the forums at degreez.net

1) When you install a torrent client, is the client an IE addon? Where do you find the application association in IE that brings up a certain client? I see the .tor file association in Control Panel-> Folder Options, does IE simply use the generic association list to identify which program to launch?

2) if you start downloading a torrent but get no activity, this just means no one is "seeding" the torrent? So, is this simply because someone uploaded a torrent file to a server and, in the meantime, actually stopped providing the actual source for it? Then this is hopeless to ever see activity on?

1. BitTornado isn't an IE addon. When you click on a link to a torrent file it should just ask you "What do you want to do with this file?". If it is bringing up the client automatically, IE is probably just auto-launching the program associated with it.

2. This is tough because there's many possibilities. If the status light remains red and it says 0 seeds, then yeah, no one is seeding the torrent. This could be because it's abandoned (check the Details pane to determine how old the torrent is... if it's pretty old then it's probable that it's been abandoned). Otherwise it could just be the seeder's power went out (or some other such reason) before the file could be completely distributed or he just packed up and said to hell with this. Normally you can still trade amongst peers unless there's also no peers (and if no one's seeding, no peers are going to stay in the swarm for long).

Is it hopeless? Also depends. Oftentimes if you check the tracker or where you downloaded the file it may have a "Snatched" or "Completed" or similar stat for that torrent. If that's at 0 that means no one has ever completed that file through that tracker. If the torrent's been around a long time and it's still 0, then it's probably hopeless.

No activity could also be a setting issue. If other torrents download fine, it's probably just a specific issue to that torrent and its swarm (or lack of). Check in on it every few days, see if there's something to download. If not, it's probably abandoned... try finding the file on another tracker if possible.