nTorrent is a free graphical user interface for rtorrent, which is a command line torrent client for Unix-like systems. This is a cross platform application. It can for example be used on a Windows machine and from there connected to rtorrent processes that you have running on a local network (LAN), internet (HTTP) or using SSH. Once you’re connected you can keep track of torrent downloads, add new torrents to the queue, change settings and so on.
As you can see from the screenshot below, interface of this free graphical user interface is very similar to that of uTorrent, practically the same. rtorrent is just a CLI application. You interact with it using the Unix command line, but nTorrent gives you the option of connecting with the rtorrent processes so you can have a graphical interface instead.
Similar softwarE: MLDonkey.
Here’s a step by step break down of how nTorrent works:
- 1. You need to have rtorrent installed and running on a local machine (LAN), remote computer (via HTTP).
- 2. Open up nTorrent and setup the address of the computer where you have rtorrent running
- 3. Click Connect, connection is created to the rtorrent process from where you can manage and keep track of downloads
These three steps are all it takes to setup nTorrent. It cannot work as a standalone application, like we said, this is just a GUI frontend for rtorrent which needs to run first.
Key features of nTorrent are:
- Easy to use – graphical interface for setup and torrent management
- Cross platform – works on Windows, Linux, requires Java
- Allows you to connect to rtorrent via LAN, HTTP or SSH
- Proxy connections – you can setup proxies when connecting via HTTP
- Allows you to manage rtorrent – add torrents, track progress, etc.
How to manage rtorrent with nTorrent free graphical user interface for rtorrent
nTorrent is a portable application which doesn’t require installation in order to run, but you are going to have to have Java runtime environment in order to be able to use it. First and only step of the setup is to configure either HTTP, LAN or SSH connection to wherever it is that you have rtorrent running. If it’s HTTP typing in the address, for LAN port number, etc.
By clicking on the Plugins button you can manage various different components of nTorrent, turn on system tray icon, torrent throttling, skins and more. When you have both the connection setup and you’ve configured Plugins to the way that you want nTorrent to look like, click Connect and you should be able to manage your rtorrent install.
Conclusion
nTorrent is a great addition to rTorrent. Keep in mind that you need to have rtorrent running separately in order to be able to do anything with this free graphical user interface for rtorrent. Both of these rtorrent and nTorrent are intended for more advanced users, who for example used rtorrent to setup a torrent sharing server. With nTorrent they can easily manage torrent transfers from a graphical interface. Give it a try and see how it goes.
