Registering with The Pirate Bay 

The Pirate Bay ( http://thepiratebay.org/) is a website where you can search for files to download using the BitTorrent networks. The Pirate Bay has been around for quite some time; it was founded in Sweden and is run by volunteers. It has been harassed many times by authorities but to this day, thankfully, remains operational.

At The Pirate Bay you can search for files (eg. music or video) and download the small torrent files. These torrents must then be opened in a BitTorrent client so you can start downloading the file you are after.

Also, if you wish to publish files on a BitTorrent network then you can do this through The Pirate Bay.

To publish files on a BitTorrent network you first must have the following:

1. a file you wish to share
2. a torrent file
3. access to a tracker
   
4. a torrent software to 'seed' (share) the file
   

The file you wish to share can be anything: a text file, a software installer, audio or video files, ebooks, photo albums, whatever you like. Once you have chosen your file to share you need to make a torrent file. These small torrent files contain information about file you are sharing. If you want to distribute a file using BitTorrent, you need to first create this torrent file usually using software like Azureus or other BitTorrent clients.  The torrent doesn't contain the shared file itself, rather it contains information that identifies the file you wish to distribute.

BitTorrent publishing also relies on something called a tracker. A tracker is software that runs on an internet server. If you publish a torrent file to a tracker, then the tracker 'keeps track' of who is sharing the file. The tracker uses the information in the torrent file to do this. 

The Pirate Bay Tracker

So, before you progress too far down the publishing path you should first find a tracker you wish to use. You need to do this before you create the torrent file because the details of the tracker you will use must be in the torrent file.

You can search the net for trackers, there are plenty of them. However the most popular tracker (at the time of writing) on the net is The Pirate Bay.

Registering

To be able to use the Pirate Bay tracker for publishing torrents you need to be registered with Pirate Bay. It costs nothing and it is quick. First point your browser at the registration page:
http://thepiratebay.org/register

It should look something like this:

 

Enter in the information and make sure you enter a valid email address. The registration process needs to be completed by email. Also make sure when you enter the characters in the image that you use the right capitalisation.

If all is well when you press 'Register' you will see a message "A confirmation e-mail has been sent. Please read it and follow the instructions to complete your registration.". Check your email and the message you received from Pirate Bay will have a link in it. Click on this (or open the link in a browser) and the resulting page should confirm your registration with the message :
"Your registration is done! You can now login to the site."

You now have to log in.

Logging In

To log in to Pirate Bay visit the login page : http://thepiratebay.org/login

The enter your username and password and press "Login"

You should see a new page looking something like this:

Preferences

The above image shows the preferences for your account.

Username

This is the 'username' you entered when you created the accountt. You cannot change this.

IP Address

The IP Address is a unique 'address' for you on the internet. This is how other computers on the network can find you. Additionally you will see your language of choice.

Language

This is your preferred language for The Pirate Bay website. You cannot change the language through this page, you must instead click on a link on the front page.

Your Public URL

Here you will see a link to a webpage on The Pirate Bay. This is your 'home page' on The Pirate Bay where you can find the torrent files you may have uploaded.

Status

When you first sign up you will be a humble 'MEMBER'.

Show Pornographic Torrents

If you wish to search for porn then you can change this option to 'yes', otherwise these torrents will be excluded from searches. 

Password Boxes

Here you can change your password. It is good practice to change your password on all systems regularly. These fields enable you to do this. 

 

Press "Save". You will now notice you have some new options in the bottom panel :

The main things to note here are the links to the 'Preferences' which is actually the page you have just seen where you can change your password etc. Additionally you have a link to 'Upload torrent' which is what you need to access if you wish to publish torrents to the Pirate Bay tracker.