There's more than one way to skin a cat. Today's cat: starting torrent downloads on your computer from a remote location!

The first two options require 1) your home machine's address and 2) a forwarded port on your router. If you're on a dynamic IP connection like me, a DDNS updating service like Dyndns.org makes finding your machine much easier - it gives you an easy-to-remember, permanent address likemycomputerathome.dyndns.org. Not too sure how to set up port forwarding on your router? Check out PortForward.com for help with just about any brand or model.

If you'd rather not mess around with port forwarding and dynamic dns, you might want to try setting up Hamachi or Comodo Easy VPN on your machines. Either one will provide you LAN-like access to your main computer with minimal fuss (apart from installing and configuring a new program).

Or you could skip the zero-config VPN software and check out the last two options after the break - neither of which require you to know your home system's address or change any router settings.

Now let's get started!

Using Your Client's WebUI (pictured above)

uTorrent, Transmission, and Deluge all offer a web-based control panel for their clients. Getting remote access is as simple as opening the appropriate port on your router and then opening the right address in your web browser.

For uTorrent, you may need to download the webui.zip from their forums and save it to your %appdata%\utorrent folder.

Mac users who like Transmission for their bittorrent-ing may have been jealous of uTorrent users for being able to control their transfers via a web browser. However, Clutch offers a web interface for Transmission so you can leave your Mac torrents active and control them from anywhere.

Clutch runs in your menubar on whatever port you choose in the settings (this port will need to be opened on your router/firewall of course). You can enable authentication so some wayward soul can't stop your download of "So You Think You Can Dance?" When you visit your Clutch URL (in the form of http://your-ip-address:port), you'll see a familiar interface that looks identical to the Transmission GUI.

Clutch lets you upload torrents remotely to your Mac, and you get most of the same functionality of Transmission via the web browser (stop torrents, pause torrents, view the inspector, etc.). It also supports SSL.

[Via MacUpdate]

BitTorrent 6.0 beta is out, and you're not alone in thinking the new interface looks awfully familiar. Last year, BiTorrent bought the popular BitTorrent client µTorrent .

While BitTorrent is an open source application, µTorrent remains closed source. But now that BitTorrent has access to that code, the company was able to redesign its flagship client. That means an easier to use interface and a smaller footprint.

So why maintain two completely separate applications? We can't say for sure, but right now both programs include a search engine. But while BitTorrent's searches BitTorrent's own torrent tracker for a combination of free and paid downloads, µTorrent searches MiniNova which is a bit more of a black gray market tracker.

[via WebWare]

Need to download a file (you know, for work), but don't have µTorrent or your favorite BitTorrent client on your work PC? No problem. BitLet is a web-based BitTorrent client that will let you download that movie/application/completely legal work in no time. Well, sort of.

First you need to know the proper URL of your torrent file. This is slightly harder than it sounds. We tested BitLet out by starting a download of The Corporation, a documentary that had been released as a free BitTorrent download by its producers. When we went and typed the download location into the BitLet page, it turned out that it wasn't in the correct format. Sure, we were able to download The.Corporation_Documentary_Shareware.Release 1.0b(Divx) -{mininova.org}-.torrent. But we couldn't figure out the correct URL to type into BitLet.

Eventually we found a URL that was in the proper format (http://www.blahblahblah.com/torrentfile.torrent) and the download began. In a pinch, BitLet seems like it will work. But it's no replacement for easy to use desktop clients.

Probably the coolest feature is BitLet's code generator that allows publishers to post BitTorrent files on their own websites. Just enter URL of the file you want to share and BitLet will spit out some code that you can embed on your website. Now when visitors want to download the file, they click a link on your site and a download begins in their browser. No need to explain how to download and configure a BitTorrent client.

[via TorrentFreak

Windows users have long known the joys of using uTorrent for all of their bit-torrenting needs. In fact, Bit Torrent, the parent company owned by Bram Cohen (the original creator of bit torrent) understood just how good uTorrent is, and bought it up.

Unfortunately, although there are a number of good bit-torrent clients available for the Mac, uTorrent remains the gold standard, and hasn't previously been available for the Mac. The good news is that it's coming, though not quite here. TorrentFreak reports that a beta version of uTorrent for the Mac is currently being tested, in advance of releasing it to the masses. Let's cross our fingers that the test goes well, and the public beta opens soon!

Whoa, didn't see this coming--but in hindsight, maybe I should have. BitTorrent, the company behind the peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol of the same name, has purchased uTorrent (properly µTorrent, but I'm too lazy to type the mu), one of the very best BitTorrent clients for Windows. uTorrent is known for being full-featured but having a tiny executable size and memory footprint. In their announcement BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen and uTorrent creator Ludvig Strigeus say that BitTorrent "recognized the merits of µTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community" and that "Bringing together µTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client." The announcement says that at first little will change for the uTorrent community, with the web site and forums remaining unchanged, but behind the scenes they "will continue to develop µTorrent and will be using the codebase in other applications, especially ones where a fast, lightweight implementation is more suitable, such as embedded systems on TVs, cell phones, and other non-PC platforms."

I'm hugely loyal to uTorrent and I wish Strigeus and the community the best. I'm very interested to see new developments with Strigeus at BitTorrent. I wonder what this means for BitTorrent's existing not-very-featureful client.

Ah, the marriage of two of my favorite programs, uTorrent and Firefox. Over at TorrentFreak they've got an add-on for Firefox that integrates the two, putting uTorrent's WebUI (which you must download separately) in Firefox's sidebar and reporting you download and upload speeds in the status bar. You can also start downloading torrents simply by dragging the .torrent link onto the sidebar. Not mind-blowing, but a welcome convenience nonetheless.

Awhile back the brilliant folks behind uTorrent made it known that they were working on bringing a web-based interface to the free, lightweight Windows BitTorrent client. This week they released a new beta version of uTorrent that includes the new WebUI, and I am happy to report that it's fantastic. So, what use is a web-based interface for a desktop program? Well, the WebUI allows you to access most of uTorrent's from anywhere in the world, whether it be another computer on your home network or on another continent. Now, I've seen desktop programs with auxiliary web-based interfaces before, and while useful, they're not always pretty. That is not the case with uTorrent's WebUI. The WebUI looks and acts like a desktop application. It's snappy and responsive and looks great. It doesn't clone all of uTorrent's features, of course, but pretty much all of the features you need on a day-to-day basis, and a lot you don't, are there. You can add torrents from files or URLs, change file priorities, manage labels, use the integrated search, and even access most of uTorrent's settings. All the while your downloads keep ticking away via the wonder that is Ajax. This is all backed by a password-protected login, but the uTorrent team is planning to add an optional guest account feature.

One potential caveat is that Internet Explorer 6 is not supported by the uTorrent WebUI, and, to quote the developers, "NEVER WILL BE." They are, however, working on a mobile version of the WebUI, which may work with IE6. Oh, and in case you're worried that the WebUI will add bloat to the traditionally slim uTorrent, fret not: The main uTorrent executable is still just 174kb, and the optional WebUI package adds just 57kb on top of that, and will as likely as not slim down even more by the final release.

Though I hate to admit it, my "poor man's TiVo" solution consists of me checking CAT every morning to see what's new and then hitting the BitTorrent trackers to start my downloads. I know there are better ways to go about it, but what can I say, I'm a creature of habit. But speaking of better ways, Lifehacker's Adam Pash has written a brand new guide to automatically downloading your favorite TV shows using the free Windows app Ted and the BitTorrent client of your choosing. He steps you through setting up Ted and configuring it for your favorite shows, making it work with Azureus and uTorrent, and setting up custom feeds.

Although it's a little late for Easter, it's worth mentioning that the popular Bit-Torrent client uTorrent contains an Easter Egg on the About screen. Simply hitting the 'T' key on your keyboard while viewing the About window in uTorrent will show a very rudimentary but playable version of Tetris. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to keep score or speed up as game play goes on, but it's definitely useful as a distraction when you need a moment to think.

Tiny-but-featureful WIndows BitTorrent client uTorrent got a great new web site a few days ago, and along with it came a great new skins gallery. I had no idea uTorrent was even skinnable, but apparently it has been—to a degree, at least—for some time now. uTorrent's skin support is fairly minimal, only allowing toolbar buttons, status icons, and tray icons to be altered, but what more can you expect from a 130kb app? The skins come in the form of .BMP files and need only be placed in your %APPDATA%\uTorrent folder, and if you're artistically inclined making skins is a snap.