VIPeers is a file-sharing service that also happens to be one of the easiest ways to create a torrent for peer-to-peer downloading. I chatted with zSlide founder Louis Choquel, who was kind enough to offer Lifehacker readers an invitation to the private beta. Enter the code LIFEHACKER20 when you register between now and Monday, November 10th (though if the site doesn't run into any scaling problems, that may be extended). I tested out the service, which works in any browser, and had no problems — if you do, just let the team know in the support forums. Simply upload a file up to five gigabytes in size, and VIPeers will give you a selection of sharing options, from a direct-download URL to a torrent file link which will be seeded automatically by VIPeers and work in any BitTorrent client. If you've ever wanted to create a torrent download but found it too confusing to set up a seeding server, tracker and the like, this is a great way to get started. If you give VIPeers a try, link to your file in the comments. Thanks, Janko!

Every time a new Ubuntu release hits servers, so do thousands of Ubuntu users aching to get their hands on the latest and greatest release. The influx of traffic generally causes server crashes, which means you have to wait that much longer to upgrade. To help you avoid this problem altogether, the TorrentFreak weblog details how to use BitTorrent to upgrade to the newest release—Intrepid Ibex—set to release in a day or two. When everything's all said and done, you can still upgrade using apt-get dist-upgrade—it'll just handle the update over BitTorrent instead of hitting the Ubuntu servers, so your update should run much more smoothly. Want to know what to expect from the upgrade? Check out our first look at Intrepid Ibex.

Jailbroken iPhone/iPod touch 2.0 only: The previously mentioned iSlsk peer-to-peer client is now available for iPhone 2.0. Now called MewSeek, the Soulseek client lets you download music from the P2P network directly to your device. The catch? You'll need the PwnPlayer app to listen to any of your downloads. Both of these apps are in early development; we haven't tried them firsthand at Lifehacker HQ, but the ReadWriteWeb blog reports that besides some bugginess here and there, they work as advertised. Windows and users, jailbreak your device using QuickPwn; Mac users can rock the jailbreak with PwnageTool. Then, MewSeek and PwnPlayer are free apps you can get via the Cydia installer.

Most of the time a BitTorrent download gets stuck, it's because the tracker can no longer find seeders who have the entire file available for download. Website btReAnnouncR resurrects dead BitTorrent downloads by scouring the internet for all torrent trackers following the same torrent. Once it finds alternate torrents, you can create and download a custom .torrent download file in which you select the primary and alternate trackers yourself. In doing so, you'll (hopefully) find several more peers that are seeding the same download. If you've ever spent hours downloading a file using BitTorrent just to find yourself stuck at 98% complete and desperately adding "Seed please!" comments to the tracker, btReAnnounceR might be just what you need.

Australian research institute NICTA is working on the development of Badumna, a peer-to-peer system specifically designed to make it easier to players in massively multiplayer environments to communicate. NICTA has released a beta version of the technology to games developers, who typically have to spend millions building reliable infrastructure for multiplayer communication. It might be a while before this technology hits the average consumer, but it's a timely reminder that the need for P2P development didn't die when BitTorrent appeared.

Web site VCD Quality tracks videos distributed online and provides a wealth of information about each release—including a screenshot or two demonstrating the quality of the video and separate video and audio ratings. The site also links to the movie's IMDb page, lets you know what group released it, and informs you of the source media (e.g., DVD rip). If you download a fair share of movies online, you've probably been burned by a grainy, low quality download before. VCD Quality is there to help you avoid wasting those hours downloading a bum film. You can't actually download anything directly from VCD Quality, but if you've followed our beginner and intermediate guides to BitTorrent, you already know what you're doing.

The days of peer-to-peer file sharing tools ushered into popularity by the original Napster are over and done, and today, BitTorrent reigns supreme. It took some time for BitTorrent to gain mainstream popularity, but now that it has, there are a surplus of BitTorrent clients available vying for your downloads. Keep reading for a breakdown of the top five. Photo by djxspike.

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Less than 24 hours after the premiere of popular TV show Prison Break, P2P file sharers downloaded the episode close to one million times—even though you can watch the show for free, online, at Hulu and Fox.com. Why is this? Wired writer Betsy Schiffman argues it's because file-sharing is habitual and convenient.

The fact that one million people downloaded the show within 24 hours—a little less than one-sixth of the 6.5 million people who watched Prison Break on TV on Monday night—proves, though, that P2P isn't going away just because there are legal alternatives now. "This is a group of people who define themselves in part by the technology they use and the application of that technology," says Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research. "Chances are that this is only happening in a defined age group. You'd be hard-pressed to find 60 year-old guys passing this stuff off to their buddies."

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Web site Usniff is BitTorrent search aggregator that scours popular BitTorrent search engines like The Pirate Bay, Mininova, and IsoHunt, and aggregates the results into a powerful, attractive interface. Similar to other previously mentioned BitTorrent aggregators like PizzaTorrent and Speckly, Usniff can filter through search results to refine your search. The coolest thing Usniff has going for it is advanced search operators, like exclusion with the '-' (minus) operator. It also allows you to disable results from certain engines if you don't like what you get there (I've always had bad results from Monova, for example). PizzaTorrent still seems like the most powerful aggregator, but Usniff is still worth a look.

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Mac OS X/Linux only: Popular BitTorrent application Transmission has updated with several excellent new features, including built-in integration with the Clutch web interface. We showed you how to remote control your BitTorrent downloads with Clutch from any web browser, and now that Clutch comes baked-in to Transmission, doing so is even easier (though you may want to refer to the original guide for the finer points of setting it up). The new release also includes integration for Quick Look in Leopard (just hit the spacebar) along with several other improvements. Transmission is free, Mac OS X and Linux only.