BitComet Banned From Private Trackers

An anonymous reader writes "Slyck news is reporting that because BitComet does not recognize the 'private flag' on torrents originating from pirate BitTorrent trackers, this client is being banned from these communities. Private trackers are finding their torrents spread via the private DHT layer, allowing leechers to bypass ratios and download content freely."

Comments

OK pretty much it's this

[bobertfishbone]

Bittorrent private trackers are sites that depend on a healthy share ratio for success. If you download something, it's tracked, and you must then upload a comparable number in order to stay a member of that site or receive certain benefits of membership. This creates a healthy environment of seeders--not like many public trackers, which have an inordinate amount of leechers. Bitcomet doesn't recognize or follow the conventions that enable such private trackers to exist. It can bypass that, and enable anyone to download from a private tracker site without worrying about a ratio. This is extremely detrimental to the private tracker. I'm in favor of this move by the private trackers; Bitcomet is misrepresenting itself as a fully-functional BT client.

Re:So?

[paulius_g]

Azureus is the best for multi-platform.

But for Windows, uTorrent is the best. It's small (115KB), uses not alot of RAM (~5mb) and has most of the features that Azureus has! It even has a bandwidth scheduling function.

Is this article just FUD?

[mr_stinky_britches]

What is the DHT Layer? I would consider myself as being torrent savvy, but I have no clue what this means.

A little bit of research later...

DHT stands for Distributed Hash Table ... DHT is a networking protocol that enhances the scalability and efficiency of decentralized networks by creating a virtual index rather than broadcasting search queries. Decentralized networks that utilized DHT technology are able to search and locate files significantly faster than networks that do not use it.
source (non-authoritative): http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=772

DHT is a layer added on top of the BitTorrent network to assist in Azureus' performance. BitTorrent is a distinct networking protocol, of which is specified by creator Bram Cohen. Anything existing outside of those specifications is not BitTorrent.
source (non-authoritative): http://www.unitethecows.com/forums/showthread.php? t=10991
(So DHT is not part of the bittorrent specification; At least, it wasn't in May 2005, but who knows now...)

So basically, my understanding now is that the DHT Layer is what allows for the decentralization of torrents. Thus, by not respecting the "private" flag, the clients can leech all day without it affecting their ratio. Slap me if I am wrong or missing something, but aren't most (re:99.999%) of these "communities" that care about leechers, ratios, and keeping their torrents to themselves going to be trading/torrenting copyrighted content/material? Call me crazy, but I just have this hunch that this isn't exactly the latest Knoppix torrent. And then you can call me crazy again, but I must ask why we care what these "communities" ban or don't ban?

But then again, this is slashdot where anything that approaches conservative or rational gets modded down by the mob.

Re:In English?

[Bacon Bits]

DHT = "Trackerless". The P2P traffic is not managed by the tracker, like it normally is, but by the clients. This enables faster transfer, but interferes with the tracker's ability to manage piece distribution.

Private = "Tracker only". Well-behaved clients see the private tag and ignore trackerless requests. Usually for sites that have download ratios or other mthods that force users to upload a certain amount of content in order to continue to download.

The problem with using DHT on a private torrent is that the data in the torrent file you download that identifies who you are (for your account ratio) gets passed to other users. That screws up your ratio because others are downloading with your account info. You can very quickly find yourself below the enforced limit if you don't disable DHT.

In other words: Private Trackers ban themselves

[Anonymous Coward]

Here are the bittorrent stats seem by my mldonkey bittorrent client for the last month(non-stop)

According to this they are banning 60% of bittorrent traffic... not a intelligent move IMHO.

BitTorrent Total Uptime: 29 days, 20h:10m 2578216 seconds
Brand Seen
Total 88212 (100%)
BitComet 52601 (60%)
BitLord 30318 (34%)
Azureus 2392 (3%)
Mainline 839 (1%)
BitTornado 466 (1%)
MLdonkey 433 (0%)
ABC 345 (0%)
uTorrent 334 (0%)
Shareaza 206 (0%)

Re:with the what and the who and the what?

[Otter]

Now that you've been chastised by the youngster, I'd like to step in with the old-school analogy you're looking for:

Remember how back in the olden days FTP servers allowed w4r3z site admins to set minimum upload:download ratios for users? Imagine if someone created a client that evaded those limits and the ftpd maintainers, who were shocked -- shocked! -- to find that w4r3z kiddies lack integrity and respect for the rights of others, locked it out.

That seems to be what happened here, except with some newfangled file transfer protocol that these lousy kids today use.