About BitTorrent

[Vextan]

Can someone tell how to use Bit Torrent ? Been trying it out but seem to take eternity to complete, dont know is it working correctly or not. How to start downloading ? Pls briefly explain in layman's term. Have always been using eMule and want to try out Bit Torrent as it is much more popular. Thx in advance.

[Vroomtattat]

  On 5/31/2009 at 11:09 AM, Vextan said:

Can someone tell how to use Bit Torrent ? Been trying it out but seem to take eternity to complete, dont know is it working correctly or not. How to start downloading ? Pls briefly explain in layman's term. Have always been using eMule and want to try out Bit Torrent as it is much more popular. Thx in advance.

 

Bro, bit torrent is *ahem* . . .

[Deathism]

its not illegal..

 

its juz that the sharing of copyrighted stuff is illegal..

 

 

 

downloading open source programs are legal...right?

[Vvix]

Open source programs are usually downloaded from their official site...

 

Hardly see any open source torrents...

[Happily1986]

okay bro, let me give it a go to explain to you in layman's terms.

 

Let us go to the very beginning. To download, your computer functions as a client and sends a request to a host (can be a computer or a server). The file is sent in packets via HTTP or HTTPS (both are data transfer protocol). When one fella download is okay, the download speed is decent and even zippy. When many many many people download, thats when speeds slow to a crawl.

 

So someone thought of P2P. Instead of centralising the data in demand. P2P works by asking your computer (the client) to search for peers that contain the data that you want. Thereafter, there is a hardware handshake and data transfer. The more peers you have, the better the link speed. Problem here is that, much time and bandwidth is spent on searching for "peers". To search for peers, you have to send out data and such random scanning is very inefficient. Very few people can achieve good download speeds.

 

Bittorrent is supposed to be an improvised version of this P2P. Instead of getting your computer to do the searching and hunting, now the searching work is now offloaded to a smart file called the "Tracker". The tracker is hosted on a website usually. Say you do a search for "So and So". There are specific trackers for this program. Clients (or computers) that are known to be seeds or peers are registered with the tracker. Collectively, a group of seeds/peers that contain the files meant for a full torrent file is known as a "Swarm".

 

A seed is a client that has the complete torrent data file.

 

A peer is a client that has a partial copy.

 

When you launch your Bittorrent client and open the tracker file. The tracker already knows who are the seeds and the peers. Depending on whether they are online or not, the tracker then directs your computer (itself a client) to query these seeds/peers. When the hardware handshake is successful, there will be a remote link established and then you can download the files from them.

 

However in P2P, there are people called "leechers". These are people who only download but not share their torrents. As you know if everyone is like that then Bittorent will be "finish egg". Hence to encourage people to share, Bittorrent clients are programmed to throttle your download speeds when your "share ratio" is below 1.

 

A Share ratio is the ratio of the amount you uploaded to the amount you downloaded. So anything below 1 indicates you are a leecher. In fact some trackers automatically disconnect you from the swarm.

 

Hope this is informative.

[Vextan]

thanks a lot happily, i am now happily reading it away and will try to download. the next show is ncis. will update you on the outcome of my attempt.

[Vextan]

one question . so how or where do i get the tracker files ? which web site ? is it once i have the tracker file then i do a File->AddTorrent->Select the Tracker file, is it like that ?

[Whyeme]

google for 'thunder 5' or 'xun lei 5'.

much faster china program for 'ahem' purposes

[Happily1986]

  On 5/31/2009 at 2:58 PM, Vextan said:

one question . so how or where do i get the tracker files ? which web site ? is it once i have the tracker file then i do a File->AddTorrent->Select the Tracker file, is it like that ?

 

Bro, if say you are looking for "so and so", just google "so and so bittorrent" and a whole bunch of listing comes out. Then just to add, i think you should exercise QC here. If possible, choose trackers/torrents with a good seeds to peers ratio. No minimum figures to quote for whats good, but i think the more the merrier.

 

Download the torrent already then open it with your Bittorrent client.

 

:)

[Freemen]

Hi, thank for the informative reply. Was just wondering if we allow others to download from us, what are the risks involved ? I am think more in the area of being hack in .

 

 

[Happily1986]

  On 6/1/2009 at 3:07 AM, Freemen said:

Hi, thank for the informative reply. Was just wondering if we allow others to download from us, what are the risks involved ? I am think more in the area of being hack in .

 

Hi bro. Okay lets get to the lowdown regarding Bittorrent. From the nature of Bittorrent, you are exposing your computer through a remote connection. It is alittle like opening your storeroom in your house to allow strangers to peruse the stuff inside.

 

To fully appreciate this situation however, we have to understand how data transfer to and fro our computers work. Usually it is not the physical computer that requests the data, it is the software who help you execute the request. Individual software request data and such data use different ports for the purpose of transfer.

 

A little background. For example, web publishing use port 80, remote desktop connection uses 3349 etc.

 

Similarly Bittorrent clients uses a port that is (recommended) in the range of between 5400+ to 6400+.

 

The risk here is the possibility of someone sending some awful stuff through this port and disguise it as part of normal torrent traffic. Well lets rationalise the possibility of this. Undoubtedly the theoretical possibility is there, but practically is it worthwhile for someone to do so?

 

Now if you instruct your client to use a special port that is not utilised by any other programs in your computer, I would think that it is not probable, to say the least. Unless someone intentionally bundles malware in the torrent itself which automatically leads to a ban of that torrent packer. The problem here is that most router firewalls and software firewalls can't and will not be able to differentiate genuine Bittorrent traffic from a data packet that has been sneaked into the port designated for Bittorrent.

 

However, us being homeusers on home networks, i would think that the value/thrill of hacking into a home network is somewhat dull as compared to hacking into a corporate network. Enable a net log file to allow you to monitor traffic on a routine basis. if you are IT savvy enough and don't intend to use your Bittorrent client all day long, you can manually open and close the port to be used as and when you need. That will help to secure things abit.

 

 

[Watwheels]

You have to see how many ppl are "sharing" mah. If very few, of course slow lah.

 

Dan there's your firewall setting, check & see whether it's blocking the download. Your anti-virus software is it blocking it also.

[Jamstart]

I thought bit comet is a better 'software'?

[Happily1986]

Hi everyone, here is another tip that will promise results. I have always known that XP SP2 and beyond have systematically limited half open connections per computer to about 10 but i am not aware that Windows periodically reset the number of connections to 10. You see, i thought that when i patched my computer when i was installing Windows, that itself would suffice and be the end of the story.

 

But no, you have to check and ensure that the no. of half open connections is not throttled to 10.

 

How to check?

1.) Control panel

2.) Performance and Maintainence

3.) Sytem Viewer

4.) System

5.) Look out for events that have the error code 4226.

 

Check out the time/data stamp of this event. If it is fairly recent i.e. today then it is highly likely that your no. of half open connections is limited to 10.

 

Now, lets verify that your Bittorrent is being affected by the connections cap.

 

Start>Run>Cmd> Type in (netstat -no | find "SYN") excluding parentheses.

Note the Process ID.

 

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and bring up Task Manager. Under View, Select PID to be shown as a column.

Look for the PID no. that you just seen in command prompt (cmd)

 

If that happens to be your torrent program then maybe you will benefit from removing the half open connections limit.

 

How to?

 

Download patch

 

Execute the .exe and follow the instructions.

 

[Sosaria]

  On 5/31/2009 at 1:57 PM, Happily1986 said:

...

However in P2P, there are people called "leechers". These are people who only download but not share their torrents. As you know if everyone is like that then Bittorent will be "finish egg". Hence to encourage people to share, Bittorrent clients are programmed to throttle your download speeds when your "share ratio" is below 1.

 

A Share ratio is the ratio of the amount you uploaded to the amount you downloaded. So anything below 1 indicates you are a leecher. In fact some trackers automatically disconnect you from the swarm.

 

Hope this is informative.

 

What do you upload? How do you upload? If you're a new user, just join, then your share ratio is 0 - then how? Thanks.

Edited November 9, 2010 by Sosaria

[Aimnfire]

dont forget to port forward if you are behind a router

 

anyway p2p or bit torrent i've already gave up long ago

too many corrupted mp3's

 

even dl movies is a pain

 

i rather sign up of website such as rapidshare where i can view the movies in 10 mins after dl.

[Happily1986]

  On 11/9/2010 at 1:32 PM, Sosaria said:

What do you upload? How do you upload? If you're a new user, just join, then your share ratio is 0 - then how? Thanks.

 

When you are said to be torrenting, your torrent client will auto manage your downloading and uploading.

 

1.) Download and install a bittorrent client. I recommend utorrent. This program will take over file rights to all torrent files.

2.) Go to websites where torrent files are listed. These websites dont really store the stuff that you really want. What they contain really, are the trackers.

 

The tracker is a sniffer which your torrent client uses to sniff out users which have bits and pieces of the stuff you really want. Your bittorrent client usually will ask other users whether they know of more users which have the bits and pieces you want.

 

When you start to torrent a file, your share ratio is 0. Thats okay. Everyone start from zero. Your share ratio is basically amount you upload/amount you download. After you download your stuff, just leave it there to seed. That is, allow other users to copy the bits and pieces off you. Your share ratio will gradually increase.

 

For some trackers, they do monitor and allow users with a history of certain share ratios but normally i don't care haha

[Happily1986]

  On 11/9/2010 at 1:44 PM, Aimnfire said:

dont forget to port forward if you are behind a router

 

anyway p2p or bit torrent i've already gave up long ago

too many corrupted mp3's

 

even dl movies is a pain

 

i rather sign up of website such as rapidshare where i can view the movies in 10 mins after dl.

 

It is not an easy task searching for a torrent file with a good seed to leecher ratio, thats true.