Tribler

File sharing has come a long way since the integration of the Internet in our day-to-day activities. This is also enhanced by the advancement in technology, which allows data to be delivered at incredible speeds nearly anywhere on the globe. In this regard, Tribler comes with a neat set of features not only for faster downloading, but for more security.

In terms of design, the application stays in fashion with a modern interface, well-organized layout and intuitive features. A side panel provides quick access to most areas you'll visit, such as the home page, fetched results, channels, list of downloads, as well as an implemented video player. Needless to say that all corresponding options pop up in the rest of the space.

The application is built around the idea that gave birth to Tor in order to achieve that critically acclaimed level of security. When a download is established, you are not directly connected to the source itself, but rather to a relay point, such as yourself, to fetch bits of data while a different connection gathers from a different source. As a result, your IP address is lost track of. However, this is made possible by using UDP over TCP protocols. The difference is that UDP doesn't keep track of when or how data packets are sent, not even who sends them. What's more, unlike the TCP connection, the packets are simply sent without establishing a mutual connection with the destination, which makes it even more difficult to track, thus practical in this situation.

At its core, the application heavily relies on peer to peer for nearly every process it puts in motion in order to retrieve files and keep your download or upload sessions active. Unlike most such applications, you don't necessarily need to go online to fetch .torrent files, because there's an integrated search engine to quickly look up items of interest. A handful of filters can be applied to better sort through results, with a neat slider that lets you limit maximum or minimum file size to narrow down options. Corresponding details are also displayed, such as size, file type and health, as well as a button to initiate the download session.

To further keep you from filling up system resources with external applications, there's also an integrated feature that displays all users connected to the same service as yourself, along with files you can grab, namely user created channels. The application prevents you from initiating conversation, but this is not an issue since anonymity is supposed to be a strong feature. On the other hand, you can bookmark channels to constantly keep an eye on content for new additions. Moreover, you can create custom channels to share files, either by simply selecting a .torrent file to make open for sharing or create new ones using local items. Several settings are available to better hide your identity, manage playlists and organize the list of files you're sharing.

Download sessions are displayed in a clean list, with filter criteria you can add or remove. Default ones let you view name, progress, estimated time, speed related details and more. You can choose which processes to be displayed in case content needs to be downloaded again. When you stumble upon files of interest, you can specify general settings, such as whether to download faster and risk exposure, or slower while tunneling your IP through as many peers as possible. A default destination folder can also be set individually or for all downloads.

However, when it comes to managing ongoing processes, options are a little shallow. You can display various labels for more info, forcefully attempt to start the process, remove the session, allocate bandwidth or open the file location. Sadly, there are no options to create queues for time-consuming sessions, nor any way to have one of your computer's power options triggered when downloads are finished.

To sum it up, Tribler is a slightly different approach on peer to peer downloading, moving focus from speed to security. It comes in handy because you never know who can track down your IP address and become a victim of Internet attackers, given you stay within legal boundaries of the information superhighway. The overall design gets you instantly up and running, implemented search engines quickly fetch results, while support for .torrent files and speed make it definitely worth a try.