What is a [FAKE] Utorrent client

[JimB]

Hello,

 

Recently I was looking at the peers in my DL and UL and I came a cross this. It says [FAKE] Utorrent 2.2.1.0.

 

Anybody know what that means ?

 

[DreadWingKnight]

A non-utorrent client claiming to be utorrent.

[JimB]

You mean like you can hide which internet browser you're using and let the spiders know you're using IE instead of f.e FF ?

 

But back to the utorrent: what's the point of a client claiming to be a Utorrent program when it's that easily discovered that it's not a real Utorrent client ?

[Brandy Down Under]

I've seen these Fakes as well while downloading a very large movie collection.  The Fakes indicated they had 100% but never uploaded to me - they only downloaded from me and at a high rate. They weren't sharing and were consuming bandwidth that could be used by other peers that were trying to download this torrent too.  My solution was to create an ipfilter.dat file in which I copied the IP Addresses of these Fakes.  There were three of them, all in the LA area.  Right-clicking and selecting Reload IP Filter effectively blocked these peers.

 

If you do this kind of thing, be aware that the filter affects all your active torrents.  Also be aware that the IP Address you are using is likely the address of the Fake's ISP and not of the Fake itself. That means you'll be blocking all peers at that ISP, which is perhaps the purpose of the Fake in the first place.  I don't know.  In any case, you'll need to clear out the contents of this file every couple of days and check the Peers tab to ensure you aren't blocking any seeders.

 

Brandy