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remove leecher features


michkol

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uTorrent has leecher features which should be removed:

1. ability to set 0 upload slots (in options > preferences) - most clients don't allow to set values lower than 2 here

2. standby/hibernate/shutdown when download completes

3. stop seeding after reaching specified ratio (you can even set it to 0%) - G3 was banned from many public trackers for this feature, it allows to automatically stop seeding after completing the download - this should be limited so that you can't set values lower than 80-90%.

4. ability to set very low upload limits per torrent without download limit

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You can cheat with a firewall to. But ok, you shouldn't make it easy for the leechers, and other ppl that doesn't have learned the concepts of seeding. I Agree with 1 and 3. The problem with #2,3 isn't always easy to seed 1:1. In some cases there are simply no leechers. I don't think your 4th statement is true, there is a resctictment if you cap your upload very much. I was more aggreissive in the first versions, but then there was heavy complaints from users with 512/64 or even 256/32 kbit connections.

My purposes of changing:

1. Restrict lowest value to 2.

2,3. Restrict dowload complete ratio to 0.7, only allow lower values if there is no leecher traffic in a certain time. For example: If you seed a torrent in more 6h without no upload traffic the torrent should be counted as complete.

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1.Setting upload slots to 0 should either be disallowed or treat upload slots as automatically limited at whatever high limit µTorrent determines based on upload speed. With very low upload speeds (which can also mean too many torrents at once) and/or very slow torrents (where almost everyone's stuck at the same %, and new arrivals get TONS of download speed till they reach the same %), upload slots set to 1 makes GOOD sense. Setting upload slots to just 1 would mean all your upload bandwidth would go to just 1 peer at a time, not a bad idea if seeding were it not for the fact that numerous peers are overloaded to the point where they cannot download faster than 10 KB/sec from you. If you're trying to download a single torrent with lots of peers and few seeds, you would only be hurting yourself to set upload slots to 1.

2.The simple choice here would be to remove that feature. Allowing the auto-launching of other apps when a torrent finishes downloading is good enough and can be used as a shutdown 'workaround' if someone is so inclined.

3.Once again, 0% could be treated as 'unlimited'... I'd find it acceptable for the minimum value to be as low as 50%, assuming the torrents were well-seeded.

4.A definite workaround, but one obscure enough to require manual changes to do. µTorrent won't automatically set individual torrents upload speeds very low, nor can you blanket-set a bunch of torrents upload speeds to 1 KB/sec each.

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Again, I write from the POV of the "not-too-ethical" group of BitTorrent users. We might not be saints, but I'd bet there are a lot of us in the "casual user" segment, so we effectively make up the "Main Body" of any client's userbase.

uTorrent has leecher features which should be removed:

1. ability to set 0 upload slots (in options > preferences) - most clients don't allow to set values lower than 2 here

I would have thought the natural penalty imposed by the BitTorrent system to be hard enough to discourage anyone from seriously setting 0.

2. standby/hibernate/shutdown when download completes

I don't use this feature myself. Anyway, that wasn't in for a long time, but was eventually added. Some people are charged by the hour for their Internet connection and thus simply cannot afford to have it running during their sleep without downloading a thing. In a sense, they paid good money for their download, which is more than most of us did.

3. stop seeding after reaching specified ratio (you can even set it to 0%) - G3 was banned from many public trackers for this feature, it allows to automatically stop seeding after completing the download - this should be limited so that you can't set values lower than 80-90%.

Well, there are those with UL limits to consider. Yes, sure you can tell them to find their stuff somewhere else but BitTorrent seems to be the current standard for stuff.

As for me, I set mine very low as well. I don't mind seeding in b/w the time my computer finishes downloading and when I have to clear it off my HDD to make room for the next download. I do, however mind if it is going to crimp my DL torrent's UL rate (which will reduce the DL rate, and thus imposing delays I can start using my download).

In my ideal world, this is what would happen. I will queue up everything. Downloads get absolute priority for my UL pipe (or at least absolute priority for 2/3rds of it). If all the DLs are complete, then the seeding goes unrestricted.

Of course, that's not possible with uTorrent (and AFAIK with BitComet and Azureus as well). uTorrent won't even put the seeding torrents Bandwidth Allocation to "Low". So I'm forced to compromise - generally I set the rate to 2K, and I grant extra dispensations depending on the situation. The rule is that all seeders combined cannot take up more than 18KB/s (1/3rd) of my bandwidth if I'm downloading anything. For example, if there are only three torrents in the Downloading, I can set the rate to 9K - the first two torrents to complete, whoever they are, will take the 18K. When I wake up in the morning and see that there are no more torrents Downloading, I'd then manually allow them to seed unrestricted.

4. ability to set very low upload limits per torrent without download limit

As far as I can see, the individual torrent upload speed is linked to the "stop/limit seeding" stuff.

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Unfortunately, setting upload slots to 0 is very much exploitable. What happens is seeders will still upload to you as they don't have any way of confirming whether you're uploading or not...they just assume you are. All the peers will upload to you from time to time (optimistic unchoke FTW!) until they snub you, which can take a VERY long time if you're on a torrent with 100's of others. Even when snubbed, peers with optimistic unchoke may still upload to you occassionally. Barring that, you could disconnect and reconnect (a.la BitComet download exploit) and get unsnubbed from a great many peers...though the ones that remember ips now may still "catch" you.

The way I manage my upload bandwidth is a bit different. If I have 2 torrents going: 1 seeding I don't really care about (but want to keep running indefinitely) and 1 downloading that I want done yesterday...I put bandwidth priority to low for the seeder and high for the downloader, then set upload slots to 1 and upload speed to 1-3 KB/sec on the seeding one...and let the default settings apply to the downloader. After the downloading one is finished, I generally put the seeding one back up to normal, default upload slots, and remove the manual upload speed for it. However if I feel the just-finished downloaded torrent is very low on seeds/availability, I'll leave the other one restricted for much longer.

Better I seed to 1 person at a time and slowly than not at all...or I may just stop the seeding one altogether till the downloading one finishes and seeds (at max speed) for a few hours/days. This saves the bandwidth overheads on me for maintaining a torrent while uploading at very low speeds...so I can upload faster on other torrent/s.

I do however restart many of my larger multi-file torrents and get their share ratios well over 2:1. This is hard for the 4+ GB ones, but I've gotten one that had major seeding problems shared 30+ times (totaling about 185 GB) till it was taken off the tracker.

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