The search bypass nanotorrent.com

[sliding_billy]

It doesn't sound like it was known (i.e. the how and why), so the negative response was only "if it was discovered?" Seriously, I think most folks already assumed that the search forwarding was for something like this. It would have been cool to have seen a notification upon use (or at least in the notes or on the forum) though. As far as privacy goes, why would someone be on P2P (forget the internet) if they are that paranoid? Other than that, thanks all for a wonderful client and group to go with it.

It was used as a domain instead of being integrated into the client so the ad thing could be turned off later easily if the response to it was negative.

[bleh]

I naturally assumed that query would be thrown around a bit, after all, did you all expect µTorrent to have an integrated search engine aswell?!

So, naturally I assumed that all my searches would be bounced to a couple of places, thus making

it widely available.

I just don't see what the problem is here, is everybody wearing their tinfoil hat today?

[robtherr]

Well, i posted a question about this today, and i have not gotten a satisfactory reply... HOW CAN I STOP UTORRENT FROM REDIRECTING ME TO NANOTORRENT. Programs that do this really gall me. The search box says Mininova, by God that is what it should search, not nanotorrent or Billybobs search engine...

So now, i just dont use the search box at all, pity, was handy.

[Firon]

it does search mininova, check the HTTP headers, you can see it just redirects to whatever site you chose

[bleh]

rbtherr, download ethereal, check what it does, learn.. grow as a human.

[Firon]

http://nanotorrent.com/search.php?q=asdf&e=http%3a%2f%2fsearch%2ebittorrent%2ecom%2fsearch%2ejsp%3fSubmit2%3dSearch%26query%3d

GET /search.php?q=asdf&e=http%3a%2f%2fsearch%2ebittorrent%2ecom%2fsearch%2ejsp%3fSubmit2%3dSearch%26query%3d HTTP/1.1
Host: nanotorrent.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060308 Firefox/1.5.0.2
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 300
Connection: keep-alive

HTTP/1.x 302 OK
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 01:03:06 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) mod_throttle/3.1.2 DAV/1.0.3 mod_fastcgi/2.4.2 mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a PHP/4.4.2 mod_ssl/2.8.22 OpenSSL/0.9.7e
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.4.2
Location: http://search.bittorrent.com/search.jsp?Submit2=Search&client=utorrent&query=asdf
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html

that's all that happens, an HTTP 302 redirect to the site you wanted.

[robtherr]

Firon,

Thanks for the reply, but from reading that code , which btw, i have no clue where it resides, it has "nanotorrent" in it but not "mininova". Forgive my ignorance, but I am still lost.

If i look in the "Appearance" tab on utorrent, i have coding for Mininova, but somewhere after using the mininova search box, utorrent redirects, i am assuming this code is used... somewhere.

bleh: ethereal? I will look into it, whatever it may be, hopefully has some bearing on the redirection issue. Thanks.

[Firon]

http://nanotorrent.com/search.php?q=asdf&e=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2emininova%2eorg%2fsearch%2f%3futorrent%26search%3d

GET /search.php?q=asdf&e=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2emininova%2eorg%2fsearch%2f%3futorrent%26search%3d HTTP/1.1
Host: nanotorrent.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060308 Firefox/1.5.0.2
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 300
Connection: keep-alive

HTTP/1.x 302 OK
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:08:50 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) mod_throttle/3.1.2 DAV/1.0.3 mod_fastcgi/2.4.2 mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a PHP/4.4.2 mod_ssl/2.8.22 OpenSSL/0.9.7e
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.4.2
Location: http://www.mininova.org/search/?utorrent&search=asdf
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html

And here's one for Mininova. These are just the HTTP headers. The request goes to nanotorrent, then nanotorrent just sends you to mininova (you don't even load a page from nanotorrent, you just get a 302 redirect)

Ethereal can be used to capture packets, so you can know exactly what it's sending and receiving.

Also, don't double post, please.

[jsmith1]

what if nanotorrent goes down. does the search feature?

[µtorrent-Guest]

jsmith1

that is logical, isn't it?

(You can try it yourself by forbitting a conection to nanotorrent in your global IP banner)

[winMX_67]

nanotorrent.com is already blocked in PG2 lev 1 when I tired to ping it.

[Firon]

jsmith1: yes.

[WebReaper]

There AREN'T any logs.

Interesting. So Ludde has IIS/Apache logging totally disabled on that site? How does he measure whether it's getting any hits then? And, of course, there is no way to prove that, we only have your word for it.

And there was never any data being passed along or collected to anyone

Erm, except the advertisers, and I don't trust p*rn advertisers as far as I can throw 'em. :/

Firon, whilst I understand you're a mod and have to bring some order to this forum, some of your posts in this thread are a little on the "What I say goes" lines.

Fact is that when I put a search term into, say, Firefox's search bar, the only thing that gets called is the search engine I'm searching in. When I do the same in uTorrent, each search of mine gets passed through Ludde's personal site. Regardless of whether he does or doesn't track the search results, the fact still remains that it's not clear and obvious this is happening - but it should be.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if Firefox's search requests were passed through another site before being redirected to the actual search engine there would be a huge backlash in terms of possible privacy issues. So rather than just blindly saying "there is no privacy issue", why not accept the fact that there might be a problem, and consider what a possible solution might be - even if it's just a longer redirect so the uTorrent user is made fully aware of the redirect onto Ludde's site.

Ludde is perfectly entitled to make a bit of cash through advertising from his app - after all, he wrote the damn thing. However, you know the damage that can come from this sort of thing (see Steve Gibson's various rants...) so surely after the anti-P2P thing that blew up a while back Ludde should do everything he can to ensure he remains as 'whiter-than-white'?

[bleh]

So, the sum of all posts becomes:

* if you want to give ludde a bit more cash from his ad-sponsored search feature within utorrent, search for porn.

* if you want to make sure your searches aren't traced by anybody, lock yourself in a room, shut of your computer, and imagine yourself searching the web, because that's pretty much the only "safe" way of searching. Seriously, load up ethereal and check what real names certain sites actually have when you query them! (and how do you know that isohunt or any similar site doesn't collect your stats/keywords aswell?)

* if you want a reasonable safe search, try using an anonymous service like TOR to conduct your searches through, that way no search can be linked to your ip adress. (unless of course TOR gives it out, becuase who knows.. they might be logging you aswell.)

Now, everybody knows the drill, and I personally like this sponsored search more than an obtrusive paypal or redirect to a webpage tactic that other bittorrent clients use. (like the original one !)

[Firon]

And a future beta will have an option to disable the redirect, for the paranoid.

[coronamanum]

Firon,

Did you guys change anything recently? In the past few days, nanotorrent has stopped passing through. Now, I get an ad at the top of the page, and the address bar shows it is still at nanotorrent, even though I get the search page in the bottom frame.

[Firon]

Yeah. An ad was turned on for all requests. And Unicode is currently broken client-side with the search feature (there was a problem with nanotorrent's PHP handling, but that's been fixed), so the next beta will fix that.

Also, an option will be provided to disable the redirect altogether.

[BritBrat]

Just put nanotorrent.com into your firewall rules, problem solved.

Anyway for me it all stoped working correctly with no changes made at my end.

[Inf]

Yuck, the search results with that ad SUX. Anyway, if you use firefox, i'd suggest going to its search plugins directory, and learning what a search plugin is (take a look at the existing ones).

Just add all your search shortcuts as firefox search plugins and search from the firefox search box.

Also, if you still want to use the ut search box, feel free to add *ad.php* entry to your adblock config.

Firon: Try using that box at 1024x768. Note that about 1/5...1/4 of your screen occupied by that ad. Also, are we getting closer and closer to the idea of banners inside ut ? And after some simple banners, and html based ads with everything an ad provider want ? And after it some cydoor-ish code to provide some targeted ones ?

[WebReaper]

Hopefully doesn't need to be said, but it's probably worth giving the heads-up - if ads appear in uTorrent, I (and many others) will drop it like a hot stone.

[Dark Shroud]

Those don't appear in µTorrent. They appear in the search which opens in your browser.

[Nefarious]

Also, if you still want to use the ut search box, feel free to add *ad.php* entry to your adblock config.

heh, u seem to forget normal downloads that end in downloAD.PHP , better add */ad.php*

and yeah, the ad in pages look ugly, shouldnt it be centered at least or somethen?

to tell the truth i didnt notice the ad until u posted about it, i had adblock configured that way long time ago anyway

[Inf]

Yes, you are right about */ad.php*, not *ad.php*

[WebReaper]

Those don't appear in µTorrent. They appear in the search which opens in your browser.

I know, I was just implying that if uTorrent (the app, not the site) ever includes embedded ads, it'll be filed in the round cabinet.

[bleh]

WebReaper, you're not the only one who thinks in those terms.