3 Stupid Questions

[graystrickland]

1. If I want to create a torrent, what tracker(s) should I put in the tracker field at time of creation?

2. If I download torrents, can Big Brother identify me, or my IP, as a downlaoder?

3. If I upload torrents, can Big Brotehr identify me, or my IP, as an uploader?

I recall that a year or two ago I read that people who were sharing via Napster, et al, a "large collection" of MP3s were being sued invididually. RIAA never said where it was drawing the line, but I think I read that if you had more than 5,000 tracks shared, you were begging to be sued. I'm not clear how the RIAA identified the sharers of "large collections," but the thought of being sued does give one pause. What sort of risk does one take downloading material on torrent? Or uploading previously downloaded content? Or uploading a new torrent?

[DreadWingKnight]

1> Ones you are authorized to use.

2> Probably

3> Probably

[GrizeBar]

Taking them in order:

1. If I want to create a torrent, what tracker(s) should I put in the tracker field at time of creation?

Depends on which program you use to create the torrent. The easiest way would be to use an automatic torrent creator like MakeTorrent, which will insert everything nessessary for seeding, tracking and tranferring.

2. If I download torrents, can Big Brother identify me, or my IP, as a downloader?

Again, it depends on how you download them. You mention Napster, which was a large public database server containing torrents to be accessed by user clients. This system can be tapped and monitored and the IP's of the clients traced.

If you use a program like µTorrent, Limewire or Bearshare, these programs are designed to connect directly person to person without routing via a central server or database, therefore difficult to trace by normal means. If, however, the Internet Provider was requested to reveal the address of a customer to a federal authority, this would identify the downloader, but it is extremely rare.

3. If I upload torrents, can Big Brotehr identify me, or my IP, as an uploader?

See Number 2.

[Vectorferret]

1. If I want to create a torrent, what tracker(s) should I put in the tracker field at time of creation?

A tracker your a member of with perfect uptime is the best place. If you want to distribute to everyone, try a tracker that doesn't require registration to use; where as a private tracker will make sure all thsoe you give the .torrent to will have to upload too, but since they have to register, less people will want to download it. (And most private sites require you to be a member for awhile to add torrents there.) You should probably start getting into the BT community before you start being an initial seed. When you do create a .torrent, you have a responsibilty to make sure enough new seeds are created to keep it going before you leave, so do so.

[istigkeit]

In regards to the last two questions, I recommend programs such as Protowall to help keep out unwanted snooping. This program sets up a 'blacklist' of IP's that it will deny all packets to and from (*AA's included).

[Vectorferret]

µTorrent's built in ipfilter.dat will also do that trick (once you get a pre-made one). The advantage is that still allows general conenctions to those people, since I think a lot of the premade ones are really over-paranoid, blocking too many corporations full IP ranges to really web browse.

[graystrickland]

1. If I want to create a torrent, what tracker(s) should I put in the tracker field at time of creation?

A tracker your a member of with perfect uptime is the best place. If you want to distribute to everyone, try a tracker that doesn't require registration to use; where as a private tracker will make sure all thsoe you give the .torrent to will have to upload too, but since they have to register, less people will want to download it. (And most private sites require you to be a member for awhile to add torrents there.) You should probably start getting into the BT community before you start being an initial seed. When you do create a .torrent, you have a responsibilty to make sure enough new seeds are created to keep it going before you leave, so do so.

I trade video recordings on Poopli.com, which is a website for owners of ReplayTV DVRs to transfer recordings over the internet from one ReplayTV unit to another. Until I discovered torrents a few weeks ago, it was the only place that I knew of to get tv shows and movies. Anyway, over in the Poopli community, you're considered a very bad sport if you only requested show transfers, but never gave any. Your ask/give ratio is there for anyone to see.

Vectorferret, your answer makes me think that the world of torrents is not the same; that it's perfectly fine to take and never give. That is, to download torrents, and upload/serve previously downloaded ones, but never make one. Or do I misunderstand your answer?

[Vectorferret]

Vectorferret, your answer makes me think that the world of torrents is not the same; that it's perfectly fine to take and never give. That is, to download torrents, and upload/serve previously downloaded ones, but never make one. Or do I misunderstand your answer?

Yes, that is acceptable. As long as you finish the torrent with a ratio of 1.000 or better, than you are fine. Torrents usually work based on scene releases (which are organized groups who release things) or distribution of freeware / open source software (which is made by organized programmers). There is nothing wrong with making torrents, and it's evne encorageable (I do this myself from time to time) but it's not necessary. What I meant to convey in my post was to get a feel for the BitTorrent community and how it works before you start creating your own torrents. Usually you'll find some trackers you like and pick one of those to do your creating.

Also, when creating torrents, don't make one too big compared to how fast you can upload. The goal with torrents is to get new seeds (users with the complete file) in a reasonable amount of time so users can share to each other rather than depending on the initial uploader. Again, once you've been around for awhile everything is less confusing.

If your jsut starting, download some things you like, make sure your ratio is at least 1.000 when you end your download (µTorrent can be configured to autostop at this amount) and your doing everything fine. After awhile you'll be more comfortable with the way it works and be ready to seed, or come back with more questions (just remember that forum rule at the top of the page) and we'll be able to help you.

This will also help you with getting started.

[splintax]

Yep. The whole advantage of BitTorrent is that you upload the file at the same time as you download it, and you continue seeding the file after the download's finished.

If you seed the file for a long time, you could end up uploading several times the amount you downloaded. With BT, it's not about the number of original things you upload, just the total amount of data uploaded.