Hurricane Electric Offers Bit Torrent Service 265
heypete writes "Hurricane Electric is now offering BitTorrent tracker/seeder services on behalf of paying customers. One need only upload the file desired to a specified directory by FTP, and their system will automatically generate a torrent file, add it to a tracker for that customer, and act as a "seed" to ensure that the file is available to downloaders. This could prove to be extremely useful for distributors of large files (such as Linux distributions), as bandwidth for the tracker and seeding services does not count against the bandwidth quota for the account."
What are they going to do (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:2)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:2, Interesting)
But yes, there are plenty of legal files.
Re:What are they going to do (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:3, Insightful)
Bit torrent was designed only to reduce server load, nothing else.
Re:What are they going to do (Score:3, Insightful)
large being bigger than the
several mb is big anyways, but with ff the torrent acted likely as a secondary server of sorts.. that only very few of the total people hammering the firefox's site would actually use.
anyways.. service like this could be great for sharing *anything* between a group of(trusted) friends(just pgp whatever you're wishing to share..).
Re:What are they going to do (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What are they going to do (Score:2)
Grampa Simpson's advice (Score:2)
- Abe Simpson
Re:What are they going to do (Score:5, Interesting)
The interesting point is that this could create a shining example of "good" P2P, for when they try to legislate all P2P out of existence as inherently evil.
Why are they so ignorant (Score:3, Insightful)
What are they going to do with someone uploads illegal files? By golly, they will do the same thing as if someone uploaded an illegal file to t
Legit (Score:4, Insightful)
You've got to love that everytime a new p2p program/service comes out, it is always explained as having legitimate uses.
Everyone know that, sure, BT is great to share Linux distros, but in actuality, it will be used to share mp3s, divx rips, and pr0n.
Re:Legit (Score:4, Insightful)
Such a system would be fast, and a huge advantage to consumers. Maybe google should check on it
Bittorrent for web mirroring, pffft (Score:2)
Bittorrent is good at distributing large files. For small files (web pages etc) the resources used in running a tracker that coordinates people getting files from each other isn't going to be significantly less than simply serving up the content in the first place. Peers have to be talking to each other a fair bit for the effort of the tracker introducing them and coordi
Re:Legit (Score:2)
offtopic, but anyways: Archival isn't/shouldn't be our priority for the internet, but cleaning it up would be a great start. Right now I see the internet as one of the most chaotic, messiest organized network ever concieved. BT could allow us to start locating the more important parts of the internet, and speeding up access to them, and giving the internet some structure.
I think it would be easi
Re:Legit (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Legit (Score:2)
And if you're gunna use a service for non-legit stuff, why wouldn't you use exeem lite or something where you don't give a c
Re:Legit (Score:2)
In addition, BT is inconvinient for illegal use, because URL of the tracker is exposed and you know exactly who shared the file and how to take it down.
Re:Legit (Score:2, Interesting)
So why did you lump it in with those other illegal things?
Do i sense some serious sexual repression on your part, yes I do.
Re:Legit (Score:2)
Re:Legit (Score:2)
Supply and demand (Score:2)
Compared to mp3s, Divx rips or pr0n, which are generally transferred uncompressed (why do people host songs individually?) come in varying qualities, files names or different hosts making it impossible to tell if a file is a dupl
What's the real problem here? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the real problem here? (Score:2)
Granted, I generalize in a cynical-ish way, but just because Joe Guitar wants to use BT to distribute demos, doesn't mean anyone is going to look for that instead of
Re:What's the real problem here? (Score:2)
File Rush already does this - for free (Score:2, Offtopic)
You do realize that there are high traffic sites? (Score:3, Insightful)
There are tons of legitimate sites with that level of traffic. The ibiblio archives come to mind, along with much stuff from archive.org. Don't pretend that there's not overwhelming legitimate usages for BT. That may be true for Napster, but I think you have a hard case to prove, if you're looking at BT.
Re:Legit (Score:2)
Just as there are a few people using the internet for legitimate purposes when the vast majority of the bandwidth is to... quote: "share mp3s, divx rips, and pr0n."
Should we ban the internet instead?
... and anyone who buys a knife will stab someone. (Score:2)
The reason for that is because there ARE lots of non-illegal uses for P2P but everyone mostly focuses on the illegal ones. In case you haven't noticed, there are organizations attempting to rid the world of P2P because they claim the technology is used solely for illegal activities. Oddly enough, they seem to ignore the fact that a fair portion of other internet technologies (browse
Re:Legit (Score:2)
As far as pirate mp3's, for this reason alone, Bittorrent is far faster and offers better results if what is being searched for can be found.
What should I do? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What should I do? (Score:3, Informative)
The possabilities are quite endless. (and Legit)
Re:What should I do? (Score:5, Insightful)
BitTorrent tracker hosting is not an exotic service, and the people who need it already have it. It's good for HE's customers that they're offering tracker hosting, but it's hardly a new thing.
Re:What should I do? (Score:2)
This world needs more Charlie Chaplin.
Re:What should I do? (Score:2)
Re:What should I do? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What should I do? (Score:2)
Re:What should I do? (Score:2)
COOL (Score:2, Interesting)
Nobody really uses these internet portal sites with all that streaming video (read: comcast ads) stuff they show on TV.
This is the kind of helpful feature people want ! Give us blogs, bittorrent trackers, etc !
Re:COOL (Score:2)
My condolences.
Two (Score:2)
I know someone who could use it right now... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe if they had more seeds, scattered around the globe, it would have worked better. As it is, I feel cheated; if I'm going to subscribe to their service for a monthly fee, it would be nice if they would use some of that fee to give me some good bandwidth to download their product. Hell, I'd seed (limited to 1/2 my upstream bandwidth) for them if they gave me a discount or a free upgrade in subscription level.
Re:I know someone who could use it right now... (Score:3, Interesting)
Nearly 4.5 years ago I downloaded the boot floppies for Debian Sarge 2.2. The only Linux distro image I've downloaded since is the Debian Woody 3.0 net install CD (two versions: 10MB and 180MB) and Knoppix (I wanted t
Re:I know someone who could use it right now... (Score:2)
And if one want to be able to install the distro on other people machines, since they don't have all broadband, you better arrive with the whole cds sets.
Re:I know someone who could use it right now... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I know someone who could use it right now... (Score:2)
The other problem is that not enough people go on becoming seeds after their download is finished. One of the moderator of the club became a seeder for one of the isos, and he was the only one besides the mdk seed.
99.9% of cases where bittorrent goes slow (Score:3, Informative)
If you don't have those ports open/forwarded, you're going to see really slow downloads. As long as you have those open, it will take no time to download. I am still a silver club member at mandrake, and I consistently get 400k/s downloads on the torrent downloads. The downloads of the 4 gig PowerPack dvd takes no time at all.
I also seed as much as I download on those torrents. Many others do as well. U
On the other end... (Score:2)
Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:5, Informative)
Their big problem is they don't do a very good job of communicating their policies to other network companies and to spam blacklist maintainers. The communication effort is badly coordinated, and there's a certain short-sighted self-righteousness by key people, who hate the thought of sucking up to blacklist maintainers.
The sad thing is that sanctions against HE mostly hurt their email customers. It doesn't hurt HE, which seems to have all the business it can handle. And it certainly doesn't hurt the spammers, against whom HE is already doing all they can -- and who just move on to another provider when they do get busted.
Re:Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:2)
Where they did screw up (and this is pretty typical for them) is in failing to keep you posted on the progress of your complaint, and for not keeping on
Re:Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:2)
Re:Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:2)
I've heard many good things about HE, and know for a fact that they boot spammers if they catch them in time.
having worked for spammers in the past, I know that they move fast..
Re:Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:2)
Re:Now only if they'll kick off their spammers... (Score:2)
Read the article on AOL that was up today.
I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2, Interesting)
Even after playing around with the specific limit set, the best download speeds I see perhaps rival the best regular download speeds I've seen from a direct ftp or http server. More typically I
Dude! (Score:2, Funny)
Dude, if you are getting 28 to 40 kilobytes
per picosecond, you damn well ought to be
impressed!
Sheesh, some people are never satisfied.
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2, Insightful)
Other replies have flamed you for this, but I'll try to explain nicely.
Dial-up connections are typically measured in kilobits per second (kb/s). A v.92 dial-up modem has a theoretical maximum speed of about 56 kb/s, but typically its connection speeds are in the 40s.
According to Azureus's screenshots page [sourceforge.net], Azureus t
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
I've had transfer rates of over 350KBytes per second.
I do better than that when downloading from a company such as Microsoft, but not everybody can afford the bandwidth they pay for.
The biggest problem with Bittorrent is having a machine behind a NAT that other clients can't connect with.
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
The intial seeds might be on T3's or DSC3s or whatever, but most of the peers are not. If the seeds have maxed out thier connections, you then have to get the file from peers. Most peers probably will not have anywhere near the same bandwidith as the initial seeds do. To get the same bandwidth from the peers as you do a seed, you have to connect to multiple peers, while at the same time, many other peers
Re:I confess - I don't really get torrents (Score:2)
Doesn't seem to be any access control (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be neat if you could put a user name/password on the torrents. Not incredibly secure, but still better than nothing.
Re:Doesn't seem to be any access control (Score:4, Informative)
It would be neat if you could put a user name/password on the torrents. Not incredibly secure, but still better than nothing.
Torrents work best if a lot of people are downloading/uploading. If you've got a picture that is only meant for a few people, it would make more sense to just upload the picture to the server rather than use Bit Torrent. That's probably why there isn't any access control. It wouldn't be any use to limit people when you want as many seeders as you can get.
HE has been good to me (Score:4, Informative)
We've got something like ten accounts with them, and have never had any down time or other problems.
No, I don't work for HE or have any affiliation with them. I am glad to spread the word about them because I've had several other accounts with hosting outfits that just didn't grok good service the way HE does.
Re:HE has been good to me (Score:2)
I've been using HE for a while now too and have no problems at all. I have a pretty simple site... a little PHP- but uptime has been excellent.
Re:HE has been good to me (Score:2)
I like how they treat me--intelligent enough to get some good tools, but the flip side is they expect me to understand about secure, conservative environments for a shared box. Yet they never come acr
I don't get it (Score:2)
I mean, I "share" my bandwidth and that ISP doesnt need to pay for this bandwidth. But what about my ISP? Doesnt it pay for it?
Re:I don't get it (Score:2)
Doesn't add up (Score:2)
FTP!? (Score:2)
What's the point? If I wanted to distribute by ftp, I wouldn't be using BT in the first place.
Why don't I just generate the torrent locally, and have everyone start uploading right away? If it's about ease of use, they'd do better to just whip up some dead-simple torrent-making software tailored for their service that automatically loads the torrent to their tracker/seeder, and let the torrent start right away.
Re:FTP!? (Score:2, Informative)
1) Your computer might not be on all the time.
2) Getting enough of the file "out there" with your computer being the initial seed is a bottleneck.
3) I'd rather spend a few hours uploading at max speed to HE's system, where they'd take over the tracking and seeding of the file on their ungodly-fast network. This would result in the file being more widely available and distributed a lot faster.
I also sent in a few request to them:
1) In the event that they finally start billing for bandwidth f
Re:great news except.. (Score:2)
There are asswipes from both sides of the aisle, at least those of us on the right recognize that fact.
Re:great news except.. (Score:2)
I think he might have just been saying republicans because republicans are in power (and/or) republicans have a history of complaining about this sort of thing, not directly because of his political beliefs. I may be wrong though.
Re:great news except.. (Score:2)
Re:great news except.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Except the fact that the US is not the legal authority over Earth. They may whine, they may try to make it illegal in some way, and they may even succeed but it will never be the end so long as its legal elsewhere.
Re:great news except.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:great news except.. (Score:2)
Software companies (esp. big ones like MS and IBM) donate down the line between the two parties so don't blame anti-piracy laws on any one party.
I'll bet you think tort reform [opensecrets.org], phone company monopolies [opensecrets.org], and poor U.S. education standards [opensecrets.org] are the fault of Republicans too. Hell, even our bloated government bureaucracy [opensecrets.org] is
Re:Except (Score:2)
Besides that, I agree with you. If they're going to use a tracker to distribute illegal data, they're going to use the webspace as well, the tracker just would *legally* let them search your webdirs.
No... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:he.net New BitTorrent Capability FAQ (Score:2)
Re:Heh (Score:4, Informative)
It's used by quite a few software companies. Games for example, since they are large in size.
A knife is a perfectly legal tool. It can cut us free when we are trouble, cut our food, or in the hands of a surgon can save lives.... it's when that knife is in the hands of a serial killer that it becomes illegal.
No knives have ever been accused of murder. Only the person who intentionally uses it for the act.
Same with bittorent. It never did anything wrong. It's users were the ones breaking copyright laws.
Same for HTTP. Some use it for kiddy porn. But that doesn't mean Yahoo is illegal, or illegitimate.
Re:Heh (Score:2)
I believe you are referring to game demos... game demos, my good friend.
Re:Heh (Score:2, Informative)
did you think this was 1995? the internet is a valid and often-used distribution medium for games at this point--so why not offload some bandwidth onto the customers? Valve and Blizzard get it.
Re:Heh-Legailty. (Score:2)
And there are P2P products used legitimately.
Linux just so happens to be in the forefront of technology. Mozilla.org does too.
So do many gaming companies.
P2P is also used in products such as Skype.
All completely legal.
Re:Heh (Score:2)
music (Score:2)
In fact, I would have to say that music is the probably the first and foremost legal use for bittorrent, with Linux di
X-Plane? (Score:2)
http://www.x-plane.com/demo.html
-David
Re:one solution (Score:5, Insightful)
b) upload it
If you limit sharing to your friends, you're completely safe.
You better have a lot of "friends". The whole idea behind Bittorrent was the more people using it, the faster it is.
If you're just going to share encrypted warez with a dozen people, there isn't any benefit to doing it via BT than via FTP.
-Charles
mod coward up! encrypt the stuff! (Score:2)