[Sandwich]

I'm curious about this BitTorrent file download streaming whatever-it-is... has anyone here tried it, and what are your thoughts? Does it behave well enough to be counted as a resident of my HDD? I have a fairly wide download bandwidth - is it worth getting even?

[Nico]

yeah, it's very nice, and for the room it takes on your HD, well...

[Sandwich]

Ok, so it's small. Does it reside in your system tray, so that you can right-click and exit when you need, or does it install itself as some sort of Service? How much upload bandwidth does it use? And what exactly are the differences between it and something like the eDonkey network?

[Nico]

Originally posted by Sandwich
Ok, so it's small. Does it reside in your system tray, so that you can right-click and exit when you need, or does it install itself as some sort of Service? How much upload bandwidth does it use? And what exactly are the differences between it and something like the eDonkey network?

don't remember much , it doesn't work on my current net connection ( my dsl crashes anytime I start to upload anything, so things like bt are out, for my greatest despair ). I think it's a system tray prog tho.

for how it works, you get a link of what you want to d/l, you start to d/l, I think, about 2 mb, then people will start to d/l from you, and you d/l from everybody else who d/l the same file as you. the more that try to get that file, the faster you'll d/l, basically. It uses as much bandwith as you give it ( so from ridiculous to ludicrous )
there's no search engine ( well, there's one: google ), but bt links are very easy to find.

[Rictor]

I have been using BT for a while now, and I consider it the best way of...*aquiring* games and programs. (Dont blame me, you planely asked about a sensitive topic). It pretty easy to use and reliable too.

The quality and quantity of BT sites is always increasing, so that now people can find just about anything. Movies, music, TV Episodes, Games, Apps and some (though not much) porn. I would recommend BT to everyone.

There was an outage about a 3 weeks ago, when most major sites went down for whatever reason for about 2 weeks. This has passed, and the sites have come back bigger and better, aswell as new sites being created.

I'll post some links now, admins feel free to erase them if this is a no links sort of thing:

http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/ - The home of the BT client, where to download the program
www.suprnova.org - An amazing site, with everything you need
www.torrentse.cx - Another huge site, succesor to the legendary Donkax, its currently down but will soon be up I hope
www.bytemonsoon.com/ - A new, though very good site. It uses a system similar to torrentse.cx, so it lists the torrents in chronological order

How BT works, incase you'de like to know

BT is quite different than most other p2p programs. As you are downloading, you are also uploading to everyone else. You download the part of the file that you dont have from everyone who has it. You also upload the parts of the file that you do have to everyone who doesnt have it. People who have the completed file are called seeders, which people who dont have the full file are called leachers. The better the seeder: leacher ratio, the faster it will go. You download a small (20-50 kb) file, which you then use to download the full file. On must sites, if you have the BT program installed, you just have to click the link and select the desired directory andthen you start downloading. BT has resume support, as long as you select the same directory. It takes a while to check over the file, and the bigger it is the longer it takes, but its worth it if you need stop for some reason. If you use BT, in general you're supposed to leave the file open for aslong as you can, even after the download has finished. No one is forcing you, but that the way BT works, so be generous. Sandwich, this is where your lots of nadwidth would come is useful. I cant leave my stuff open for long since my ISP has a download/upload cap, but if you can spare the bandwidth please do. The speed I get usually vary between 10kbps and 50kbps, usually around 20 or 30. But if you dont have a firewall, or open some ports in the firewall, it will go faster from what I know.

If anyone here decides to try it and has some questions, please PM me, or better yet just email me (cause I rarely check pm's) at [email protected]



Yes, I know, I'm a shameless pimp:thepimp: :thepimp:

[J.F.K.]

Originally posted by Sandwich
I'm curious about this BitTorrent file download streaming whatever-it-is... has anyone here tried it, and what are your thoughts? Does it behave well enough to be counted as a resident of my HDD? I have a fairly wide download bandwidth - is it worth getting even?

To answer your question in two words: worth it. I personally think it's a really clever concept, which more importantly, works. Give it a shot.

[Styxx]

Tsk, tsk.

[where's the tsktsk smilie when you need it]

[Fury]

BitTorrent is great.
I recommend using BT++ client. It does have better GUI, all downloads/uploads in single window and it can be minimized to systray.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Mr. Fury
BitTorrent is great.
I recommend using BT++ client. It does have better GUI, all downloads/uploads in single window and it can be minimized to systray.

[color=66ff00]Actually that version is not looked upon kindly as it autocloses as soon as the download is complete which completely shoots the entire idea in the foot. If you're going to get BT sandwich get Bittorrent 3.2.1 experimental client. Also get torrentspy which lets you check that the whole file is available, a bunch of times I didn't check and got 80-90% of the file. The only way you can get the rest is if someone who got it all opens up their client again.

Generally I try to upload twice as much as I download.
[/color]

[kode]

how does that stuff work anyhow?

[Sandwich]

Ok, this has brought up another question. From what I can tell, there's no difference between BitTorrent and the eDonkey network - they both share partially downloaded files. With both networks you can provide a specially formatted HTML link that will ensure the user is downloading that specific file, so you can avoid misnamed and mislabeled files. However, eDonkey clients generally have a search option (OverNet does, at least); I hear BitTorrent doesn't have a way to search the network.

So what are the pros and cons of the two networks aside from this? I assume ed2k has in general more users than BT, purely since it's been around longer. Any other differences?

[Nico]

unlike emule, BT isn't a memory hog?

[Rictor]

kode: see my post above for how BT works

I tried using Edonkey a few times, but I could never get how it works. Theres like a million variations of it and such.

BT works on the following principal: Someone "seeds" (makes available to the public) a file. Then users connect to that file and start downloading it. If the file is currently not being seeded, you're out of luck for the time being. Files usually appear many times over, so its not usually a problem. Like for example, Splinter Cell was really popular when it came out, but it shows up every month or so for those who missed it. Basically, you dont get exactly what you want, but what you want comes along often enough to snag it.


I would really recommend BT to anyone who is frustrated at the endless searches on Kazaa or on the web. Also, please get the normal client, since autclosing the file when you're done is realy bad...

[DragonClaw]

You can't limit upload speed in BitTorrent, I don't like it. If I want to play a game on the internet, I can't while its uploading.

Edonkey its easy to find files, but it takes a long time to get a complete file... I use it anyway since I can limit my upload speed. (If your upload cap is below 10KB/s, than your download speed is capped too, so its ok I suppose)

[Kamikaze]

you can actually set your upload to 1 kb/s and have your download uncapped using certain programs....

[DragonClaw]

Enlighten me

[DragonClaw]

Another question, I'm trying out BitTorrent again. If I hit cancel, will I be able to resume the file later? Or does it delete the whole thing from my computer?

[edit]figured it out when my computer froze, apparently it can.[/edit]

[Nico]

a p2p prog that can't resume would be utterly retarded

[Kamikaze]

http://www.speedloadmanager.de/download.php

this can be used in emule or edonkey to free the download cap (you can't set upload to any lower than 1 iirc).

[Rictor]

Why is it that I see 2 questions that have already been answered? If someone posts a thread askking how BT works, then I explain it, why would you not read that explaination? Thats like if the person beside you asks a question, and you intentionally dont listen to the answer, just so you can ask that same question again


Yes, BT has resume support, just select the same folder as before