So tell me how torrent websites work!

[Slyer]

Yeah torrentreactor is a scam site. It's hard to know what to trust.

Torrents are a lot easier on Linux, as it's all built in (you just click a torrent file and it loads) and you don't have to worry about viruses.


Steve

Or just spend 30 seconds downloading utorrent and don't download fake torrents from dodgy sites...
Saying torrents are "a lot easier on Linux" is crap.

[mynameis]

So tell me how torrent websites work!


No not telling

[Naki Rat]

So all you Torrent gurus, what is the 'Private tracker/Public tracker' thing all about?

[Indiana_Jones]

-Indy

[CookMySock]

So all you Torrent gurus, what is the 'Private tracker/Public tracker' thing all about?

It's just a tracker that you need a username and password for, probably because you downloaded the torrent from either a private site, or a VERY dodgy site.

edit: Torrents start off by you googling and then downloading a little .torrent file. This file has a list of all the filenames in the torrent (it might be manual.pdf in it, or a whole album of songs, or anything at all) but it does not contain any of the actual data.

Then you run a "torrent downloader" program on your PC and open the .torrent file with it.

The torrent PROGRAM looks in the .torrent FILE (that you downloaded from some website earlier) for instructions on how to join a circle of people who have either all or part of that file, and also how to connect to the "tracker" which is a machine to manage all the connectees and sharees. So the torrent PROGRAM that you are running, now collectects bits from everywhere and pieces together the final article, and presents it to you complete when it is done. It ALSO shares it with all and sundry on the Internet, so SHUT THE PROGRAM DOWN after you are done or it will eat your bandwidth.


Steve

[davereid]

So all you Torrent gurus, what is the 'Private tracker/Public tracker' thing all about?

The tracker assists your torrent client program in making connections to other torrent clients that have all, or part of the file you seek to download. That is to say it maintains a dynamic record of the IP addresses of suitable peers, and it sends that data to your torrent client, so it can make the peer-to-peer connection itself.

Public trackers share the record with all torrent clients that request it.

Private trackers don't, they only share with approved users.


Many torrent downloaders stop sharing files once they have downloaded them. As a result, you will usually find many more people attempting to download a file than the number of people sharing it.

A private tracker doesn't allow this to happen. It monitors the uploads and downloads of each client, and generally enforces a ratio.

So you must upload (seed) at least as much as you download (leach).

The advantage of a private tracker is therefore speed, and reliability, as you are sharing with other sharers, rather than sharing with people who only take.

How would our welfare system work with the same rules ?
Unemployed ? DPB ? Go help out at animal rescue or riding for the disabled for a few hours to get your dole.