More and more trackers are incorporating magnet links and some are even attempting to stop using torrents altogether, so it is important to know what exactly a magnet links is, and how you can use them to download and share your files.
Whether you’re using Ares Galaxy or uTorrent or any other torrent client to download torrents, the principle of torrent files and magnet links remains the same. Of course, we’ll assume that you’re using Ares Galaxy, as we consider it the best and most user-friendly torrent tracker on the internet, but the following explanation and advice will work equally well for other programs.
If you don’t have a torrent client at all yet, and you want to finally join the torrent community, don’t despair. Torrents may be more than 5 years old already, but it’s never too late to join the party, so get our free Ares Galaxy download now and read on.
Torrent Files And Magnet Links
Before explaining how they work, it’s probably instructive to first tell you what torrents and magnets are first. You probably already know about torrent trackers and torrent search engines where you can download an enormous amount of files.
But when you download one of these torrents, what you’re actually downloading is just a little piece of information that gives your torrent client (like Ares, or deluge) instructions on which files to download and through which tracker (which kind of functions like a network for torrent files).
When you open a torrent file with Ares Galaxy, it will generate a unique hash code, by which it can identify what files to download, and from whom. A magnet link is actually just a link to this hash code. It does away with the torrent file and the tracker, and gives your client all the information it needs to find peers with the files you need, and start downloading from them.
How To Download Torrents With Magnet Links
Downloading files from a torrent search engine with just a magnet link is very easy. All you need to do is set Ares Galaxy as your default torrent client. As long as the option is turned on to ‘handle Magnet links’, the program should automatically set Ares as your default ‘magnet client’ as well.
To handle magnet links, go to the Control Panel and click on ‘Hashlinks’. Make sure that the second option (‘Handle Magnet Links’) is checked.
Next, go to the BitTorrent tab in the Control Panel and check the box next to ‘Make Ares my default torrent client’.
And that’s it! Next time you click on a magnet link in your browser, Ares Galaxy should pop up automatically and immediately begin to look for sources to download files from.
Now, what’s the difference between using magnet links and torrent files? For you, the end user, almost nothing. It’s pretty much exactly the same, except you won’t have any small torrent files on your pc anymore. But this seems to be the direction in which torrent trackers and search engines are evolving, so you better make sure Ares is set up correctly!