Using Transmission for File Sharing

Post by **Administrator** » Sat Jun 07, 2025 12:50 pm

Transmission is a BitTorrent available for all the major desktop platforms (Linux, macOS and Windows), as well as many others...you can even install it on your Raspberry Pi. A lot of major open source projects like Linux distributions use BitTorrent to distribute their installation media, because it's a quick, convenient way of hosting such large media online, without being hammered by bandwidth costs. This is due to the fact that BitTorrent clients communicate with each other, sharing fragments of the file that they've downloaded with other clients so that the original "seeder" can ultimately use less bandwidth and reach more people. What many people don't know is that it's quite possible to host files on the BitTorrent network yourself. Transmission is one great client for this, so I'll use it as an example. Most BitTorrent clients have similar functionality.

There are a few things worth mentioning here:

Files shared on the BitTorrent network are not private. Anyone with the torrent file or magnet link, or who is able to intercept information about the torrent being sent over the network in some other fashion, could potentially download the files you are sharing. This means that you should not use Transmission or the BitTorrent network in general for transmitting personal or secure files. It is, of course, possible to encrypt files before sharing them via BitTorrent, but even so, the possibility remains of third parties downloading your files. However, if you're just fine with sharing file publicly and just need a convenient way of hosting them, Transmission and BitTorrent are a great option!
You should never use Transmission or BitTorrent for sharing copyrighted material. Transmission in particular has a prompt regarding this when you first install and run the program.
BitTorrent is not anonymous. Your IP address is shared with every peer in a "torrent swarm," meaning unless you are using a VPN or something similar, you are exposed.

Here's a quick description of the process for sharing files with Transmission:

Right click on the Transmission main window and select "Create torrent file."
Select the files or folders you wish to share.
You will be presented with a window with a number of options. The first allows you to add trackers on which your torrent will be advertised, but this step is not strictly necessary. You can also add a comment to the torrent file to be created, or mark it as private. The latter would disable all decentralized methods of finding and sharing files, however, so this should be left disabled. Finally, click create.
The next window essentially confirms the files that are to be shared, as well as defines where those files are to be stored. All that you need to do here is click add.
Congratulations, you are now sharing a file on the BitTorrent network! However, you need to share a torrent file or a magnet link with other users so that they can find and download your files. A magnet link is typically more convenient. To get this, right click on your torrent in the main window and select "Copy Magnet Link to Clipboard." Now you can share the link on social media or via text messages with a friend!

That's all there is to it, really! If you have any questions, certainly feel free to ask, but it's pretty self-explanatory. Give it a try and see how easy it is to share large media files without the use of cloud storage