FrostWire

Introduction

If you are looking for unadulterated access to all of your favorite free indie content, there is no better skillset than learning how to torrent. And, in order to make the most out of that skillset, there is no more important tool for downloading content than the torrent client. The torrent client is the software necessary to make downloading and uploading all your favorite content possible.

With no torrent client, well, a torrent is all but meaningless. You might have the greatest torrent search engine at your disposal… it will mean nothing without the means by which to download and manage those files. Is a torrent client the only resource you require to complete your torrenting journey? Not at all … but it is the first necessary step towards becoming a P2P file sharing aficionado.

What, though, does the best torrent client have to offer exactly? What features and functionalities should you expect from a torrent client in order to even think about giving it a download? There are, after all, myriad torrent clients out there to choose from. How can you ever know for sure that a given torrent client is going to provide you with the best experience? Well, there are a few things that every great torrent client should provide – the nonnegotiable features. Then, of course, there are a few fun features that certainly don’t hurt to look for.

First off, you are going to want to find a torrent client that is lightweight. There are, in other words, tons of torrent clients out there that are bloated and overly robust. These will slow your computer down significantly while you are uploading or downloading torrents. Avoid these. Some of these torrent clients that are on the market, if you can believe it, have simply been unable to keep up with the times. They survive, I think, on brand recognition alone. Find a torrent client that packs a punch without sacrificing your computer’s overall performance in the process.

Next, alongside performance – equally, if not more important, I would say – is safety. If we can be blunt, torrenting does not have exactly the best reputation in regards to digital security. I mean, there are inherent risks involved anytime you download anything. Furthermore, even being on the internet at all is considered by some to be a risky endeavor. At least if you are not properly protected.

I recommend everyone get a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Regardless of whether you plan to torrent all day, every day or if you are just looking up baking recipes on Firefox, a VPN protects your privacy and your data when you are online. That being said, there are certain torrent clients that prioritize safety a little more than others. Some offer VPN bundles when you subscribe to their premium service. Others even take it a step further.

Some torrent clients come with their own built-in antivirus programs. This is always a good sign when evaluating torrent software. Mainstream antivirus software is not always compatible with torrenting (it may even simply acknowledge every torrent file as malware). Having an antivirus software, then, that is made especially for torrenting, built right into the client, can eradicate issues at the root, before the torrent even attempts to download.

My next concern is the torrent client’s design. Is the software intuitive and user-friendly, or will it take me days or weeks to try and learn my way around its clunky interface? Does it look sleek, professionally designed, and organized neatly, or does it resemble some amateur code that some stoner threw together halfheartedly in his mother’s basement? Innovative and elegant design can make a huge difference, in my opinion.

Last but not least, you are going to want to find a torrent client that is rich in features. Ideally, it would be rich in both technical and entertainment features. For instance, perhaps you want to be able to schedule your bandwidth use. Perhaps you want to have the ability to prioritize files. Look into these technical capabilities before downloading a given torrent client.

Maybe you, like me, prefer your torrent client to have a lot of entertaining features, such as the ability to stream movies, TV shows, and audio via a built-in media player. Some of them even allow you to do so while the torrents are still downloading! Add to this list a built-in torrent search engine and the ability to upload and create torrents of your own, and you begin to have the makings of a perfect torrent client. The best torrent clients, as far as I’m concern, offer some kind of solution to every step in the torrenting process – from uploading, searching for files, downloading, and enjoying the content. I look for a one-stop shop.

History

Frost Wire dates all the way back to the days of Lime Wire. What a trip down memory lane it is to be able to review this torrent client! I remember when Frost Wire was still using Gnutella protocol, back in the days of Bear Share, shortly after Napster folded. Frost Wire is one of the only survivors of these early days of P2P file sharing. And, frankly, it has improved exponentially since those days.

Frost Wire came about in late 2005 when developers became concerned with the open sourced future of Lime Wire. The Lime Wire fork that became Frost Wire was meant for original developers to be able to protect their original source code. From there, Frost Wire grew to overtake and outlive Lime Wire. And today it lives on as one of the most popular (and effective) torrent clients on the market.

Design

Frost Wire has retained its classic look and feel. I think it might be one of the best-designed torrent clients out there today. It has a very clean and professional look to it, utilizing white space effectively and helping you to easily and conveniently organize and keep track of your files (from downloading to archived). It is just stripped down enough while still being very rich in features. And you should have no problem figuring out how to use Frost Wire from the very moment it is installed.

Content and Features

Frost Wire prides itself on its abundance of features. I know this because, well, they list them in contrast to their primary competitors (BitTorrent, Vuze, uTorrent, Deluge, and Bit Lord) on their home page. Here is the list as it appears on frostwire.com:

-In-app file search

-BitTorrent protocol

-Preview and play while downloading

-Media library

-Media player

In addition to these fun and entertaining features, Frost Wire also allows you to prioritize downloads. You can also pick and choose which files in a torrent you want – in other words, if a torrent contains hundreds of files, only download those that you actually need.

Another cool and unique feature is Frost Wire’s Wi-Fi sharing. Similar to AirDrop, you can instantly share files with anyone else who is connected to the same wireless internet as you. Frost Wire is about as robust as it gets, features wise, without being bloated. The program is just as lightweight as uTorrent.

Mobile and Desktop Experience

Frost Wire is one of the few torrent clients that is available on just about every single platform you can imagine. Well, except for iOS, of course (but that isn’t news … Apple is notorious for freezing out torrent related software). That being said, Frost Wire is available for Mac. You can also download it on Windows and Linux.

As far as apps are concerned, though, Frost Wire does have an Android app. And it is one of the highest-rated torrent client apps on the Google Play marketplace. So, if you are looking for one of the most reliable torrent clients for mobile torrenting, look no further, Frost Wire has got you covered.

 Pricing and Plans

 I swear, this program just keeps getting better and better. Frost Wire is not only 100% ad-free, it is also 100% free in general. They do not try to lure you in and limit your features in order to bully you into subscribing to a premium membership or anything. From the moment you download Frost Wire, you can take advantage of everything it has to offer, all without being bothered by the pesky ads you’ll find on other big-name torrent clients.