How to Use Transmission App

Transmission is an open source bit torrent client that is available on multiple platforms for use; although the application is available on multiple platforms across various UNIX based operating systems and on the Apple Macintosh operating system, it is currently not available for the Windows operating system and considering the plethora of available bit torrent clients available for Windows it may never be ported to that operating system.

UNIX is an operating system that gave birth to various branches of operating systems that were somewhat based on the original UNIX operating system; of the branches or forks of UNIX, the most popular one in use today is probably Linux which has various branches of its own. 
Linux branches or distributions which are called distros for short include Debian, Fedora, Red Hat and OpenSuse with OpenSuse being one of the more popular ones along with a fork of Debian which is called Ubuntu. Since many people are unfamiliar with Linux, people may have difficulty navigating through Transmission as loading and using the program is quite different from Microsoft Windows torrent programs; so here are some instructions to help you get it all figured out.


1. Most likely the currently installed operating system is Microsoft Windows; in order to use Transmission one would have to either install another operating system that the Transmission client can run on, or boot from a live CD and run the Transmission client. 

Once the installation or booting of the live CD is completed simply click on the System menu, then on Administration and then Synaptic Package Manager; when Synaptic loads ensure that an internet connection is present and click on Reload to get the latest updates from the online repositories.

2. Once completed the search will be indexed and it will be seen that indexing is completed when the wait text disappears; once this is so simply type in TRANSMISSION into the search box and then select it to be installed. Click now on the INSTALL SELECTED PACKAGES button and wait while the files are downloaded and the program is installed; once completed the user may now launch Transmission from the Applications menu if needed. 

Transmission may already be installed as the default bit-torrent client and can either be launched manually as noted before or automatically once a bit torrent file is opened. Bit torrent file for downloading can be obtained from file-sharing websites such as


1. Files shared with these bit torrent applications may have viruses as the files are compiled by various users; ensure that an antivirus is installed on the PC or laptop being used for downloading to prevent any infections.

2. Though many legal files are shared over the bit torrent network a great deal of pirated applications, movies and music are also shared on the network; ensure that no copyright or other laws are broken when using the bit torrent network as there may be fines and penalties involved for persons guilty of such an offense.

For more information on Using TransmissionBT read How to Use TransmissionBT