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Bittorrent download times

W

winwintoo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Don't know if this is the right place for this, but feel free to move it.

I'm new to bittorrent - in fact, I didn't realized that's what I was getting in to. I came across a site that claimed to offer movies for download for a monthly subscription - I know, maybe I've spent too much time sampling the egg nog - anyway, got it all set up, started to download a movie and it says it's gonna take 273 hours It didn't take them that long to MAKE the movie in the first place 😡 😡

I'm on DSL which is usually pretty swift - I don't keep track of the actual speed, because it's always fast enough that speed isn't something I worry about.

Is this normal for bittorrent files?

BTW, how does BT work or what is it? Is it a form of P2P?

Should have asked before I got involved I guess.

Margaret
 
get your torrents from: suprnova.org

It is based on "seeds". Different users that have that specific file will donate a chunk of that file to you until you have a full duplicate. Download times will vary. I've had some that took 3mins and some that took a week. It just depends how many seeds are out there and the bandwidth. Just because you have DSL doesnt mean your bittorrents are going to donload at 3mbits.
Some will say its illegal. I dont think so. Bittorrent provides a service for the end user to do what he wants and if he breaks the law its his problem not the creator of bittorrent. Its like if you have a Ford truck and you get a speeding violation. Is it Ford's fault. NOPE.

I love BT. I have a 600mb file goin now.
 
it all depends on how large the file is and what kind of down speed your getting. if its a 4 GB file and your getting like 12kbs, its gona take a while.

just curious but what client are you using? i started with tomato torrent but swithed to Azureus. Azureus is, i think, the best client for multiple torrents.
 
winwintoo said:
Don't know if this is the right place for this, but feel free to move it.

I'm new to bittorrent - in fact, I didn't realized that's what I was getting in to. I came across a site that claimed to offer movies for download for a monthly subscription - I know, maybe I've spent too much time sampling the egg nog - anyway, got it all set up, started to download a movie and it says it's gonna take 273 hours It didn't take them that long to MAKE the movie in the first place 😡 😡

I'm on DSL which is usually pretty swift - I don't keep track of the actual speed, because it's always fast enough that speed isn't something I worry about.

Is this normal for bittorrent files?

BTW, how does BT work or what is it? Is it a form of P2P?

Should have asked before I got involved I guess.

Margaret
Click to expand...


HAHA you got scamed!!! You paid for Bittorent?! It's free! Next time use suprnova.org. So assuming you are DLing files you already own or have rights to, you have to change your router to allow the ports bittorent uses (6881-6889). If you are behind a router you can't configure like at work or something then no luck.
 
OryHara said:
just curious but what client are you using? i started with tomato torrent but swithed to Azureus. Azureus is, i think, the best client for multiple torrents.
Click to expand...

By far.
 
I don't know what kinds of files you are downloading but if you are using Azureus then install the SafePeer plugin. It prevents you from connecting to ip addresses that match a list of known people that will sue you (MPAA, RIAA, to name a few). This is not a guarentee that you will not get caught as it is easy for those organizations to get a new ip address but it is better protection that nothing.
If you do download the plugin and Azureus takes a few minutes longer to start up it is because it is getting a new list of banned ips so don't start thinking that it froze, it really is doing something.
 
12ibookg4 said:
I don't know what kinds of files you are downloading but if you are using Azureus then install the SafePeer plugin. It prevents you from connecting to ip addresses that match a list of known people that will sue you (MPAA, RIAA, to name a few). This is not a guarentee that you will not get caught as it is easy for those organizations to get a new ip address but it is better protection that nothing.
If you do download the plugin and Azureus takes a few minutes longer to start up it is because it is getting a new list of banned ips so don't start thinking that it froze, it really is doing something.
Click to expand...
ohh that is awsome.. im getting thta right now
 
Question: Does Tomato Torrent allow fselecting which files you want *within* the torrent. That is to say, only downloading certain files?

Rest in peace Torrentbits.org (by far, the best)
 
suprnova.org (NOT .COM OR .NET!!) has always been (and probably always will be) free. suprnova.com, suprnova.net, and supernova.org are scam sites. DO NOT pay for .torrent files! Ever!

That said, Bit Torrent is excellent for popular files, like updates to XPlane, or stuff at MacGameSeed.com (okay okay, so the stuff there isn't popular yet... 🙄 ). I think the most common use for it would be anime fansubs (semi-quasi-sorta-legal, but fairly safe), and I'll even say that it has the highest amount of legal usage of any P2P software/protocol in existence. Heck Beatallica has released all two of their albums via BitTorrent.

As to how it works, the .torrent file contains: the names and sizes of files and any folders, the URL for the tracker, which your client connects to to find out who else has the file. Each file (or files) is broken into pieces, usually 256KB to 1MB. You download the pieces in a somewhat-random order until you have the complete file. Depending on your client, you can give higher priority to pieces that are part of a particular file. Because the download isn't sequential, it's possible that if two people have different halves of a file, they can help each other finish, even if there are no seeders (who have the complete file).
There is a downside though. If you come across an old .torrent file, chances are there won't be anyone seeding it. But if even one person is still seeding, you can get the file, and so can other people.

As for my usage, I have 60-odd active torrents in Azureus, 2 of them are downloading (both anime). 4 are from MacGameSeed (check them out, pretty nifty eh? 😀), and all the rest are anime-related.
Anime fans interested in using BitTorrent should check out: downloadanime.org, animesuki.com, and hongfire.com.
 
Well--usually on Monday, I download last night's episode of Arrested Development on Bittorrent. They're around 175mb, I get them from Hypertorrent, and it usually takes 2-3 hours or so. So based on my experience, no, it shouldn't be taking as long as it's taking you. Just keep in mind though, how long it takes you will depend on how many people are available for you to download from.
 
For everybody who thinks that suprnova is now a paying site: PAY ATTENTION TO THE TITLE when you go to www.suprnova.org. It clearly states that ".com and .net are scammers"

As for how fast torrents can come down, I've found that you can frequently saturate your connection when you download. For me, that's 175k/sec but I leave my torrent connected until I have at least a 1:1 share ratio because bittorrent would be useless if everybody selfishly leeched all they wanted and never gave back.
 
Suprnova.org is done.... go to the site and see their good bye. I cant believe it, what am i going to do. anyone know any other great torrent sites. I am really sad.
😡 🙁
 
Riot_Mac said:
Suprnova.org is done.... go to the site and see their good bye. I cant believe it, what am i going to do. anyone know any other great torrent sites. I am really sad.
😡 🙁
Click to expand...

Try MTKA... but they've recently also had problems.
 
Fabrix2003 said:
hypertorrent is poo though for macintosh goodness so is MTKA at the moment.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by that...I use it to download stuff on my Mac all the time.
 
Riot_Mac said:
Suprnova.org is done.... go to the site and see their good bye. I cant believe it, what am i going to do. anyone know any other great torrent sites. I am really sad.
😡 🙁
Click to expand...

Nop, they still open 😀


Dunno about other people's downloads speed but I'm getting 4Gb files in 2-3 hours..

*sits on 6Mbit line and Grins*
 
coopdog said:
you have to change your router to allow the ports bittorent uses (6881-6889).
Click to expand...
Could you guys give me some advise? Im using Bittorrent, but my download speeds seem to be very very slow. I have no clue what that quote means, so could someone explain its purpose and how to do it. i have roadrunner, i usually download at over 300kbps. Im downloading at speeds lower than 20kbps, and this is with say 20 to 30 seeds.
 
Riot_Mac said:
i can not get a torrent file to download from hypertorrent... what am i dont wrong? I tried download link file as, just click on the link, hold down alt when i click on the link. I dont know what else to do, suprnova never gave me any problems. what is the deal with hyper.
Click to expand...
I just tried one too and it wouldn't work. I looked at the link I was trying, and it appears that it was a link to something on "Suprnova." 😀 Oh well...so much for that.
 
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