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Speaking Of: Torrent Sites

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superboyac:
I've always wanted to use torrents to share personal files between family and friends.  but I never tried it because it requires a client, and some of the people I'd send it to wouldn't know where to get one or what to do with it.  ("What's a torrent file??")  We're talking really computer illiterate: people who browse the web and check email and that's it.

One of the best file-sharing solutions I came across (thanks Zaine) was HFS.  It was like ftp, but easier for the end user.  I like the file-sharing uploading services like megaupload, rapidshare, because all people have to do is click on the link.  But one of the problems with that is that they make you click on a couple of things and of course they have to stick as much ads and stuff around it.  I wish it was a direct link that when clicked on, would just start downloading the file.  The other thing I've noticed recently is that with Megaupload, my files would always get corrupted after uploading.  Either due to Kaspersky or whatever.  I had a real problem with it.  And Kasperksky doesn't play nice with Megaupload, you have to disable it while uploading.

So my preferred method right now is to use HFS.  I just have to remember to keep it running on my side.  The other thing I like to do is put the file on my dcmembers website and have people get it from there.  but I only do that if it's related to my website content.

So, in summary, yes, torrents are a great idea.  But even today, it's still only used by the computer savvy.  The majority of regular people still don't use torrent.  I know people will disagree with me, but it's true.

f0dder:
FTP doesn't have any sliding-windows stuff built in, that's part of TCP
-f0dder (March 10, 2010, 12:01 PM)
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You're right of course. I think I was assuming that on a single monolithic FTP transfer, the window size will grow to a large value and stay there for the rest of the transfer. But BT transfers are typically lots of short-lived connections that open and close.-CWuestefeld (March 10, 2010, 12:13 PM)
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Hm, that would depend on your swarm. I haven't checked with wireshark/whatever, but I've watched connection stats of �torrent and rtorrent - and I generally stay connected to (and grab numerous chunks from) a handful of high-speed peers... which also means no TCP new-connection 3-way handshake and window size negotiation.

With FTP, you get a new connection for every file transferred, making it absolutely suck if you're dealing with multiple smaller files. Torrents are bundled up into chunks, and don't suffer from this problem.

In any case, the point that BT simply externalizes the bandwidth costs so that it's borne by other parties (consumers or ISPs) is true regardless.-CWuestefeld (March 10, 2010, 12:13 PM)
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True, at least that's how it's being (ab)used right now.

It's a shame people don't put torrent technology to better use... the times I've tried grabbing a linux distro via torrents, I've had abysmally low speeds, since the university/whatever servers hosting ISOs via http/ftp don't participate. So instead of doing a little load-balancing, I always end up hitting a single http server for 20mbit/s instead.

OTOH, torrents aren't really suitable for "cherry-picking" files from a FTP server, it only really works when you'll be grabbing rather large packs of data. Sure, most torrent clients will let you only download partical contents of a torrent, but there's some waste involved in doing this, and the "workflow" for doing this isn't as easy as queueing files in a ftp client.

So, in summary, yes, torrents are a great idea.  But even today, it's still only used by the computer savvy.  The majority of regular people still don't use torrent.  I know people will disagree with me, but it's true.-superboyac (March 10, 2010, 12:40 PM)
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Not everybody playing World Of Warcraft are computer-savvy ;)

RedPillow:
So basically, if a group is lack of bandwidth and one of them needs a certain file - the group could share the 20gig file to you together (as we think that the downloader has very fast connection and the 20 others in the groups has medium-speed connection) then the torrents could be answer?

Tuxman:
Given that we only speak about legal contents, I'd still prefer eMule. BitTorrent is made for fast distribution, not for wide spreading, so a file usually dies within a few days; not a good thing if I as, let's say, a singer want to become more popular or something.
(It is also easier to handle; you don't have to create a new "seed file" or something first.)

RedPillow:
Given that we only speak about legal contents, I'd still prefer eMule. BitTorrent is made for fast distribution, not for wide spreading, so a file usually dies within a few days; not a good thing if I as, let's say, a singer want to become more popular or something.
(It is also easier to handle; you don't have to create a new "seed file" or something first.)
-Tuxman (March 10, 2010, 10:21 PM)
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I know Emule, as well as limewire - but what are they based on and how do they technically work?

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