BitTorrent is a common and exceptionally useful tool for distributing large amounts of data on the internet. I’ll assume you already know how to download files with BitTorrent. You’re here because you want to upload and distribute your own files using the BitTorrent protocol. This example makes use of the Transmission client, so if you don’t have it you should install it now. It comes installed by default in Ubuntu.

Open Transmission and select File -> New. You should see a dialog similar to the following:

Select the file or folder you would like to distribute with your torrent file. Next you will need to find a list of active trackers and insert several of them in to the “Trackers:” field. You could use a public tracker like publicbt.com or any number of other popular trackers like those on the list found here. Inserting a comment is optional. Once complete, your dialog should appear similar to the following:

Click “New” and your torrent file will be created in the directory you specified. All that’s left to do is make sure your client has seeding enabled, and distribute your torrent file to your friends and others on the internet. You will need to keep your client open or otherwise keep seeding the torrent until someone else has completely downloaded it. They may continue seeding it themselves for your file to be more available.