Official BitTorrent Client

This is the Official BitTorrent Client in that it is the latest supported version from Bram Cohen, architect of BitTorrent. It has the fewest features of all the clients, and releases are much more conservative than the experimental versions. Use this if you want stability but don't need any of the common or advanced features of the other clients.

Learn more about using the Official BitTorrent client by reading the User Guide.

General Info
The Official BitTorent Client was written in Python. Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java. The GUI or Graphical User Interface was developed in GTX. The Official BitTorrent Client claims to be free of all spyware and adware programs that many users are subjected to when downloading freeware from the Internet. There have been complaints of third party download sites that embed spyware in the source code of the official client. This client is free to download and use under the BitTorrent Open Source License, which is a modified version of the Jabber Open Source License

Download the Official BitTorrent Client

Features
This client offers only minimal features to download and make torrent files (.torrent) along with displaying minor details about the file itself and status of download/upload speeds. This client's simple interface allows users to change and modify current setting with relative ease even if they have little or no knowledge of BitTorent or P2P protocols.

Features Include:

• Show if a torrent is being shared/published
• Show transfer rates in Kb/s
• Cancel sharing process
• Move files to a directory upon completion
• Open a torrent file without using the default save location
• Ability to choose download location
• Download multiple torrents at once

System Requirements
BitTorrent official client can be used and has been tested on Windows XP, 2000, ME, and 98. There have been reported CPU usage problems in ME and 98. BitTorent can also be used on Mac OS 9 by installing MacPython and using the btdownloadheadless.py from the source code. BitTorent also can be run on Linux/BSD/*nix but requires requires Python 2.2 or greater, and the GUI also requires Python 2.3, GTK 2.2 or greater, and pygtk 2.4 or greater.

User Reviews

Change Log

Changes from BitTorrent v4.0 to BitTorrent v4.0.1

• Possible workaround for the "TCP stack flaking out" bug as a preference.
• Preference option for the text color over the progress bar.
• Fixed problem picking config file and save locations on Win98/ME.
• Switched to GTK file save widgets to fix the problem of resuming multi-file torrents.
• Bulk traffic flag was only being set on incoming connections.
• Some tweaks to the interface and more informative error messages.
• Fixes to installer, including location fixes for non-English users.
• Fix for interface lockups after being minimized.
• Fixed a couple tracebacks.
• A few small tracker bugs fixed.
• An item which belonged in the previous notes: Improvements to seed behavior which addresses the problem for which super-seeding was created, but without the problems of super-seeding.

• All new queue-based user interface
• Many options are now modifiable from the interface, including upload rate
• Lots of other interface improvements
• Extra stats are visible, for those who like it
• Remembers what it was doing across restarts
• New .torrent maker "btmaketorrentgui" replaces "btcompletedir"
• Better performance, as always
• License has changed to the BitTorrent Open Source License
• Torrent fields are correctly created and interpreted as utf8
• Too many little things to list
• A few technical notes, for those interested:
• Single port: launchmany can seed and client can download many files from a single port and thread
• Interface now uses GTK instead of wxWidgets
• BitTorrent packets are marked as bulk data to make traffic shaping easier

• All new queue-based user interface
• Many options are now modifiable from the interface, including upload rate
• Lots of other interface improvements
• Extra stats are visible, for those who like it
• Remembers what it was doing across restarts
• New .torrent maker "btmaketorrentgui" replaces "btcompletedir"
• Better performance, as always
• License has changed to the BitTorrent Open Source License
• Torrent fields are correctly created and interpreted as utf8
• Too many little things to list
• A few technical notes, for those interested:
• Single port: launchmany can seed and client can download many files from a single port and thread
• Interface now uses GTK instead of wxWidgets
• BitTorrent packets are marked as bulk data to make traffic shaping easier

• All new queue-based user interface
• Remembers what it was doing across restarts
• Includes an improved .torrent maker with the regular install
• Single port: launchmany can seed many files from a single port and thread
• Better performance
• completedir no longer exists, use btmaketorrentgui or btmaketorrent
• License has changed to the BitTorrent Open Source License
• Torrent fields are correctly created and interpreted as utf8
• BitTorrent packets are marked as bulk data to make traffic shaping easier

• Fixed some bugs, including an important tracker bug
• Added 'warning message' so trackers can send non-fatal human readable messages to clients
• Fixed problem where some users got 'could not find file' message

• fixes all the major problems in 3.4 and has yet even more tracker bandwidth savings

• Client no longer complains of connection to tracker problems when transfers are still working
• Lots of bandwidth savings
• Lots of bug fixes

• Files now only get allocated as they're downloaded and don't fragment the hard drive
• Large torrents no longer hose the CPU
• Better network utilization and more consistent download rates
• Poorly seeded torrents get out faster
• Several important bug fixes