The future of BitTorrent

Discuss the world of file sharing, from philosophy to help with applications.

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battye
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BitTorrent is a hot topic in the P2P community, but I wonder how long it can be a force to be reckoned with. Surely, sooner or later its age will show. What advancements do you expect (or want) to see in the BitTorrent protocol, the way trackers and clients work, etc?

For example, a few years ago there was talk of building a "live tracker" (exeem? I can't remember - perhaps it has been done?) which people could use in the same way WinMX worked for instance. ie. you open a client, type something in the search bar, double click it and it downloads. Doing this would essentially turn BitTorrent into a regular P2P, eliminating a reliance on the HTTP protocol (as the way it is, trackers are on websites).
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Grinch
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BitTorrent isn't going anywhere. As far as I am concerned it is the most efficient file sharing system out there for large files. The boys at Pirate Bay are working on a new protocol more than likely based off BitTorrent. Bram Cohen is always doing something with his code, unfortunately it is now closed source. Paramount and Fox have embraced BitTorrent and offer their content up for download at bittorrent.com for a price of course. Wal-mart used BitTorrent for their movie download service. I think you will see more and more of this as time rolls on. The movie industry needs to look at BitTorrent as a way to distribute their material in a way that will both benefit them and the consumer.

The only issue is BitTorrent traffic is still a huge percentage of overall bandwidth used on the internet. ISP's are cracking down. Comcast is now in a legal battle over their filtering system. AT&T is looking at filtering BT traffic. All this does is cause the developer's to create means of trying to make BT traffic invisible. These filtering systems aren't doing anything but annoying BT users for a bit until something is put in place to defeat the filtering systems. Eventually everyone is going to need to come up with ways to get along and live peacefully amongst one another.

There are too many legitimate uses of BitTorrent out there and any kind of filtering system is going to piss off a lot of people. Most Linux distributions are available via BitTorrent which are free. The technology needs to be embraced. The RIAA and MPAA need to look at ways of utilizing the protocol instead of fighting it.
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battye
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My major concern is the speed of BitTorrent. I know it can go exceptionally fast, and most times it does. From my understanding, the middle part of the file (15%-85%?) will go fastest because this is the part of the file with the most parts available to download, but the beginning and end will go quite slowly.

There are time when the file can start for me, and I don't know if this is because I have some setting turned off, at about 5kbps, and 30 minutes later it will be fluctuating around 300kbps before dropping again at the end of the file. HTTP downloads are always a constant 500-600kbps, why on earth does BitTorrent refuse to match those speeds when there are so many seeds available? It has the potential to be quicker, because of the multi-source factor, but it's not?! :shock:
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Grinch
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One issue with BT I have is the users ability to throttle their upload. That is probably what you are experiencing. I downloaded a file yesterday at 800kbs start to finish. I was really impressed. The file only had 13 seeds and I think I connected to only 4 of them. I understand the need to throttle upload but it isn't entirely fair because these people will have their download unthrottled. I rarely have speed issues when dealing with BT unless it is something rare or hard to find.
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battye
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Grinch wrote:One issue with BT I have is the users ability to throttle their upload. That is probably what you are experiencing. I downloaded a file yesterday at 800kbs start to finish. I was really impressed. The file only had 13 seeds and I think I connected to only 4 of them. I understand the need to throttle upload but it isn't entirely fair because these people will have their download unthrottled. I rarely have speed issues when dealing with BT unless it is something rare or hard to find.
If there are 13 seeds, why are you only connected to 4? I have the same problem, I'm only connected to a couple of seeds when there are so many more available. Is it based on location?
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Grinch
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I have no idea why you will only connect to certain seeds. It could be those seeds are blocking IP ranges and you happen to fall into one of them. Who knows?
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tunebud
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I totaly agree with what Grinch is saying
The RIAA and MPAA need to look at ways of utilizing the protocol instead of fighting it.
if they don't once again they are going to miss the boat.


battye wrote:If there are 13 seeds, why are you only connected to 4? I have the same problem, I'm only connected to a couple of seeds when there are so many more available. Is it based on location?
Is your client Contactable?
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battye
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tunebud wrote:
battye wrote:If there are 13 seeds, why are you only connected to 4? I have the same problem, I'm only connected to a couple of seeds when there are so many more available. Is it based on location?
Is your client Contactable?
What do you mean by contactable?
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tunebud
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Sorry I mean Connectible :oops:
It is possible that your firewall is blocking connections
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battye
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No I don't think any connections are being blocked :?
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tunebud
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NO.1 most clients all clients tell toy if you are Connectible via an icon or just saying so check that first. most will tell you how under there help section. (the port you are useing must be open)

I hate to ask on the open forum what client you are using so check the site of your client for help. Or if you want to PM or MSN me the info a specifics I will be glad to take a look and research it for you :)

As for the slow start and of the file that is due to what is called a spike. That is the start up of the client and the number of connections and pieces of the file each peer has to offer this will refer to.

SLOW START
most all clients do not "auto start" it takes several min. for them to collect data on available peers and pieces needed. So to stop or start a connection will take time some to connect.

SLOW FINISH
(ie.) even though you are connected to say 10 peers only 2 may have the pieces your client is requesting at that moment so you will only connect to those peers. If you set and watch (having the time to do so :D ) you may notice you will, or may not, switch from those 2 to maybe another 3 accounting on the number of request from client to client made and pieces available needed from that peer.

Now that you are on a MAC system "I have little Knowledge of" I am not certain........ But Windows fire wall will auto block some connections even if you let it pass through your secondary firewall (just another reason MS su*ks).

SEEDS
is the same, it is dependent on the number of request a client makes (yours and theres) settings by both party as some to do with that on how may request is made before one or the other will be denied the request to D/L (then there is the MS firewall thing again)
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battye
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tunebud wrote:NO.1 most clients all clients tell toy if you are Connectible via an icon or just saying so check that first. most will tell you how under there help section. (the port you are useing must be open)

I hate to ask on the open forum what client you are using so check the site of your client for help. Or if you want to PM or MSN me the info a specifics I will be glad to take a look and research it for you :)

As for the slow start and of the file that is due to what is called a spike. That is the start up of the client and the number of connections and pieces of the file each peer has to offer this will refer to.

SLOW START
most all clients do not "auto start" it takes several min. for them to collect data on available peers and pieces needed. So to stop or start a connection will take time some to connect.

SLOW FINISH
(ie.) even though you are connected to say 10 peers only 2 may have the pieces your client is requesting at that moment so you will only connect to those peers. If you set and watch (having the time to do so :D ) you may notice you will, or may not, switch from those 2 to maybe another 3 accounting on the number of request from client to client made and pieces available needed from that peer.

Now that you are on a MAC system "I have little Knowledge of" I am not certain........ But Windows fire wall will auto block some connections even if you let it pass through your secondary firewall (just another reason MS su*ks).

SEEDS
is the same, it is dependent on the number of request a client makes (yours and theres) settings by both party as some to do with that on how may request is made before one or the other will be denied the request to D/L (then there is the MS firewall thing again)
Thanks tune, that is really helpful 8)
I don't use BitTorrent on MAC, only Windows, and I use this client. I use Kerio firewall and it has allowed connections for the BitTorrent client. I will double check the Windows ( :roll: ) firewall and make sure it is switched off.

Which specifics were you after?

Thanks :wink:
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
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