Freeing youself from Cable

Many have heard of people 'ditching' their cable company and instead watching TV on or from the internet, but few have learned how to do it. It is one of those things that seems only geeks and techies would or could really do.
But that is simply not the case.
With some of the many freeware applications and generously provided how to guides available, anyone can do this.
Here is one of my favorite ways:
TED (Torrent Episode Downloader) is a free tool that can find episodes of almost any TV show for downloading using a torrent client. It’s database of torrent sources is updated periodically to include new shows, and the program allows users to search for and add any shows that are not listed.

This is an extremely useful and impressive tool that can make the process of finding and downloading your favorite shows very easy; TED brings an easy to use iTunes-store like interface to the world of torrent TV shows.
This program is particularly suited for average users who (a) do not want to wade through torrent search sites and get bombarded with dubious ads and popups, (b) do not have the time or inclination to be searching for torrent sources needed for downloading, and (c) would like a reliable and easy way to find just the episodes that they want to watch.
Here is a good demonstration video.

The home page for TED is here.

Documents

Actual download:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ted/files/ted/0.971/tedv0971.exe/download

Once again the Adam at Lifehacker has done a fantastic job of creating a simple walk through of the application.
You can check that out here:

If you don't know what a Torrent is or anything about using BitTorrents then check out this Lifehackers Beginers Guide to BitTorrent. It is a GREAT introduction to understanding what a torrent :

For my windows machines I use uTorrent

On the Mac's I use Transmission

Note:
Some of you may have to configure your router (firewall) to allow the torrent client to receive information through your router - called port forwarding.
I will not go into great length on how to do that right now. You should be able to find all the information you need here at PortForward.comf
Good luck and have fun!