The main differences between torrent files and magnet links are:
- Torrent files are files themselves. They must be hosted on hosting, and their distribution may be illegal. The magnet does not have a file as such, you do not have to download anything. A magnet is simply a URI link.
- The torrent file has all the download information. The magnet has only one hash, the rest must be obtained via P2P.
When we open a magnet link in our download client, thanks to the hash all the download information is obtained and it begins to download to our PC.
It must be taken into account that when we talk about torrent clients, we have a multitude of alternatives of this type at our fingertips. Therefore, what we generally do is try several and finally opt for the one that best suits our needs. This is generally automatically associated in the operating system with the files that we are dealing with here, including magnet ones. But for one reason or another, we are not always going to be interested in having to have a client with these characteristics. It is possible that due to the widespread use that we make of Google Chrome, we are also interested in associating these files with the browser.
Nowadays magnet links are almost more used than torrent files. Therefore, in this article we are going to explain how we can set up google chrome so that it is able to automatically recognize these links and open them with our download client.
Structure used by these links
We must bear in mind that a torrent file contains the information or roadmap to download content from the Internet. The download as such is carried out from the computer of the user who shares it, hence the P2P networks. But if we load a magnet link in the client, it is not necessary to download this information from the torrents.
In this case, the download is more direct and we just have to open it for the process to start. At the same time, we must bear in mind that these links that we are talking about in these lines have a somewhat peculiar structure. it shows us the different elements that are part of the link as such and that we show you below.
- magnet: this is the way to identify and distinguish the file that we are going to download.
- xt=urn: here we find the section where the network to be used for content sharing is indicated.
- Hash value.
- Name of the file identified by &dn=.
How to open magnet links from Google Chrome
All browsers today allow us to open these types of links automatically from them, linking their function to a download client, such as Transmission or qBittorrent.
To do this, what we must do is open the settings of our browser, scroll to the advanced settings section and, within Privacy and security, we access the “Website Settings«. We can also get directly to this section by typing in the address bar: chrome://settings/content.
Within this section we will locate the option “controllers” that allows us to configure if we want the browser to be able to convert certain links into default protocol controllers. We can also get here directly by typing in the address bar: chrome://settings/handlers.
All we have to do is make sure that the box that appears is activated. If it is disabled, we simply click on it to enable it and make this feature work.
Ready. Now we only have to find a magnet link on a website (for example, a magnet link for download Ubuntusomething totally legal), and when we click on this link a window will appear asking us if we want to open the link with our torrent download client.
We can check the box that appears in this floating window so that all the links are opened directly in our torrent application without asking again.
Prevent Chrome from opening torrent links
As we have seen so far, the web browser will be able to detect the magnetic links of the websites that we open from Chrome and will allow us to add them directly to the download client that we use by default, such as Transmission or qBittorrent. However, we may change our minds in the future and want the browser to stop capturing and processing links on its own. In this case, what we must do is disable the link between the browser and the torrent client.
To do this, what we must do is enter the Chrome associations configuration page. We can do this in a moment by typing the following in the address bar:
chrome://settings/handlers
Once inside, what we must do is deactivate the box that appears next to the torrent program so that Chrome is no longer linked to this software. This is useful in case we want the program to stop being linked temporarily, but we can activate it again later. If we no longer want to use Chrome to directly download torrent files, then what we have to do is remove the link with the magnet links from there. In this way, you will stop having a relationship.
Change default torrent client
Chrome does not have its own file association. That is, the browser does not know which program to open, but what it does is open the program that we have configured as default in Windows. In our case, for example, the Transmission download client.
In case you want to stop using this program and use another alternative, such as qBittorrent, what we must do is configure this other download client as default in Windows. Not in Chrome. By doing so, when we try to open a torrent file from the Google browser again, it will call the default Windows 10 download client and will therefore open our new torrent client. The same will apply if you want to use the uTorrent torrent client. What we will do is place this program as default software so that Chrome automatically opens torrent links with it.
To achieve this that we are telling you about in the Microsoft operating system, the first thing we do is open the Settings application. We can do this using the Win + I key combination, and in the new window that appears we are in the Applications section. In the left panel of the new window we already find the section that really interests us, which is called Default Applications. We click on it and as you can imagine here we can already establish the default Torrent client that we want to use in Windows.
Best apps to download magnet and torrent files
The number of options available to download torrent files is so high that many users prefer to use the best-known application uTorrent, however, this is the worst of all, since it is the only one that includes advertising, advertising that we are not going to find. in other applications of this type. The only positive point of this application is that it allows us to play the content that is being downloaded, an option that made sense a few years ago, but not today, since, thanks to fiber, download any file in video format, especially if it is a highly shared file, it is a matter of minutes, sometimes as little as 5 minutes.
Transmission
Transmission is a very light application with which we can download all kinds of files. This free application, like all of its kind, does not include any type of update and although the interface is not very intuitive, it is very easy to get hold of it quickly. Also, in addition to Windows, it is also available for macOS and Linux. We can download this application through the following .
qBittorrent
Another interesting application that we have at our disposal when downloading files using the torrent network is through qBittorrent. The main difference that we find in qBittorrent and that most applications of this type lack is that it includes a torrent search engine (not to be confused with a file browser as Emule did). In this way, we will avoid having to waste time looking for the torrent files that we want to search for. In addition, it does not include any type of advertising and we can download it directly from your .
Dangers of downloading magnet files
As we can see, this type of link is very convenient for downloading torrents without even clicking. However, we must take into account a series of precautions if we are going to use them. The first one is that, unlike torrent files, magnet files do not have a summary of the files. Therefore, it is easy for the download not to match what we are looking for, or for it to bring malware.
In addition, as with any other P2P program, we also run the risk that, when we download pirated files from the Internet, our IP will be registered. It does not matter if we do it from a torrent file or from a magnet link. The risk is always there. For this reason, we also recommend using more private exchange programs (such as Tribler), or using a VPN that hides our identity.
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