Raspberry Pi Torrent Server – From Scratch

As requested, this is a guide to taking a Raspberry Pi and turning it into an always on Torrent box, complete and self-sufficient with its own mass storage meaning it needs no help from other computers. Also, as the Pi consumes such little power compared to a full desktop PC, money can be saved by using the Pi for overnight transfers while other computers can remain off.

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For this project I recommend a RPi 2, as its powerful enough to perform the transfers up to its maximum 100Mbps network speed, and is a cheaper choice since the RPi 3 superseded it last year. To get started, you need the following hardware:

  • Raspberry Pi 2 board.
  • Micro USB wall adaptor – Needs to be capable of 2Amp output.
  • Micro SD card – Minimum of 8GB, class 6 or above, plus SD adaptor for connecting to a PC.
  • USB Portable Hard drive – USB powered is preferred, I use a Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB.
  • Ethernet Cable – And spare port on the modem/router for internet connection.
  • A PC – On the same network as the Pi for connection and configuring.

The Pi was designed to as low cost as possible to the user, so apart from the Pi board you may already have everything to run a Pi, and if not these are cheap and easily available online.

With a RPi 2 at hand, let’s get started…

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