Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with torrents

What is the carbon footprint of a torrent?

oonh — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:36:33 -0800

What is the carbon footprint of a torrent? (or range thereof, depending on torrent size)

Am I being throttled (by Grande in Texas?)

buzzbash — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:21:55 -0800

I'm in Texas and just started using Grande Communications as my internet service provider. The cable internet connection is fast (averaging 10 Mbps) but my torrent downloads are slow. Does Grande throttle? If they do throttle, is there any way to bypass the throttling?

How can torrenting and browsing co-exist on my Mac?

AmbroseChapel — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:48:20 -0800

How can torrenting and browsing co-exist on my Mac? I'm currently using Azureus/Vuze 4.0.0.4, Firefox 3.04 and the Mac is Tiger, 10.4.11.

No matter what settings I tweak, web browsing is slow and unreliable while I'm downloading in Azureus.

Most infuriatingly, I get this effect where a page starts to load, but stalls, for instance I can see the title in the title bar, the correct background will load for the page, and even some of the content, but then it stalls, seemingly on anything which involves another server. For instance a page might load partially, then I'll see the status bar say it's hitting Google Analytics, and the page load stalls there. Ping times are very slow and there's an appreciable lag between Firefox saying "looking up [domain]" and "waiting for [domain]". I believe the more seeds the file has the worse it gets.

In the past I've adjusted the Azureus maximum download speed, number of simultaneous connections, and I have a memory that with a previous OS I reduced the MTU size, but none of that seems to help.

I don't mind the torrents being slower if it means I can browse quickly.

Giving back to directors who need it?

aschwa5 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:50:10 -0800

I often download documentaries, and generally love them, and frequently feel like I want to give back to the director. Monetarily-wise, that is, as perhaps I didn't pay for them. What do you think of a service that allowed for paypal or such donation to individual directors? Could it work? Alternately, directors of small films could set up a link on their websites, and one could spread the idea memetically. I'm not looking to cash in on this, just to get feedback on an idea of how to assuage my guilt and help support those who make films worthy of support.

Is there any pointing backing up DVDs if you can download them?

snarfois — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:36:54 -0800

Is there any point backing up my DVD collection if I could just download replacements? This is partially practical and partially ethical. Now that I have a toddler about the place (and an unpredictable computer), I've started backing up my DVDs, using Mark Pilgrim's method. At the rate I'm going, it'll take me months, it's tedious, and I'm filling up my hard disk with .img files which I'm too anal to delete.

Part of me is wondering, what's the point? BecauseI reckon I'd be able to find torrents of pretty near everything I own on DVD. Since I've already bought the DVDs in question, I wouldn't feel like I'm doing anything wrong.

What's the balance of opinion around here? Is it more wrong than I suppose? Am I over-optimistic about being able to find most things for download? (Now and in the future?) Am I even running a legal risk?

Help me design my torrent management system.

christonabike — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:04:28 -0800

I'm looking for tips, tricks, hacks, scripts, and ideas for managing torrents using Linux. Here's what I would like to be able to do:

Automated unpacking. If a torrent contained a zip, rar, etc it should be unpacked automatically.

Automated move on completion. Move music, television, and movies to their appropriate folders. This can probably be done by looking at file type and size.

Continued sharing after a file is moved. Is this even possible? I use some torrent sites that require share ratios, plus I want to be a good file sharer and give back. What if the files are further organized by Amarok?

Remote downloading. I want to be able to go to download a torrent from anywhere. I've already got Apache and PHP setup.

Other cool things. I want to do as little hands on torrent management as possible. Are there scripts that automatically download things with high scores on MetaCritic, Pitchfork, etc? Can I setup a script to automatically download new episodes of a show when they get hosted? I want to know about them!

I think most of this can be done using shell scripts and CRON jobs, but I figured there may already be existing tools.

Alternatives to Hotspot Shield

lemonfridge — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:26:48 -0800

My ISP (Pipex) seems to cripple torrents. When I use Hotspot Shield it seems to get around whatever they are doing and gives me reasonably consistently speedier downloads. But Hotspot Shield has a monthly usage allowance. Are there any alternatives?

Feeding the ipod - name your favorite restaurants

rileyray3000 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:30:57 -0800

So I used to use ipodnova.tv to get my fix of overseas tv shows configured for the ipod. But it's been down more than it's been up lately. Some simple googling has seemed to reveal a bunch of sites, mainly pay, for this purpose. But before I paypal someone in Nigeria, can you tell me what sites you like to use for this purpose?

Tenants getting DMCA notices under my (landlord's) name.

razorfrog — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:50:22 -0800

What are my options as a landlord for a tenant who got a DMCA notice for illegal downloading under my internet connection and my name in CA? A bit of background first - I own and live in a house in California and rent rooms out to a few other college students. Everything is in my name, including all the utilities and the internet through Comcast. There's a protected Wi-Fi network set up, and most of the occupants of the house are pretty tech-savvy.

So today I received an email from Comcast talking about the illegal download of a film that I most definitely did not download. After some talking, I figured out who in my house was seen watching that movie on a computer last week, and therefore who most likely downloaded it. So what do I do? As the internet and notice is in my name, and not the name of the person who it should be, this all seems a little wrong. I guess my actual question is twofold:

1) In any situation where a DMCA notice is received by person A, but the activity was actually the doing of person B, what can person A do?

2) When person A is a homeowner, what rights does person A have to take action against person B, who seemingly broke the law?

Thanks for the help all.

parentheses in torrents?

tristanshout — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 23:14:17 -0800

when downloading a torrent, what are the numbers in the parentheses?

Remote access to an XP box

|n$eCur3 — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:20:47 -0800

I will be leaving an XP laptop at my friend's house to seed some torrents with Azureus on a fast (10mbps up/down) connection. How do I get access to the laptop from my home computer (so that I might add/delete torrents or tweak settings)? Having remote access to his router might be nice too so that I can open ports if something comes up... He has agreed to this, on the condition that he does not ever have to touch my laptop or his router after the inital setup. He has a dynamic IP, which changes only about once per month. He has a basic old Linksys router that does some basic port forwarding, but nothing too complex.

What else do I need to know to get this working?

How do you interpret BitTorrent file names?

londonmark — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 01:58:59 -0800

BitTorrent filter: what do all the letters mean? The trackers I use often list several different versions of the same thing. I usually go for the file with the largest seed count (on the assumption that most people out there know what they're doing), but I'd like to understand the differences and make my own choices.

So there are two parts to my question:

1. When you look at a list of torrents, (for example, this one), what does it all mean? XviD, HDTV, LOL, HR, BamHD, AC3 5.1, CTU — surely it's all some elaborate practical joke on the uninitiated?

2. The files often vary wildly in size too. Are smaller files always of poorer quality, or do they use better compression? And if, as I suspect, it varies, how do you tell the difference?

Thanks everyone!

How to keep Torrent files open?

DickStock — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 17:51:38 -0800

When I download files with "Bits On Wheels" the torrents remain in a folder on my drive, but they are inactive. How does one keep them 'seeding' and searchable by other P2P people? When I search for programs, it appears only recent episodes are available. I'd like to make all my older torrents available too.

LokiTorrent panic filter

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:52:22 -0800

Let's assume, for a second, that I've maybe used LokiTorrent a few times to download a few things. Now, assume I've done this through a router and cable modem. How traceable am I? Is there any chance I could get sued? (i.e. should I take my computer and any CDs I have and make a big bonfire?)

Are there any internet-based on-demand TV services?

bikergirl — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 13:53:59 -0800

I want to watch a few tv shows - I have been downloading torrents up to now - but I don't own a tv and don't want to get cable. Is there a pay service to be able to watch select shows (E.R., maybe some HBO) over the internet legally?

Suprnova replacement?

Slimemonster — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 16:49:43 -0800

I know Suprnova was the absolute best in bit torrent-ing, but now that it's gone, does anyone know of any other sites that are a) anywhere near as extensive and b) not down all the time? ahem...not that i'd ever...use...something like that...ahem...

Is my torrent seeding?

tenseone — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 07:48:19 -0800

We have had a torrent open for a few days now, Good for that! We are forlorn for it quite obviously has been abandoned: all Seeders have flown away before their Seedlings had been Sown. We are saddened by the fact that there is Not a chance of any One of these Miscreants returning. Please Miss, does there exist a hope for Salvage betwixt our missing Limbs? The acquisition had Good Intentions of becoming 792Mb of mp3s ( fear Not: it is/was a collection of Cylinder recordings from the Oughts, i.e. publick domain, i.e. Hello, Edison! ), and we have been left with 602Mb of that Figure completed. We are familiar with the nature of BitTorrent downloads, though we are curious if it is possible to ascertain whether or Not any of the mp3s have been completed successfully. Or would it be safe to assume that bits are missing from each and every One?

-- The mp3s are of low quality ( who needs 192Kbps of Crackle and Hiss? ) and therefore 792Mb constitutes ~~hundreds of~~ Five Hundred Seventeen files, Not an amount One wishes to sift through One-by-One! Indeed, Not! --

(Google wants us to learn and become acquainted with the art and nuances of gluing together pieces of .avi pornography. Silly search friend!)

Problems throttling torrent uploads

scarabic — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 12:17:41 -0800

Tomato Torrent 1.0(v11) on OSX 10.3 - Why does torrent upload bandwidth go to zero anytime I enter any maximum upload limit? I've tried 8K/sec and 80K/sec and the upload just dies, goes to 0.0K/sec. As soon as I re-enter "0" or "no limit," upload resumes. I'd like to be able to throttle my uploads without killing them.

Best place to find Daily Show Torrents?

Stynxno — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 20:27:53 -0800

Where is a good place to find current Daily Show Torrents? I don't have a TV and would like to be able to see the Daily show's coverage of the RNC, etc etc.

Does anyone know of good public torrent trackers that don't require end-user logins?

crunchland — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 12:35:36 -0800

I'm convinced that until they figure out a way to make publishing a torrent file easier, bittorrent will never become completely popular. So I have torrentmaker. I have a valid announcement url. I can create the torrent file easily enough but I can't seem to find a reliable tracker to upload the file to to make it publically available. It seems like most tracker sites require people to log in in order to download the file, and that's just a pain in the ass. Short of setting up my own tracker, anyone know of good public trackers that don't require end-user logins? (And that don't have obnoxious popunders, like &$%#*&@ing Suprnova)?

Do you wish you had a fatter upstream pipe for Bit Torrent?

scarabic — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 20:42:52 -0800

Those of you who have gotten way into Bit Torrent: have you found yourself wishing your internet connection had a fatter upstream pipe? According to this FAQ: "Sometimes, limiting your upload rate will increase your download rate ... If you are seeing very high upload rates and low download rates, this is probably the case. The reason this happens is due to the nature of TCP/IP -- every packet received must be acknowledged with a small outbound packet. If the outbound link is saturated with BitTorrent data, the latency of these TCP/IP ACKs will rise, causing poor efficiency." [MI] I use burst! as my GUI app. It allows me to set my outbound bandwidth at a maximum of 10Kb/sec for any single download, but I can't set it any lower. Unfortunately, with 5 torrents leeching at once, this leaves my outbound pipe pretty saturated, around 50Kb/sec outbound, and my download pipe suffers horrendously.

It would be nice to be able to view web pages, for example, while BitTorrent runs in the background. It seems retarded: I may only be downloading a total of 15-20Kb/sec on Bit Torrent, but it chokes me completely, even though normally I can get up to 400Kb/sec download on my cable connection!

I'm trying to be good and seed files after they finish, too, but this is getting ridiculous. Suggestions? I'd rather not pay money to choke my uploads with Net Limiter unless there's no other choice. It just seems like I'd be cheating the network.

Finally, the question(s):

Is 10Kb/sec really as low as I can set it? Or is that just my GUI app's problem? Should I try the command-line argument instead?

Has anyone found good deals on home net access with a good upstream pipe? Where should I be looking? And will that even help me?

Am I missing something?