A Guide to Torrents

Discussion in 'The Living Room' started by Tomi, Jan 22, 2006.

  1. #1
    Tomi

    Tomi   LPA Addict

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    http://blog.themoki.com/193

    If you're new to the whole torrent way of life, then this'll help you out. If you're already very familar with torrents, then this won't really help you out that much, as you probably already know 99.9% of what is said in this article.

    What do you guys think? Am I missing anything?
    And for those of you new to torrents, was this guide helpful to you at all, if not, help me out here to improve it. :)

    Thanks.
     
  2. #2
    rosanna

    rosanna Well-Known Member

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    makes sense, but i can never get my torrents to connect to anyone once i get the software. what's up with that?
     
  3. #3
    Tomi

    Tomi   LPA Addict

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    3 possible causes:
    1. Tracker is dead/down.
    2. No seeders.
    3. Your router firewall (if you have one) is blocking your torrent ports.


    Hah, my friend posted my guide on Digg. I hope it doesn't get to the front page, otherwise my server might get raped by the digg effect. Hah. >_<
     
  4. #4
    rosanna

    rosanna Well-Known Member

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    yeah i think it was the firewall. i was on a different network then, so it would probably work here if i tried since the other person on the network uses them and probably set it up for him to do it. thanks.
     
  5. #5
    Tomi

    Tomi &nbsp; LPA Addict

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    ...althought that didn't make much sense to me, mmkay.
     
  6. #6
    Glenn

    Glenn Super Member LPA Super Member

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    "and c. there is no c"
    :lol:
    Good guide. It simplified some things about which I was skeptical regarding Bit Torrent.
    I asked this question in the other topic but I'll ask it here too. Does enabling the port forwarding make my network and/or system more vulnerable?
     
  7. #7
    Tomi

    Tomi &nbsp; LPA Addict

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    I don't know what exactly the answer is to that, but from my knowledge, only if hackers know that port is open, and the only way they can find out is if your router responds to probes, which by default, it doesn't. So you're safe pretty much.

    I think I still need to address a few things, so yeah.
     
  8. #8
    Glenn

    Glenn Super Member LPA Super Member

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    Another question. How long after the files are competely on your system should you keep seeding. I know you've said 1 or 2 hours after or double the amount, but is that sufficient? Even if you help out, will somebody still complain about you shutting them down even if you had kept it up for other users? Also, I don't want to keep it open longer than necessary because seeding slows down the other computer on our home network.
     
  9. #9
    Tomi

    Tomi &nbsp; LPA Addict

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    Well, use your own judgement. Look at the amount of seeders and leechers on that torrent. If there's more than 1-2 other seeders, then you'll be alright. No one can come out and complain at you for cutting them off. But yeah, there is etiquette with torrent seeding/downloading.

    Also, since seeding slows down your network, what I do is set the torrent's bandwidth allocation to low [in uTorrent right click the torrent, it's in that menu. Default is normal.] as to not hog my bandwidth at home. And I limit my upload speed to 10kB/s while I'm on the computer [when i'm afk for extended times (eg. school), I uncap it]. Yeah, it does slightly slow down their downloads, but they're still getting the file, so they shouldn't be complaining.

    Keep the questions coming. :)
     
  10. #10
    Glenn

    Glenn Super Member LPA Super Member

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    i use BitPump. It doesn't have 'low' or 'high', it just gives areas where you can input specific values. To what values do you limit your downloads in order not to bog down the network.
     
  11. #11
    Tomi

    Tomi &nbsp; LPA Addict

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    BitPump, never heard of it. You should use uTorrent, it's amazing, really. Very small in size, hardly takes up any resources. Very lightweight. Try it. :)
     

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