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Hurricane Electric Offers Bit Torrent Service
heypete writes "Hurricane Electric is now offering BitTorrent tracker/seeder services on behalf of paying customers. One need only upload the file desired to a specified directory by FTP, and their system will automatically generate a torrent file, add it to a tracker for that customer, and act as a "seed" to ensure that the file is available to downloaders. This could prove to be extremely useful for distributors of large files (such as Linux distributions), as bandwidth for the tracker and seeding services does not count against the bandwidth quota for the account."
When somebody uploads illegal content?
You've got to love that everytime a new p2p program/service comes out, it is always explained as having legitimate uses.
Everyone know that, sure, BT is great to share Linux distros, but in actuality, it will be used to share mp3s, divx rips, and pr0n.
I use Hurricane Electric as my web host. What kind of torrent do you think I should host? Maybe a linux distro, or some other open source project? I want to use my new torrent privleges to bennifit mankind somehow, any suggestions?
Now that is REALLY cool. That's the sort of services I wish MY provider (Comcast) would provide.
Nobody really uses these internet portal sites with all that streaming video (read: comcast ads) stuff they show on TV.
This is the kind of helpful feature people want ! Give us blogs, bittorrent trackers, etc !
Mandrakelinux. I paid for and got access to their premium content, and just got through downloading nearly 12 GB of Linux distributions and premium software from them through BitTorrent. Unfortunately, it took about five days (and I have broadband). I expect a huge chunk of my downloads came directly from their seed(s) and there weren't enough, considering my download:upload ratio for the entire transfer was about 3:1.
Maybe if they had more seeds, scattered around the globe, it would have worked better. As it is, I feel cheated; if I'm going to subscribe to their service for a monthly fee, it would be nice if they would use some of that fee to give me some good bandwidth to download their product. Hell, I'd seed (limited to 1/2 my upstream bandwidth) for them if they gave me a discount or a free upgrade in subscription level.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
BitTorrent does very well for legitimate content, and so long as they kick out clients who set up torrents for illegal content, there won't be any cause for lawsuits.
Looks like not only do they have multiple Spamhaus SBL listings including a few repeat offenders, they're under a SPEWS Level 2 (monitor, don't block) advisory.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
"then the Republicans will start shouting again about how P2P is inheiriently evil, and that will be the end of that."
Except the fact that the US is not the legal authority over Earth. They may whine, they may try to make it illegal in some way, and they may even succeed but it will never be the end so long as its legal elsewhere.
Nobody ever argued the legality of the bittorrent protocol.
It's used by quite a few software companies. Games for example, since they are large in size.
A knife is a perfectly legal tool. It can cut us free when we are trouble, cut our food, or in the hands of a surgon can save lives.... it's when that knife is in the hands of a serial killer that it becomes illegal.
No knives have ever been accused of murder. Only the person who intentionally uses it for the act.
Same with bittorent. It never did anything wrong. It's users were the ones breaking copyright laws.
Same for HTTP. Some use it for kiddy porn. But that doesn't mean Yahoo is illegal, or illegitimate.
Just like people who buy commercial webhosting accidentally upload warez to their websites to distribute using p2p?
I've tried several mac clients and have found that Azureus by far works the best of the ones I've tried including the BitTorrent one. This seems mainly due to Azureus allowing me to set an upload limit - without that my home 802.11b network seems to get completely saturated with upload, leaving no room for download.
Even after playing around with the specific limit set, the best download speeds I see perhaps rival the best regular download speeds I've seen from a direct ftp or http server. More typically I see what I'm seeing now, trying to download a copy of RedHat Fedora - something on par with a fast dial-up connection at 28 to 40 kB/ps. Am I suppose to be excited by this?
Moreover, when I run Azureus, even if the download speeds (and upload speeds reported for that matter) I see are absolutely pathetic, it slows down my entire 802.11b network so that everybody suffers, contradicting claims that torrents are efficient. On the contrary they seem insanely inefficient.
So what exactly is the point of torrents? They don't seem to result in faster downloads, they require me to provide an upload, they bring my 802.11b network to its knees even when the download/upload speeds are pathetic, and if I try to run Azureus at work I get a call from a (friendly) tech support guy warning me that the network techs are getting very upset that "someone" is running bittorrent (or equivalent.)
So (aside from downloading/sharing hacked software), what is the point of going through all this trouble? I'd rather just click a link in a browser and download the file at what seemingly would be similar or better speeds, and wouldn't get tech support upset.
--- What?
I would like to use these things for uploading digital pictures I take(what can I say, I'm a resolution whore), but I would rather the whole world not see my friend wearing a wedding dress with a giant Bart Simpson mask on.
It would be neat if you could put a user name/password on the torrents. Not incredibly secure, but still better than nothing.
Monstar L
a) encrypt/password-protect it, then
b) upload it
If you limit sharing to your friends, you're completely safe.
You better have a lot of "friends". The whole idea behind Bittorrent was the more people using it, the faster it is.
If you're just going to share encrypted warez with a dozen people, there isn't any benefit to doing it via BT than via FTP.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I'm curious what you really mean by "in actuality"--isn't BitTorrent actually used to distribute copies of all sorts of data, illicitly and legally? Or are you focusing on the kind of data (MP3s, DiVX movie files, and pornographic movies in a encoded with a variety of codecs) and trying to get us to read something into that? Maybe I have a license to share that MP3 file (like the Creative Commons-licensed song files first distributed in Wired magazine late last year); maybe that DiVX file is a home movie I made (therefore making me the copyright holder); maybe I'm a licensed distributor of that pornographic DivX file (trying to get people to buy a copy of the movie by giving them a free sample)?
Usually when people place an emphasis on illicit distribution in this context, they are trying to impune the distribution mechanism, as if it is somehow BitTorrent's job to stop the user from doing something illegal.
As a result of my questions, I fail to see how your post is fairly moderated up as insightful.
Digital Citizen
We've got something like ten accounts with them, and have never had any down time or other problems.
No, I don't work for HE or have any affiliation with them. I am glad to spread the word about them because I've had several other accounts with hosting outfits that just didn't grok good service the way HE does.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
"More typically I see what I'm seeing now, trying to download a copy of RedHat Fedora - ... at 28 to 40 kB/ps. Am I suppose to be excited by this?"
Dude, if you are getting 28 to 40 kilobytes
per picosecond, you damn well ought to be
impressed!
Sheesh, some people are never satisfied.
How about this, from kernel.org as I type this: Current bandwidth utilization 146.96 Mbit/s
There are tons of legitimate sites with that level of traffic. The ibiblio archives come to mind, along with much stuff from archive.org. Don't pretend that there's not overwhelming legitimate usages for BT. That may be true for Napster, but I think you have a hard case to prove, if you're looking at BT.
well, and full games. of course.
did you think this was 1995? the internet is a valid and often-used distribution medium for games at this point--so why not offload some bandwidth onto the customers? Valve and Blizzard get it.
Several reasons:
.torrent file, and then have the customer act as the original seed for the file. If they charge for bandwidth for the service in the future, it might be significantly cheaper to just use HE as a high-availability tracker than as a seed point.
1) Your computer might not be on all the time.
2) Getting enough of the file "out there" with your computer being the initial seed is a bottleneck.
3) I'd rather spend a few hours uploading at max speed to HE's system, where they'd take over the tracking and seeding of the file on their ungodly-fast network. This would result in the file being more widely available and distributed a lot faster.
I also sent in a few request to them:
1) In the event that they finally start billing for bandwidth for BT, I suggsted that they only bill for "seed" bandwidth consumed, rather than tracker communications (which are generally low-overhead anyway).
2) I proposed that they allow customers to generate their own torrents, upload the
Why are there so many mis-informed people on the internet that think P2P == a breeding ground for copyright infringement or illegal files? Bittorrent survives (currently) on a CENTRAL located server to act as a tracker. These people are just adding a central located seed to the mix to guarantee file availability (most tracker sites only keep a tracker and no seed).
What are they going to do with someone uploads illegal files? By golly, they will do the same thing as if someone uploaded an illegal file to their web host of FTP server for download. Ignore it until someone complains and then remove it in the event of notification (and possible prosecution). Just like the hosting business has ALWAYS been run.
Uploading illegal content to this service is NO DIFFERENT than uploading illegal content to your every day pay service hosting provider. Trying to make it out to be different is just plain silly. BTW: FTP as a pay service has existed for several years now.
Your ignorance is infinitely greater than you realize.
If you don't have those ports open/forwarded, you're going to see really slow downloads. As long as you have those open, it will take no time to download. I am still a silver club member at mandrake, and I consistently get 400k/s downloads on the torrent downloads. The downloads of the 4 gig PowerPack dvd takes no time at all.
I also seed as much as I download on those torrents. Many others do as well. Unfortunately, you won't be getting uploads from us if you don't have those bittorrent ports open/forwarded on your router.
Try http://www.legaltorrents.com/
There are many legal content shared with bittorrent protocol