Category: Torrents

Peer To Peer (P2P) Definitions For Newbies

Peer To Peer is a network protocol used for downloading torrents or P2P files. P2P software allows browsers to connect with each other to search for and download content. Here  files are shared directly between network users without the assistance of a central server.

TorrentsTorrent : This is a small metadata file and ends with .torrent extension. This torrent file contains all the information about the files (movies, music, games, etc) that you are downloading. When the P2P download initiates, a torrent file is sent to the computer.

Peer : A peer is another user in the network or the internet (Just like you), who is interested in downloading some files. A peer doesn’t have the complete file on his/her computer.

Seed : As the name says, a seed is the originator of the file. The seed has the complete file on his/her computer. There can be multiple seeds for a same file on the Internet. This makes the P2P sharing more useful.

Swarm : A swarm is the group of people associated with a particular file. This included seeds and peers. Together, all users sharing a torrent are called a swarm. Six peers and two seeds make a swarm of eight.

Leech : A leech is a peer who has a negative effect on the swarm because of very poor share ratio. In other words, downloading much more than they upload. Some leeches hurt the swarm to avoid uploading by using modified clients or limiting their upload speed.

Tracker : The Tracker is the server of the torrent site that monitors or tracks the progress of your download. It keeps track of which seeds and peers are in the swarm. The tracker is not directly involved in the data transfer and does not have a copy of the file.

Snubbed : An uploading client is flagged as snubbed if the downloading client has not received any data from it in over 60 seconds.

DHT : It stands for Distributed Hash Table. This table is used by tracker to compile a list of peers that host a particular file.

Usage : Yesterday, I used P2P file sharing to get a copy of God Father. I got the torrent for it easily. The tracker referred to the DHT and showed me 30 seeds and 60 peers. The entire swarm has grown very well this week.

Easy Steps For Creating A Torrent File

Recently my friend wanted to get some files from my system. They were about 100-150 MB. We both know it will take years to send these files through Yahoo! Messenger, MSN or any other service. File Transfer really sucks there. I never thought about creating a torrent file. Many people know how to download a torrent, but they don’t know how to create them. The latter is very easy like the former. Many prefer this type of transferring because you can share this with many people. Let us discuss the steps for creating the smart way for transferring files. Let it be a couple of pictures, a farewell day video etc.

Note :

  • The tracker identifies the network location of each client either uploading or downloading the P2P file associated with a torrent. It notifies the client of the P2P file location (that is normally on a different, remote server).
  • A private tracker is a tracker which requires registration before you can use this service. Such trackers usually have a high amount of seeds, because users get banned if their ratio is too low.

Creating a torrrent file in Common BitTorrent clients

utorrent11. File | Create new Torrent or Press Ctrl + N

  1. Select the desired files / or directories

  2. Trackers :  You can use one or more trackers here. But one is required.

These are the preferred trackers :

http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
http://www.torrent-downloads.to:2710/announce
http://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
udp://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
http://www.sumotracker.com/announce

Put any one of this in the tracker box.

  1. Do not tick the private torrent box unless you are using a private tracker.

  • Save the torrent. Thats all. Simple na ? 😛

    • vuze1. File | New Torrent or Press Ctrl + N

    1. Tick Use an external tracker.

    The case varies if you are using a private tracker.

    These are the preferred trackers :

    http://tracker.prq.to/announce
    http://inferno.demonoid.com:3389/announce
    http://tracker.bt-chat.com/announce
    http://tracker.zerotracker.com:2710/announce

    Put any one of these in the tracker box

    1. Select single file or dicectory and click Next

  • Point to the file or directory you want to share and click Next

  • Do not tick Private torrent

  • Do tick allow Decentralized tracking

  • Save the torrent

    • BitComet1. File | Create Torrent or Press Ctrl + N

    2. Select the files and or directories

    3. Select “Enable public DHT network” from the dropdown list

    Note : By this you can be your own tracker if in case the public tracker goes down.

    4. Tracker server and DHT node list

    These are the preferred trackers :

    http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
    http://www.torrent-downloads.to:2710/announce
    http://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
    udp://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
    http://www.sumotracker.com/announce

    Put any one of these in the tracker box

    1. Save the torrent