, UPnP, encryption etc.)
• Torrent search on major torrent sites incl. The Pirate Bay, EZTV, BitTorrentMonster…
• RapidShare.com FREE and premium downloads
• RapidShare.com uploads
• RapidShare.com link verification and folder extraction
• RapidSafe link decoding
• MD4/MD5/SHA1 hash computing
• Remote control via Jabber (!)
• Remote control via an AJAX* web interface
• Subtitle search
• RAR/ZIP file unpacker
• Scheduler
• Clipboard monitor

Installation

FatRat is available in several distros, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, ArchLinux and Sabayon. In Ubuntu, you can install via the Ubuntu Software Center, or via command line:

sudo apt-get install fatrat

You can also get it to integrate with your browser. For Firefox, the FlashGot extensio is integrated with FatRat. For Chrome/Chromium, install the FatRat extension heBig Stock Photore.

Usage

Using FatRat is easy. Whenever you want to download, just select the “FlashGot -> FatRat” option from the download popup. The download link will be sent to FatRat where you can choose the location to save the file.Big Stock Photo

http://fatrat.dolezel.info/

At any point of time, you can pause your download or set a limit to the download/upload speed if it is taking up too much of your bandwidth. One thing that I love about FatRat is the Drop-box feature (not to confuse with the online storage providers – Dropbox). This is a widget residing on your desktop where you can drag and drop any stuff on a webpage onto it for immediate download.

The same goes for torrents file. Simply drag the torrent link to the drop-box and select the “Bittorrent Download” under the “Download As” field. FatRat will first download the .torrent file, and then download the actual torrent.

Configuration

Under the settings section of FatRat, there are plenty of options that you can configure. You can add RSS feeds, add your RapidShare account (if you have one) for rapid download, the size of the drop-box, using jabber as a remote-control and many other options.FatRat For Ubuntu

Plugins

On top of its existing features, FatRat also supports plugins. Few of the currently available plugins include Substitle search, unpack or pipe RAR (and ZIP optionally) archives inside the application and easy download/upload to Czshare.com. These plugins are all available in Ubuntu repository.

Conclusion

There are just too many features in FatRat to be mentioned here, but without a doubt, it is definitely one of the best download manager for Linux. This app has been around since 2006 and is still in active development even until today. Kudos to the developer for making FatRat a great app and distribute it for free.

Give it a try and let us know how you find it. I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

FatRat

Image credit: Big Stock Photo

uTorrent is a client that has become the de facto torrent client for Windows. Amongst its many features is a RSS Download tool. This tool allows you to automatically start torrent downloads as they are made available over the RSS feed.

There are many guides on the internet that explain exactly what bittorent is and the best ways to utilise this protocol. So, in this guide I assume that the user is aware of the basic functions of downloading a torrent file.

Get the Feed

The first step is to actually find the RSS feed you want. There are many websites which offer a RSS feed to download torrents.

I am a fan of PBS’s NerdTV, which is freely distributed. The RSS feed for this show, with all the torrent files, can be found here.

Depending on whether you want the MP3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC version, right-click on “Torrent” and select “Copy link address”.

As long as the feed contains torrent files, any RSS feed will work.

Adding a Feed to uTorrent

As I mentioned, this guide assumes that you are able to normally download torrent files without any problems. First, launch bittorent and click on the RSS icon along the top toolbar.

This opens the “Add RSS Feed” dialog.

Paste the copied RSS feed into the “Feed URL” box. Optionally, you can add a “Custom Alias”. This is useful if you have a lot of RSS Feeds.

If you wish to choose the individual files to download (and not have uTorrent do it automatically) select “Do not automatically download all items”. Alternatively, select “Automatically download all items published in feed” to have uTorrent automatically download all the torrent files that appear in the feed. Finally, the option “Use smart episode filter” ensures that only the first version of an episode is downloaded. Often podcasts release a high quality and low quality version and if both versions are in the same feed, you unnecessarily download both. This option ensures that only the first one to appear is downloaded.

Once you are happy with the settings select “OK”.

This is generally sufficient for the feed to populate and start downloading all the torrents. However, if you had selected “Use smart episode filter” it will not download any of the old torrents, instead it will wait for a new torrent to appear. You can always manually download a show by double-clicking it.

Advanced Settings

This, for the most part, is sufficient if you just want to watch all the episodes as they are released. But, what if you added a feed that had a back catalogue of 10 seasons?

Fortunately, uTorrent also provides a fairly robust “advanced options” for its RSS feeds.

To launch this menu click on “Options > RSS Downloader”.

The RSS Downloader window has a number of settings allowing you to select the specific episodes of a show you want to download.

That’s it! Post in the comments if you have used uTorrent’s RSS features in any other unique ways.

Image credit: Travelin’ Librarian

1. Remotely launch Bittorrent downloads.

I like to keep my various Linux distributions up-to-date and one of the ways I manage this is to ensure that as soon as the latest “iso” file of that distribution is made available I immediately start torrenting it. The first thing you will need is a torrent client that supports the “watch folder” feature. I personally use uTorrent. (Note: Transmission also has the ability to “watch” a folder for new torrent.)

To set up a “watched folder” in uTorrent click on Options on the top toolbar and then select Preferences from the drop-down menu.

Next, navigate to Directories from the left-hand column. This will open up a set of options on the right side of the panel. First, check “Automatically load .torrents from:”, then select “…” and using the file browser navigate to your “My Dropbox” folder and create a folder here called “Torrents”. Then select Select Folder. When the settings in the Preferences are completed hit OK.

Now, whenever you upload a .torrent file into your “Torrents” folder on Dropbox it will automatically launch in uTorrent, provided your computer is switched on and uTorrent is running. This is a great way to remotely launch torrents.

2. Access Dropbox from Multiple Devices

There are a number of ways of accessing Dropbox from a device other than your primary computer. You can log into the web interface which allows you to download any of your files or upload something new. You can also install Dropbox on a new computer and log in with your same account. Finally, Dropbox is now available as a download from the iTunes App Store as well as the Android marketplace.

[Image credit: alex.priest]

3. Share files with the world

It is easy to share a folder with your friends in Dropbox, but it requires both parties (you and your friends) to have Dropbox accounts. In some cases you do not want to take the hassle of having the other party install Dropbox and you merely want to share a single file with them. In these cases you can share an individual file by creating a “public link”.

All files that are placed in the “Public” folder in your “My Dropbox” folder can be made “Public” by copying the public link and sharing it with the world.

Once you have copied a file into the Dropbox public folder, you can generate a public link either through the file explorer or through the web interface. In your file explorer, simply right-click on the file you want to share, select Dropbox and select Copy Public Link.

4. Sync your To-Do List

Although there are numerous online to-do lists such as RememberTheMilk, Evernote, and even Google’s Tasks application, most people (including me) are still fans of the old fashioned text-file.

To create a to-do list text file and access it everywhere, simply save your to do list in the Dropbox folder. This way you can access it from anywhere and make changes and re-upload.

5. Backup Saved Game Files

I often find that I am in a friends house and I want to show them the “magical” new weapon my character found in a game. Unfortunately, because my saved file from the game is at home I am unable to launch the game from the position I left off.

To get around this you can add your “saved game” files to your My Dropbox folder and make it accesible from anywhere.

As of now, most of my saved game files are saved in the “Documents” folder and since I demonstrated how to keep your “Documents” folder in sync in the first part of this guide, there is no need to do anything further to backup your saved game files. However, if your saved game file is in some other folder then you will need to create a junction into your “My Dropbox” folder. Just keep in mind that unlike before you do not want to move the entire saved game folder into your “My Dropbox” folder, rather you want to right-click on the folder containing your saved game file, select “Pick Link source”, then navigate to your “My Dropbox” folder and right-click on any blank area and select “Drop As…” and select “Junction”.

This will ensure that your saved game files are backed up to Dropbox.

6. Access your Instant Messaging Logs from Anywhere

If you are using multiple computers, chances are, you have also installed multiple IM accounts on each computer. While you are able to connect to your IM network easily, your chat log will be split among different computers. To keep them unified, you can easily create a junction (or symlink) and sync your chat log across different computers with Dropbox.

There are thousands and one things that you can do with Dropbox and I have only covered the tip of the iceberg. If you have found any other novel uses for Dropbox, let us know in the comments.

Image credit: claustchi

Magnet link makes it very convenient for all of us to download file. However, when you click on the magnet link in the browser, you will probably see the error message below.

So how can we open magnet links in the browser in various OS?

Note: Not all Bit-torrent clients support magnet links. Vuze, uTorrent and Transmission are several clients that support magnet links.

In Linux (Gnome)

If you are using Ubuntu Karmic, the default transmission does not support magnet link. You have to upgrade to the latest version (1.9 as of this post).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Alternatively, you can also install Vuze

sudo apt-get install vuze

Next, we are going to add an entry to your gonf. In your terminal:

gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/command "/usr/bin/transmission %s"
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/needs_terminal false -t bool
gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/enabled true

If you are using Vuze, change the /usr/bin/transmission to the filepath of the Vuze application (usually is /usr/bin/vuze).

That’s it.

Note: If you are using Swiftfox or Opera, the magnet link will not work with the above trick.

In Windows

Download and install uTorrent, Vuze or Transmission.

Open NotePad and type the following in it:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTmagnet]
@="URL:magnet Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTmagnetshell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTmagnetshellopen]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTfooshellopencommand]
@=""C:\Program Files\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe" "%1""

If you are using Bit-torrent client other than uTorrent, replace the last line C:\Program Files\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe with the filepath of your Bit torrent application.

Save the file as “magnet.reg“, then double-click it to insert into the Windows registry. You will see some warning windows as shown below.

Click Yes to proceed.

Once the import is completed, you can click on the magnet link in your browser and then select the application that you want to use.

In Mac

There is no configuration required in Mac. If you install Transmission, Vuze or uTorrent, it will automatically add the protocol handler to the system. You can simply click on the magnet link and choose your application from the popup window.

If you are familiar with the popular Azureus, then Vuze will not be hostile to you. Vuze is in fact a revamp (and rename) of the Azureus bit-torrent client. Plenty of great features are included in this revamped version, including the support of HD content and a social networking component. While the backbone is still a bit-torrent client, the whole approach to sharing/downloading media from the Web has changed. If you have discarded Azureus for a better bit-torrent client in the past, you may want to try out Vuze and reconsider your decision.

Similar to Azureus, Vuze is written in Java and is able to work on any platforms, be it Windows, Mac or Linux. The most notable difference is the improvement in the user interface. The new sleek interface is more like an online catalogue where you can browse and search for movies/music/games/files to download.

In the past (even now for most bit-torrent clients), you’ll have to go to various sites to download the torrents before you can use your bit-torrent software to download the content. Vuze allows you to search within the software and download the torrents directly when you double click on the search results. By default, Vuze only search the torrents within its Vuze network, but you can easily add other popular torrent sites to increase the search results.

Vuze hosts an impressive library of HD content in its Vuze HD network. You can browse the content according to the categories and check out the 30s preview before you decide if you want to download it. It is also community based where you can rate and comment on the movies, or even share it with your friends.

Interestingly, Vuze has included a social networking module where you can add friends and share your favorite torrents. When your friends share files with you, the torrents will be given a preferential treatment and you will be able to download the files faster. In another words, the more friends you have and the more files you share, the faster is the downloading process.

On the backend, Vuze can also act as a UPnP server and stream your multimedia content over the local network. If you have downloaded plenty of movies and music, you will be able to watch/listen to them from your PS3, Xbox 360, smartphone or any other device that is DLNA compatible. I have used XBMC to playback the media files from another PC and it works great.

Overall, there are plenty of improvement over the previous Azureus and most, if not all, of them are pleasant and great improvment. If you are looking for a more user-friendly way to search and download your torrent files, or a console where you can view great HD content easily, then Vuze is definitely worth your attention.

If you have tried Vuze, which features did you like best?