µtorrent damages its own torrent files?

[Switeck]

In the BitTorrent Protocol spec, it is stated to keep upload slots low:

"It should cap the number of simultaneous uploads for good TCP performance."

And also to make a decent effort to return the favor to peers who upload back to it:

"It should reciprocate to peers who let it download."

Older versions of BitComet did not do that worth anything.

They also exploited optimistic unchoke, a pretty dirty cheat.

Newer versions (0.67 and later) seem much better.

They still disconnect a bit, but I can't tell if they typically disconnect any more or less than "baseline" for any given ISP's ip range. (Some ISPs are notoriously bad for only allowing short-lived connections. Others can maintain a connection for 1/2 day or more.)

[Ultima]

@Kluelos: Are you testing us at troubleshooting or something? If you think posting the damaged files would help, then why don't you try sending it to someone (ludde or Firon or whoever) to analyze? Waiting for us to mention some idea you've been harboring only makes it seem as if you aren't looking for help at all. It really puzzles me as to how you're asking for help. Honestly, you're obviously intelligent (based on how you've handled yourself here), so you should know that help is not a one-way thing, that you don't just wait to be given advice if you have ideas of your own. The person looking for help should be the one taking the initiative.

[toddintr]

@Switeck: Hi, do you have any links you may know about the technology behind the BitTorrent clients? I am interested in both the clients and the protocol, actually. Are there any open source clients?

Thanks -

Todd

[Ultima]

There are plenty of clients, many of which are open source (though some listed aren't, like µTorrent). Check this for information about the protocol...

But this is going far off-topic, so it should be left at that, or you should start a new thread if you need to know more.

[toddintr]

OK, many thanks -

Todd

[Kluelos]

Ultima, I'd be delighted to send the files somewhere, if only I knew where. While I could possibly post them inline in the forum, I doubt they'd survive intact. Don't KNOW that, just suspect they would be corrupted as text. (And I really dislike that in a forum anyway.) There's no way to attach a binary file to a post. Just dropping it on somebody who hasn't offered to help seems presumptuous and really rude. (If someone did that to me I'd quite likely just delete it.) I'd send them to you, but your email address is unavailable. I'd upload them somewhere if there were some provision for that, but there isn't.

Since I know that a support forum gets brazillions of questions whose answer is "read the farking faq", I did think there'd be more curiousity about a problem that falls outside them, a little bit of "wow, if the software's doing that, we need to know more!". Even from you as unpaid support, perhaps "I want to find out what useful advice I can give anyone else with this problem." Understand, I accept and agree that it's my problem, something about my system/software, no question of that. But µtorrent doesn't need any of the finger-pointing and blame-shifting that mostly passes for support in this industry. (NVidia is still my reigning champ, having actually bought out 3DFX, dropped all support for their products, then said "we think the problem is old Voodoo drivers, but we don't know how to completely remove 3DFX's stuff, so you'll have to reformat your drive.")

What can I usefully do to move this issue forward?

[Ultima]

I know you don't know for sure, but if you ever have an idea, you should propose it. If you want to send the torrent files, you can probably send it to either ludde or Firon (naturally, with a description of your problem, just to provide context). I'd say you should probaby send it to Firon, though, since he's probably more likely to read the mail and notify ludde of the problem.

firon AT utorrent DOT com

ludde AT utorrent DOT com

I doubt they'd mind since it's what the email addresses are for. I'll double-check with them, though.

Edit: Green light, send it to Firon. Do send the undamaged copies as well, though.