Using BitTorrent

DaRuSsIaMaN

DaRuSsIaMaN

Geek Comrade
I don't understand the concept behind it. Could someone explain to me why I have to forward ports in order to use BitTorrent? With other P2P programs like Kazaa Lite or BearShare, I don't need to mess with port settings at all. The only thing I need to configure during installation is where to dump my downloads and what my connection speed is and some other minor junk. And then it works! Both downloading and uploading. Despite having a router. Now I wanna try Azureus (since AT recommended it in the free software thread and I have absolutely no experience with BitTorrent on my own so I'll just take his word for it), but it's telling me I have to set up port forwarding b4 it will ever work. Why is this? Or, perhaps the real question is, why did I not need to do this on the other P2P programs?? It actually makes more logical sense to me that I would need to go through this process, so why was it so easy on those other programs? What's the difference?

Thanks!
 
You don't *have* to set port forwarding for BT to work, but it works alot better if you do... as without it other peers cant start a connection with you, you have to initiate the connection (and if they don't have port forwarding set, the clients cant connect to each other).

If you have Upnp enabled on your router, Azureus will set port forwarding for you. however, nearly every security guide advises you to disable Upnp on your router...
 
Impotence said:
You don't *have* to set port forwarding for BT to work, but it works alot better if you do... as without it other peers cant start a connection with you, you have to initiate the connection.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by that -- "other peers can't start a connection with you"? Does that mean that no one will be able to download anything from me? So I will never upload anything?
 
Using BitTorrent, other peers can only connect to you if your router allows a connection to a certain port. If a peer tries to connect to you, at your designated port like 30000, and you haven't set up port forwarding in your router then the router will simply block the attempt, it is doing its job.

The reason port forwarding is seen as almost essential is that you will basically have a non-existent download speed if you do not upload. With other systems like Kazaa and Limewire, it is not compulsary to upload.

The BitTorrent system, although it may seem like a pain at first (its really not hard to set up port forwarding) is a much more stable method of distribution. As more peers join the swarm, assuming that they don't leech and leave, the torrent will become stronger.

Port forwarding is just a thing you have to do to allow people to make a connection to your computer, if you run a home web server, or a game server like Ut2k4, Halo etc then you will need to port forward also.
 
Alright, well in that case, why were people able to download stuff off me in BearShare and Kazaa, even though I did not set up port forwarding?? I definitely remember seeing some uploads.
 
DaRuSsIaMaN said:
Alright, well in that case, why were people able to download stuff off me in BearShare and Kazaa, even though I did not set up port forwarding?? I definitely remember seeing some uploads.
Click to expand...

I believe thats because BearShare and Kazaa are P2P whereas bit torrents clients are all Upnp.
 
Ohh! Yes, they are P2P! So what the hell is the difference lol? I thought it all boils down to the same thing: that routers simply reject everything that was not initiated by the user behind it, therefore rejecting any "random" requests from others to access your computer (and its contents). How does this general principle not apply to P2P?
 
i don't know for sure, but thats possibly one of the tasks ultra peers do... (not sure if i have got the correct term but hey)

if the client is frequently talking to the ultra peer, then i guess its possible that the ultra peer informs your client that peer X wants the file you have, and then your client connects to them (assuming they have port forwarding set).

[OT]
over7x,

Bit Torrent is a Peer2peer network, P2P is just the name for the type of network. Peer-to-peer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Upnp stands for Universal Plug and Play, it has nothing to do with bit torrent :P although many of the bit torrent clients available do make use of it to configure the routers port forwarding.
[/OT]
 
Okay new topic: I have my bittorrent client working now; how do i get torrents themselves? I find a site, right, and download a small .torrent file or something? And then put it into the directory my client recognizes and it will complete the full download? Am I understanding it right?
 
Sweet, got 'em bookmarked. And they were all correct addresses, btw =)

This makes me wonder why bittorrent is so popular. Aren't there loads of these torrent sites, all of which might have different content? Then you'd have to visit each and every one to get access to everything, don't you? Wouldn't it be better if there was just one huge site?
 
Hey guys, more question(s) on this topic. What does it mean when there are zero seeds available but a couple peers? It says in my client under "peers": 1(2). Under "seeds" it says: 0(0). And I'm not downloading anything, the d/l speed is locked at 0. So what are peers and seeds, and why is there a number and then a number in () ?
 
Seeds: a client that has a complete copy and is uploading it to everyone else
peers / leeches: a client that is still downloading but can upload anything it has downloaded so far to everyone else.

If you don't have any seeds, then you will not be able to finish downloading that torrent (unless a seed comes back)
 
Thanks, man. And why does it have a number and number in parantheses? Like in the attached pic?

So, if I have zero seeds showing, that means all those peers also have no seed to download from, right? So, if I understand it right, without seed coming back, all the peers will just max out at whatever fraction of download the peer with the highest fraction had? Right?
 

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I think one is showing the number of seeds, and one shows the number you are connected to... I forget which way around. And yes I find that sometimes happen, you wait ages and get to 95% and everything stops... :(

It uTorrent there is a way of finding out how much other people have downloaded of it, so you know if anyone has 100%.
 
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