Torrent

Materials for torrent workshop 9/13/11

Software

µTorrent client – cross platform torrent client

Terminology

• Client: the program you keep running to download and seed files
• Leecher: does not have 100% of the files
• Seeder: has 100% and is sharing back
• Seeding: Uploading already downloaded pieces to leechers. You can seed parts that you have finished while you leech.
• Tracker: Maintains a list of all seeders and leechers to connect them
• .torrent file: describes all the pieces of the shared files and what trackers to use
• UDP: in short, a broadcast only communication. Where HTTP and TCP are conversations, UDP is shouting across a room with your ears covered.

Test Torrents

.torrent file for Drive A – The World in Shambles album. Sounds like pop-punk, but it's free. .torrent file for Loophole by Greendjohn album. Kind of like a movie soundtrack. Opposite of the Drive A album.

Etiquette

• Always seed
• Seed to a ratio of at least 1. That means you have uploaded as much as you have downloaded
• Create torrents with your files in a folder

Links

Trackers

Not many free and open trackers work anymore. OpenBitTorrent is one of the few that works. A note on UDP Trackers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UDP_tracker Use these two when creating torrents: udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80 udp://tracker.1337x.org:80/announce

Torrent file storage

You can email your .torrent files around or use Torrage to store your file and share the unlisted link.

Legal Media

• ClearBits offers a hosted ($$) solution for creators, but you can download their torrents for free.
• VODO has some films.
• jamendo has links for mp3 bittorrent albums, but poor seeding sometimes.