BitTorrent
From KickAssAnime Wiki
BitTorrent is a peer to peer file sharing technology. It works on the concept of a swarm: many users connect to a centralized tracker and share the same set of files with each other. The more you send to others, the more likely others are to send some back to you.
BitTorrent is KickAssAnime's primary form of anime distribution, though you may also download some via eDonkey or IRC.
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Tracker
The tracker is a server program that BitTorrent clients can connect to. It keeps track of all users in the swarm, and knows how much each is sharing or downloading. This makes it very fast for one client to reach every other, and it allows leechers (clients who only download without uploading) to be banned.
The KickAssAnime tracker is hosted by AnimeConnection.
Clients
In order to join a torrent swarm, you need a client to parse the .torrent file that you download from an HTTP server. Normally, just clicking on the link will do that for you, transparently. The client will then connect to tracker, join the swarm, and start downloading.
Windows
There is a large number of BitTorrent clients available for Windows:
- Azureus: A very powerful multi-torrent Java-based client. Requires large amounts of RAM to function properly. Recommended.
- BitTornado: A relatively simple single-torrent Python-based client. Recommended.
- ABC: (yet Another Bittorrent Client) A multi-torrent wrapper over BitTornado. Recommended.
- µTorrent: A very lightweight, multi-torrent client. Interface is similar to Azureus, but uses less than 6 MB RAM. Highly Recommended.
- Mainline: The official client. Few features, not recommended.
- BitSpirit: A new lightweight multi-torrent client. Banned.
- BitComet: A cheating client. Banned.
- BitLord: A variation of BitComet. Is banned as well.
- Shareaza: Multi-network client. Not recommended by Torrent purists.
Linux
The list of Linux clients needs to be expanded. Please help if you can.
- Azureus: A very powerful multi-torrent Java-based client. Requires large amounts of RAM to function properly.
- BitTornado: A relatively simple single-torrent and multi-torrent Python-based client. Recommended. You must use the btlaunchmany or btlaunchmanycurses console tools for multi-torrent. You can use btdownloadcurses to run on a console.
- CTorrent: A simple, fast single-torrent client written in C. It can be run on the console and can make torrents. Little CPU and system resources.
- rtorrent: A high peformance, C++ client. Console. This is the one you want if you want to max out your connection.
- Mainline: The official client. Great with usage in screen.
- MLdonkey: Multi-platform multi-networks peer-to-peer client. Runs as daemon and comes with its own GTK GUI, an HTTP interface and a telnet interface. Perfect for running on remote host.
- Transmission: Minimal, high-performance C client. Has both a graphical (Gtk) and command-line interface.
Macintosh
The list of Macintosh clients needs to be expanded. Please help if you can.
- Azureus: A very powerful multi-torrent Java-based client. Requires large amounts of RAM to function properly.
- Tomato Torrent: A very simple client, doesn't require much RAM or CPU time, but works well.
- Transmission: Minimal, high-performance client which integrates into OS X nicely. Recommended.
BeOS
The list of BeOS clients needs to be expanded. Please help if you can.
- Transmission: Minimal, high-performance client which integrates into OS X nicely. Recommended.
Nomenclature
BitTorrent comes with many names attached to it, and it might confused someone who is new to it.
Torrent
Can refer to a .torrent file, which is only a file that tells your bittorrent client what to download, or to the torrent itself, which is the group of all users downloading those specific files.
All users trade the data betweem themselves, ie, the server (called tracker) only keeps tracking of what's going on, it doesn't actually send files to anyone.
Peer
Someone who is downloading the same torrent as you. (Sadly, often mistakenly refered to as 'leech')
Seed
Someone who has finished downloading this torrent, but is still uploading it. Seeds have the complete batch and don't hurt the download speed (instead, they only contribute to it), so usually, the more seeds the better. A torrent with zero seeds MAY be incomplete.
Distributed copies
The copies of the full torrent available. If this is less than 1, it will be impossible to complete this torrent, unless the remaining pieces are re-added (usually when a seed connects back to it, but not necessarily that. That's called "seeding" a torrent). Anything over 1 is fine.
Note that your client may only tell you how many seeds/peers it SEES. So just because the distributed copies is below 1 when you imediately connect, don't give up. Leave it on for a few minutes and more seeds/peers should appear. MAKE SURE the number of distributed copies is below 1 (usually noticeable when everyone is stuck at some percentage of complete) before asking for a re-seed.
Super Seeding
Super Seeding disguises you as a normal peer, forcing other peers to grab specific pieces of the torrent from you. This usually makes seeding slower.
The advantage is that it ensures that pieces are distributed in a faster and smoother fashion, so it helps with torrents that have less than 1 distributed copy (excluding your own, of course). So, DO NOT enable this, unless you know what you're doing.
Health lights
Some clients use health lights to tell you the current status of your connections. Note that some clients may not implement them in the same way.
Gray
Means that your torrent is not running. It may be stopped or hasn't had enough time to start yet.
Green
Means everything is OK. Just sit back and relax.
Yellow
Means that you are only connected to other clients via a local connection. In a large torrent, this probably means that it's impossible for you to establish a remote connection, though it might just be a coincidence in small torrents.
This is significant, because to connect to another person, one must do so remotely, and the other locally. If neither can do it remotely, then the connection won't be estabilished, which affects your overall download speed. This is usually caused if you are behind a router or firewall. See port forwarding for troubleshooting.
Blue
This means that either the tracker is down or everyone in the swarm together does not have one complete set of the torrent. This means that you might not be able to finish the torrent until the situation is reversed.
Azureus does not set a blue light if it can't see a complete copy distributed.
Red
Means you are not connected to any peers.
