Best BitTorrent client?

[gangst]

Hi,


Just wondered what you guys feel is the best BitTorrent client, personally I think Azureus is as I think it is the most customizable and I seem to achieve the fastest speeds with it.
What are your favourites?

Thanks

[pulsewidth947]

Azureus. Without a doubt :D havent tried any others on the Mac.

[grapes911]

I used the Official BT client, Azureus, and a few others. Azureus is by far the best.

[Eidorian]

I also have to say Azureus. It's a memory hog though.

[Patmian212]

Azureus all the way

[Wes]

I used Azureus but switched for a more native program in the form of BitsOnWheels.

http://www.bitsonwheels.com/

[javabear90]

I use azures. It's the best. The official bit torrent client does not work in tiger. Or was that fixed.

[Wes]

I use azures. It's the best. The official bit torrent client does not work in tiger. Or was that fixed.

Fixed:
2005-05-01: 4.0.2 for OS X released.
Changes in this release:
Works on Tiger
Fixed problem with non-English characters in the file name
Allows changing the port number if there's a problem on startup


http://www.bittorrent.com/bittorrent_versions.html

[Eidorian]

I used Azureus but switched for a more native program in the form of BitsOnWheels.

http://www.bitsonwheels.com/This looks very tempting. I'm a bit tired of Azureus' and Java's memory hogging. I'll try it out once my current download is done.

[munkle]

Azureus. Without a doubt :D havent tried any others on the Mac.

Well there's a definitive review! ;)

Personally I like the simplicity of Tomato Torrent (http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/14258).

[friarbayliff]

Tomato Torrent is reasonably good, but is beaten hands-down by Azureus

[risc]

I used to use Azureus but I've found BitTorrent OS X to be a lot nicer as a GUI client, I also use BitTornado from the terminal.

[killuminati]

Azureus is by far the best, but I find that Tomato Torrent uses less system resources (Azureus is a hog)

[armandocerna]

I like bits on wheels a lot. It seems to work fairly well.

[DeSnousa]

Well there's a definitive review! ;)

Personally I like the simplicity of Tomato Torrent (http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/14258).

Agreed, very simple that gets the job done.

[evilgEEk]

I'm using Azureus right now but I need to change clients, I think.

I've been running it on an iBook G4 1Ghz with 512m of memory and if I leave Azureus up for long periods of time (talking hours, not days) it locks up my machine! The ol' girl never locked up once in ten months of hard use, the minute I load up Azureus I've had to hard reboot three times! :( :eek:

Another friend running Azureus on a PM 2.3Ghz G5 with 2.5gig of memory is having similar problems. It's not completely locking up, but it's definately slowing things down quite a bit. That can't just be Azureus hogging system resources, can it? Seems like there might be somethin else going on.

Any ideas?

[unfaded]

I'm using Azureus right now but I need to change clients, I think.

I've been running it on an iBook G4 1Ghz with 512m of memory and if I leave Azureus up for long periods of time (talking hours, not days) it locks up my machine! The ol' girl never locked up once in ten months of hard use, the minute I load up Azureus I've had to hard reboot three times! :( :eek:

Another friend running Azureus on a PM 2.3Ghz G5 with 2.5gig of memory is having similar problems. It's not completely locking up, but it's definately slowing things down quite a bit. That can't just be Azureus hogging system resources, can it? Seems like there might be somethin else going on.

Any ideas?

It is Azureus, hogging resources. Nothing more.

[evilgEEk]

It is Azureus, hogging resources. Nothing more.
That is messed up. heh heh

I'm going to be getting a Dual 2.0 G5 PM this coming weekend and was hoping Azureus would run better on it.

[rickvanr]

I loved the original BT client, but the last update he changed all the buttons around and tried some new icons, and I hate the look. Plus, when I upgraded to Tiger the older version I was using crapped out. I switched to Tomato Torrent, but it was a bit of a pain for me.

All I want my BT app to do is the following;
1. Let me monitor my upload speed (huge issue when I was on a cable modem with a cap)
2. Easily see all my torrents in one window (Official BT client does this, TT does not)
3. When I open a Torrent, I want it to automatically start downloading to my desktop (Official BT client does this, TT does not)
4. Not use Java and be really super ugly and overly confusing, ala Azereus.

BitsonWheels is a great application, and at the top of my list of recommendations, but I haven't been downloading many torrents lately as most of my favourite TV shows are in the off season.

Edit::

It is Azureus, hogging resources. Nothing more.

Its been my experience that most BT clients will hog resources. Even P2P software (Acquisition) hogs up my resources. Especially on a 1GHz PB.

[acedickson]

Is there an echo in here? Azureus for me too!

[Soulstorm]

I use Azureus, too, and i'm tottally happy with it.
I also have to say Azureus. It's a memory hog though.
Well, you must not blame Azureus for that, but the mplementation of Java into OS X.

[jalagl]

I used Azureus for a while, but I kept having problems with slow downloads (in addition to the resource hogging). Finally, I ditched it and moved to Tomato Torrent, which I really like, and gives me much better download speeds.

Well, maybe it's just a placebo effect...

[rickvanr]

I really like Bits on Wheels. Perhaps this is the wrong place to ask, but I just hate the icons within the app, how easy would it be to change them? I used to do it all the time in OS 9 with ResEdit, but I haven't gotten into it much in OS X. Ideas?

[gangst]

I really like Bits on Wheels. Perhaps this is the wrong place to ask, but I just hate the icons within the app, how easy would it be to change them? I used to do it all the time in OS 9 with ResEdit, but I haven't gotten into it much in OS X. Ideas?

when you say within the app do you mean start, stop, clear etc... or the wat tomato torrent colors torrent files blue, if its to do with the torrent file use pixadex or candshopiconfactory.com/ (http://www.iconfactory.com/)

[Eidorian]

Well, you must not blame Azureus for that, but the mplementation of Java into OS X.Yeah, I'll blame Java. But it's even worse on the PC. Ugh...

[Wes]

I really like Bits on Wheels. Perhaps this is the wrong place to ask, but I just hate the icons within the app, how easy would it be to change them? I used to do it all the time in OS 9 with ResEdit, but I haven't gotten into it much in OS X. Ideas?


1. Navigate to the Bits on Wheels application.
2. Control/right click its icon, select "Show package contents..."
3. Go to: Contents/Resources
4. Replace those images with .png's of the same size.

[Makosuke]

I've got a dual G5 with lots of memory, but I've never really had issues with Azureus hogging resources. So long as it's not maxing out the up or down cap on my DSL modem, I can leave it running for days with no noticable side effects.

(This is, however, a drastic change from recent versions--through about 2.1--which tickled a bug in the OSX Java that could and regularly did freeze or panic the entire system, particularly on DP Macs. That's completely fixed now, though.)

I keep wanting to try BitsOnWheels--it looks like they're using something based, spiritually if not literally, on the Azureus core (I say this because the general interface and several particular features look nearly identical) but it's a native MacOS app.

But, new apps like that always make me a bit wary, and Azureus recently added the distributed tracking feature that picks up some of the slack for flaky trackers, so I'm sticking with it for the time being.

[rickvanr]

when you say within the app do you mean start, stop, clear etc... or the wat tomato torrent colors torrent files blue, if its to do with the torrent file use pixadex or candshopiconfactory.com/ (http://www.iconfactory.com/)

I mean start, stop, clear, etc... icons within the application.

Edit:: Thanks Wes.. I should have known that I've done it with Proteus.

[Sogo]

i used azureus for the longest time. But i got tired of the hog and tried bit on wheels. the newer version that came out recently has many of the options that azureus has: 3D swarm, pices, files, general, and such tabs. Plus its not such a pig anymore. Now granted there are things missing, but i like that i dont feel the wieght of the program anymore.

[mduser63]

For features, definitely Azureus. However, like others here it really hogs resources, and crashes VERY frequently. The way it crashes is particularly annoying too. Sometimes when I try to quit, it doesn't quit. The window disappears, but the dock icon stays put, and the whole machine slows to a crawl. Usually I have to do killall Azureus (or killall java_swt) from the terminal, and then killall Dock (to get the icon to go away). BitTorrent official client is much more stable and lightweight. I'll have to try Bits on Wheels and Tomato Torrent.

[dav]

I only use azureus if I am leeching many, many torrents or I just need certain files from the torrent

Tomato Torrent for everything else :-)

Sidenote: Is there any Mac BT client that can pick certain files to download that is NOT azureus? I will be honest, I hate Azureus

[evilgEEk]

I will be honest, I hate Azureus
I completely agree now. I just got my dual 2.0 PM and Azureus is still locking up my machine if I leave it going for a couple of hours. The entire system becomes non-responsive, I have to manually shut down the machine and then boot back up. So, I've dropped Azureus and I think I'll download tomato torrent tonight, that seems to be a popular client so I'll give it a try.

[cleanup]

I have to say Tomato Torrent, or the original BitTorrent client. They're both very simple and easy to use, and not big on resource hogging. I'm not much of a features guy, I just change my max connections and upload speed once in a while.

[camomac]

i use azureus, and have noticed that it does slow down my system a little, but i don't have lock ups.
i leave azureus running for days at a time.

[CubaTBird]

i just use the official one.. no probs with it.. so far...

[Soulstorm]

For features, definitely Azureus. However, like others here it really hogs resources, and crashes VERY frequently. The way it crashes is particularly annoying too. Sometimes when I try to quit, it doesn't quit. The window disappears, but the dock icon stays put, and the whole machine slows to a crawl. Usually I have to do killall Azureus (or killall java_swt) from the terminal, and then killall Dock (to get the icon to go away). BitTorrent official client is much more stable and lightweight. I'll have to try Bits on Wheels and Tomato Torrent.
You are NOT supposed to do that. It happens to me sometimes, the app stays open for a while without showing any window. But this is the time that sends your status (how much you uploaded and downloaded) to the tracker and from there to the users!

But forcing it to quit, the data sent are faulty, and no matter if you have uploaded 1Gbyte, you will be shown as if you have uploaded nothing!

This is extremely important for some networks.

[Cuckoo]

Was using Azureus on my senior PM G4 (400Mhz). And i just ran it when i was away from the computer. Because it took every resource this sytem has. All CPU and all MEM...

Since reading this thread i've installed Bits on Wheels, and i love it. Has everything Azureus has and keeps my system usable..

Love BOW....

Cuckoo

[Starfury]

Since reading this thread i've installed Bits on Wheels, and i love it. Has everything Azureus has and keeps my system usable..
Cuckoo

Is there a way in BOW to only download only one file from a torrent containing multiple files? This is the only function of Azeurus that I'd like to be able to use!

[Yebot]

I'm using Azureus right now but I need to change clients, I think.

I've been running it on an iBook G4 1Ghz with 512m of memory and if I leave Azureus up for long periods of time (talking hours, not days) it locks up my machine! The ol' girl never locked up once in ten months of hard use, the minute I load up Azureus I've had to hard reboot three times! :( :eek:

Another friend running Azureus on a PM 2.3Ghz G5 with 2.5gig of memory is having similar problems. It's not completely locking up, but it's definately slowing things down quite a bit. That can't just be Azureus hogging system resources, can it? Seems like there might be somethin else going on.

Any ideas?

Try limiting your upstream to 30k if on cable, 20 if on DSL.

[Pandab34R]

I used Azureus but switched for a more native program in the form of BitsOnWheels.

http://www.bitsonwheels.com/

I downloaded this app and I really like it. The only thing is that I feel my download speeds arent up to par. Can you help me open ports to increase the dl speeds?

[epochblue]

I'm absolutely stunned that I've made it this far in the thread and haven't seen anyone mention either Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/) or BitRocket (http://bitrocket.org/).

More than that, though, "best" is purely subjective. If you want the most fully-featured (but consequently the most resource-hungry) client, you want Azureus. If you want something lighter-weight, you want BitRocket until Transmission 0.7 comes out. If you want to pay for your BitTorrent client, you want Xtorrent.

[japanime]

I'm absolutely stunned that I've made it this far in the thread and haven't seen anyone mention either Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/) or BitRocket (http://bitrocket.org/).

Same here. Transmission is simple, and simply outstanding.

[phillipjfry]

I hate Azureus, but beggars cant be choosers I guess.
I just need to be able to select which part of the torrent content I want.
Is it too much to ask that some programmer somewhere in the world just make what I want? :p

[Makosuke]

I'm absolutely stunned that I've made it this far in the thread and haven't seen anyone mention either Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/) or BitRocket (http://bitrocket.org/).
Umm... if you take a look at the date stamp, you'll note that until Pandab34R dredged it up, 07-03-2005 was the last post, which is why neither of those were mentioned.

Back in mid-2005, Transmission and BitRocket didn't even exist--Transmission was first made public two or three months after that, and BitRocket quite a while later.

[epochblue]

Umm... if you take a look at the date stamp, you'll note that until Pandab34R dredged it up, 07-03-2005 was the last post, which is why neither of those were mentioned.

You're absolutely right....I didn't look at the date stamp once. Sorry about that :) That definitely explains my confusion... :o

[janey]

holy mother of a thread revival.

@Pandab34R: portforward.com has directions for lots of routers. also use http://infinite-source.de/az/az-calc.html to configure your settings for upload/download/etc.

Anyway, I'm chipping in for Azureus 2.5.x (not 3.x piece of commercial crap), BitTornado via Torrentflux (web client, so this is best for servers and stuff), and rtorrent.

I almost exclusively use private sites, almost all of which have banned Transmission (and Xtorrent as a result), BitsOnWheels (hasn't been updated in..forever..) and once in a while, Mainline (and Tomato Torrent as a result). I don't feel like being banned for using a banned client...if I can even connect to the tracker at all.

Azureus is not a hog on my machine and runs just fine (if anything, Safari, iTunes and Colloquy hog WAY more resources than Azureus with a few torrents active and open). Once in a while I'll use uTorrent, but it's really not worth it except natively.

BitRocket's okay, but I love my power torrenting, I'm a whore for advanced and overkill settings.


On a sidenote, half the technical advice given in this thread is disgustingly wrong...

[diametric]

BitTyrant. By far. Modified version of Azureus which gives higer d/load speeds.

[janey]

BitTyrant. By far. Modified version of Azureus which gives higer d/load speeds.
I've never found much of a need for BitTyrant. Maybe if you're actually getting improved speeds from using such an app, it's time to move on to better torrents? I max out my bandwidth (100/100 on my server, and 10/1 at home) both ways with all three apps I mentioned above most of the time, just never on public torrents (****ing crazy molasses slow..wtf is 20kb/s)

[Poob Bubes]

I'm chipping in for Azureus 2.5.x (not 3.x piece of commercial crap)

I'm new to the Mac but I always used Azureus on pc. I was trying to decide whether or not to use Azureus or Transmission on Mac. Is Azureus 2.5.x the best choice, and if so is it still available for dl since 3.x is out?

[LtRammstein]

I use Azureus, religiously.

One, it's reliable, and it's constantly updated to run better! Sadly, the 3.0 version is not as great as I expected. The only thing that T's me off is that it uses up so much RAM!

At work I use uTorrent, and in a lot of aspects, it's the same as Azureus, only PC side.

I used the original application before, and liked it until I started registering to certain sites, then it slowly stopped working because it wasn't very customizable to what certain trackers needed.

Now... Only if I could teach the bros in my frat house how to use torrenting instead of bugging me at 3 AM with stupid questions about it!

Steve

[islandman]

Transmission all the way. I used to love Azureus, but I prefer Transmission now. Hands Down.

[dylan]

I haven't found anything to sway me away from Azureus, unfortunately. If Transmission/Xtorrent had selective downloading, encryption and worked with private trackers I'd switch in an instant. Hopefully it won't be too long before those features are implemented, I know selective downloading is already in the nightly builds of Transmission.

[MyJelleo]

Sidenote: Is there any Mac BT client that can pick certain files to download that is NOT azureus? I will be honest, I hate Azureus

I want to know the answer to this too, but it seems like no one is going to pay attention to it. From my research, no -- there is no other bittorrent program on mac that gives you the ability to file select.

Transmission may get that option one day. I guess it must be really hard to set up since no program other than azureus can do it.

[Cromulent]

Xtorrent does the job for me. Simple, nice UI and relatively lightweight. It might not have the features of some of the other Bit Torrent clients but it has worked flawlessly for me so far.

[kwabena]

Xtorrent does the job for me too. I love everything about it. Interface, simplicity, everything. I use BitRocket and Transmission too. These 3 apps are the best. Azureus is a memory killer. I hate it.

[janey]

I'm new to the Mac but I always used Azureus on pc. I was trying to decide whether or not to use Azureus or Transmission on Mac. Is Azureus 2.5.x the best choice, and if so is it still available for dl since 3.x is out?
3.x is banned in a lot of places, and you're gonna hate it if you're used to previous versions of Azureus. Look on http://azureus.sf.net there's still a download link for 2.5.0.3 or something, forget what the latest version was.

3.x is technically similar to 2.5.x except the addition of the vuze crap.
Azureus is a memory killer. I hate it.
weee, /me tries to hate on an app that uses less resources than Safari, but fails miserably as she notices that Az barely uses less than half the cpu/ram/vram with 3 torrents active than Safari with 10 tabs open.

She also notes that every client mentioned by you, including Azureus, turns into a resource hog while downloading torrents at 4MB/s+. Or when there are 20 active torrents open.

It might not have the features of some of the other Bit Torrent clients...
can't even start private torrents on a lot of trackers with Xtorrent cause it's banned. yep, it's missing a lot of features *ducks*

[camomac]

i like azureuz. i use 2.5.0.4.
don't upgrade to 3.x like the person said earlier, it is banned many places.

[nilay9999]

:confused:
Hey... Ok I have been looking around, reading forums all over the place, but just nothing gave me what I needed.
Can ANYBODY help me with a torrent downloading program that can cue, and then once it finishes a certain specified amount of upload go the next torrent?
Tomato Torrent lets u specify the amount of upload per 50 mb you want, which is perfect, but I can't seem to queue in it. Is that possible? Can you queue torrents to start one after another in tomato torrent?
Azureus only starts after you upload at least 1 times the amount of the file downloaded, and I live in India and my connection is slow as hell here so I can't upload that much cause it takes too long, I upload about half the downloaded file. Plus I have unlimited downloads only at night so I can't even stop and start manually [since I need sleep, lol]
Also Tomato Torrent and Transmission can't seem to filter out files that I don't wish to download!!! Is there any program that can do everything I need it to!
Is there anyone who can help my poor soul!!!

[Zwhaler]

Azureus. Without a doubt :D havent tried any others on the Mac.

I heard that is the best. I have it downloaded but don't really use it I'm just saving it for a rainy day. not

[thestaton]

I'll vouche for Azureus. Sure it might hog up some resources but honestly on my iMac I usually download while I'm out or not using the computer so I don't really notice.

I love knowing I have a little extra protection from safe peer, and I love the speed scheduler.

for now I consider it the best just for the security features and support of trackers.

[jbucaran]

Xtorrent for me. Best UI and integrated file search as well as individual file selection capabilities. If there was a default BitTorrent client for Mac it would be that one. Well worth the price.

[dyaniboi]

uTorrent for Mac is now available... it's free and simple to use!

[KelchM]

Xtorrent for me. Best UI and integrated file search as well as individual file selection capabilities. If there was a default BitTorrent client for Mac it would be that one. Well worth the price.

Xtorrent had promise.

Unfortunately development seems to be dead and it had a lot of problems because of the old code that the core is based on.

[Akira1980]

Transmission all the way. I used to love Azureus, but I prefer Transmission now. Hands Down.

Same here, Transmission is the most elegant solution.

[qlmaX5]

I've used Tomato and LimeWire. LW isn't the best for reputation, but tomato couldn't open half the .torrents I threw at it. D:
Though I'm not surprised...

[jbucaran]

Xtorrent had promise.

Unfortunately development seems to be dead and it had a lot of problems because of the old code that the core is based on.

What problems are you talking about? I have not experienced anything yet. I am not arguing here I am actually curious about this because it would be an important issue to me.

***

And regarding Transmission as the most elegant solution you are flat out wrong, I know is a matter of opinion but if you have any taste for native Mac OSX applications you wouldn't say that Transmission is the most elegant solution.

[XianPalin]

uTorrent for Mac is now available... it's free and simple to use!

I've used Transmission for a long time but a torrent recently was choking (like 20k/sec down when it should have been crazy fast with the number of seeders), so I fired the torrent up in uTorrent and it zoomed along. I've been using it ever since :)

http://mac.utorrent.com/

I don't understand people using Azureus... I tried it a couple times back in the day, but it's a freaking monster. If these lightweight ones offer pretty much the same thing and do it much more efficiently and look better, why do people still stick with that piece of crap? :confused:

[Prekesh]

haha i see now why everyone was talking about azuerus or however you spell it haha, this thread is almost 2 years old !.

i use transmission, i love it, by far the best in my opinion

[luc4net]

problem with transmission is that if you seeding a lot of files it doesn't tell you which ones are actually being seeded at any given moment. Only tells you the total uploading rate in KB/s. So annoying as it is, one has to scroll throughout all the seeds and try to spot the ones that are going up. pain in the but!

Does someone knows of any other client that actually specifies the files that are going up?

[jeremybuff]

What in the world are you guys thinking,?! lol.. Transmission is the best, and fasted, torrent client out there, INHO.

I have tried Azureus but find it bloated.. just too much crap. If you want to download torrents, and download them fast, then use Transmission. It's fast, lightweight, and small- doesn't take up much screen real estate.

[yossim]

Are bit Torrents legal?

[Cromulent]

Are bit Torrents legal?

Yes they are as long as you only download legal software or other stuff. For instance downloading Ubuntu Linux is 100% legal, downloading the newest Metallica album is not.

[yossim]

so, what are they good for then?

[yizzle0912]

I just like how transmission feels...

[Cromulent]

so, what are they good for then?

Downloading legal software, audio, video etc etc.

[KingYaba]

so, what are they good for then?

It can relieve traffic off a particular server.

[C01E]

Same here. Transmission is simple, and simply outstanding.

So far I've tried uTorrent for mac and Transmission. Although uTorrent is by far my choice for windows, Its crap on the mac... Transmission all the way!