Bittorrent Client Other Than utorrent?

[Gildor57]

Just built a new W7 x64 system and am looking for a good Bit Torrent client. I had been using utorrent, but they are using of adware (Ask.com). Yes, I know its supposed to be optional, but have seem some reports of it causing problems, and I was having some installation problems myself.

This is not a request for installation support for utorrent or a thread to complain about the addition of Ask.com to utorrent. Rather, I have decided to see if there are any other clients out there that are comparable. I do have the Fire Torrent add-on in Firefox, but find I prefer the verboseness of a separate client program.

So, any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[gsaldivar]

I haven't yet found a client comparable to uTorrent.

 

[Ika]

uTorrent is probably the lightest-weight torrent client in popular usage. That's why lots of people are using it, duhh.

 

[Mide]

utorrent is the best...no reason to go to another.

 

[Northern Lawn]

Doesn't bit torrent itself have it's own client?

 

[Fayd]

i use azureus

 

[thescreensavers]

what problems? Utorrent here with nothing else added. Works great

 

[sourceninja]

transmission is passible.

Never mind, they don't have a windows release. Just linux/mac

 

[her209]

Doesn't bit torrent itself have it's own client?

Yes.

 

[Gildor57]

Doesn't bit torrent itself have it's own client?

Yes.

True, but the Bit Torrent client is simply a re-packaged version of utorrent.

From the utorrent Wiki...

On December 7, 2006, µTorrent was purchased by BitTorrent, Inc., as it was announced on their official forum. µTorrent will continue to have its own website and community for now, and the µTorrent code base will remain closed source. Ludvig Strigeus, the writer of µTorrent, will serve as a technical consultant, but BitTorrent, Inc. will do the majority of the development work.
On September 18, 2007, BitTorrent 6.0 was released, which is a re-branded version of µTorrent. As a result, BitTorrent 6 is closed-source (unlike BitTorrent 5.x and before, which were open source software) and is currently only available for Windows.

what problems? Utorrent here with nothing else added. Works great

I go through the install wizard and finally click install. The UAC comes up and after I click Yes, the last wizard screen (the one with the "Install" button) immediately comes back. If I click install again, the same thing happes. Its like it is stuck in a loop.

The program is not installed (no new files in the selected installation directory) but a utorrent icon shows up on my desktop and there are new utorrent registry entries (thank goodness for Revo!). Again, there is no utorrent executable or any new folders or anything in the program directory. Worse, the Ask.com toolbar has been installed even though I unchecked all the install boxes in the installation wizard.

I looked on the utorrent forums and a few people had the same problem, but they were pretty much ignored or flamed. So, rather than deal with that, I thought I would investigate alternatives.

 

[dud]

In the day I used to use Bitcomet but now have utorrent ... but I hardly use it anymore. With privacy concerns torrenting (and the associated broadcasting of IPs) has become quite risky. Sure, you can use a proxy or try masking ... but it just isn't what it used to be. I still remember that Friday morning logging onto my fav BT site and finding that the MPAA (or some other org) had taken it over.

That was it for me.

On a side note ... if I did want to continue in the hobby I would consider Usenet.

 

[lxskllr]

I go through the install wizard and finally click install. The UAC comes up and after I click Yes, the last wizard screen (the one with the "Install" button) immediately comes back. If I click install again, the same thing happes. Its like it is stuck in a loop.

I use utorrent, or Transmission in Linux, so no help that way. I will suggest running the utorrent installer as administrator. That may get it to install correctly.

 

[SunnyD]

I use this.

Why? Because it's one less "app" that I have to install, and it lets me download directly within FireFox.

 

[Fox5]

I use bittornado on windows, transmission on anything else.

 

[Gildor57]

I use utorrent, or Transmission in Linux, so no help that way. I will suggest running the utorrent installer as administrator. That may get it to install correctly.

Thanks lxskllr, I'll have to give that a try since it seems utorrent really is the preferred option

I use this.

Why? Because it's one less "app" that I have to install, and it lets me download directly within FireFox.

I certainly understand and appreciate your point about "one less app". I actually do have Fire Torrent installed as an add-on in FF. Its just that in some cases I like to see all the stats and the other "under the hood" things a client brings to the table.

 

[Northern Lawn]

I also just reformatted with 64 bit win 7 and had zero problems re-installing utorrent. I'd suggest you clean out your registry and redownload utorrent. As for that ask.toolbar. There is a screen that's kind of tricky, you uncheck the ask tool bar then you uncheck another box. I remember thinking does this mean nothing will install including utorrent but I did get a clean install of utorrent and nothing else.

I wouldn't even look at azureus. It used to be good but last time I tried it bloated with options and movies.. it was a media player or something. It was horrible.

 

[Gildor57]

I also just reformatted with 64 bit win 7 and had zero problems re-installing utorrent. I'd suggest you clean out your registry and redownload utorrent. As for that ask.toolbar. There is a screen that's kind of tricky, you uncheck the ask tool bar then you uncheck another box. I remember thinking does this mean nothing will install including utorrent but I did get a clean install of utorrent and nothing else.

I did clean the registry (used Revo) and tried again around 3 or 4 times. Same result every time.

Near as I can tell there are three checkboxes to uncheck to not install Ask.com. The last one is the trickiest as it says something like "I agree to the terms of this installation and its OK to install". Or some such thing, the point being that in that particular line, Ask,com is not mentioned at all so its not clear whether its referring to Ask or utorrent. I'll try again tonight logged in as administrator.

 

[Barfo]

I remember there was the option of downloading a zip file with the utorrent binaries instead of the installer, looks like they just offer the installer nowadays

 

[alyarb]

maybe you downloaded a bad installer. try this

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/594924/utorrent%201.8.1.exe

 

[Gildor57]

If its a bad installer, then utorrent needs to fix it since it was downloaded directly from their site. Anyway, your file with the earlier version seemed to work. It installed OK. Of course now I am reluctant to upgrade to recent versions. Maybe I'll try again when 1.8.6 comes out.

I did try to install 1.8.5 as administrator. Same result except I didn't get the UAC prompt and at least Ask.com didn't install.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm running 1.85 which was upgraded in place(if I remember right, I don't think I downloaded a new installer) on Vista64, UAC off without problems.

 

[Gildor57]

I'm running 1.85 which was upgraded in place(if I remember right, I don't think I downloaded a new installer) on Vista64, UAC off without problems.

I tried it but the upgrade failed. It told me it could not access the file because it was in use by another process. No specifics on what file or process of course. Then it told me to download the installer. No thanks...

But thanks to all who responded and tried to help.

 

[Gildor57]

Just an update.

I never could get 1.8.5 to work. Since FireTorrent has stopped working under FF 5.6 , I decided (with great trepidation, mind you), to try to install utorrent 2.0. Much to my relief, it installs and seems to be working OK. Still have no clue why the earlier version was so contrary.

 

[George P Burdell]

If you just want to run utorrent.exe without going thru the install process, make a shortcut for the .exe, then change the path from "Z:\utorrent.exe" (example) to "Z:\utorrent.exe /noinstall"

 

[Gildor57]

Thanks. I'll try that if I have any future problems.