Thread: Using BitTorrent

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...

Originally Posted by Impotence

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.

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.

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).

Off Topic:


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 although many of the bit torrent clients available do make use of it to configure the routers port forwarding.

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?

the best bt trackers/index's that i know are Mininova : The ultimate BitTorrent source! isoHunt - World's largest BitTorrent and P2P search engine Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay - The worlds largest BitTorrent tracker www.demonoid.com...

if any of thoose send you to advert pages trying to sell you something, i have got the address slightly wrong (i can't check them atm because im at college)

Also try btjunkie... btjunkie - the largest bittorrent search engine

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?

Opera also accomodates .torrent files...

Look what i found!

Torrent Links