Torrent In Thailand

[danfred]

I find that if you have remote access to a PC or server in the US or EU you can download your torrents on that machine much faster than here in Thailand. I then use a FTP client or download manager that splits and downloads the torrent in multiple concurrent parts from my US-based PC to my PC here in Thailand. I've found that it can take up to a month to download a 4GB torrent from Thailand (assuming you're downloading other torrents at the same time)... that same torrent can be downloaded a day or two in the US and then a few days later I have the complete torrent here locally. Same results with smaller torrents... I get much faster results by downloading the torrents remotely and then tranferring them using predictable FTP connections. Another plus is that your not bogging down your Internet connection and CPU here in Thailand with all the additional overhead of using a torrent client.

[samsara]

It varies a lot by country actually. In Canada they took what I consider a fairly pragmatic approach where it's not illegal to download music (except full quality lossless tracks), and in exchange we have a rather hefty tax on recordable media such as blank CDs and DVDs, which is collected on behalf of the artists.

Just as well because I've tried paying for music from sites like Amazon, but it gets blocked because I was using a Canadian credit card. The music industry will eliminate a lot of torrenting and P2P use if they'd just allow their files to be obtained at a reasonable price and without having roadblocks thrown up at us, and having to jump through a lot of silly hoops.

This month Radiohead allowed people to pay what they wanted to download their new album directly with no record company involved. I bought it just on principal just because I wanted to see it succeed (not a big Radiohead fan).

Only about 60% of downloaders chose to pay anything to Radiohead and even they didn't pay much, overall it wasn't a very successful idea.

I stopped buying blank CD and switched to DVDs, then I got no place to store all those burned DVDs and no point in storing them either, so now I simply delete the movies after watching them. That Canadian law is somewhat behind even by Thai standards, but I agree it was quite revolutionary at the time.

I can't see how you can possibly force millions of illegal downloaders to pay for anything. Even if you make buying videos off the Internet very easy, people would still download them for free.

>>>

Isohunt is my website of choice. It has more trackers than any other site, imo.

As for clients - I've switched from Azureus to Utorrent a few weeks back and it was great for a while but I just noticed that it downloaded 500MB extra offa 1.4GB torrent. It was the same reason I dumped it in the first place and hoped they'd fix it by now - it keeps downloading bad pieces over and over and over again. Other than that it's perfect.

radiohead didnt intend to make $$ from the album. they WILL most surely make MORE $$ now from their eventual tour. isnt this the way it should be?

[trunknuk]

uTorrent with EZTV RSS feeds (http://tvrss.net/feed/eztv) set up to auto download weekly shows as they are released on the feed.

There is also a mininova.org search built nicely into uTorrent that opens results in a new window.

Scrapetorrent has a nice firefox search plug in that has been useful in the past.

[cdnvic]

If you want a better search, try http://www.torrentz.com/

It searches across many torrent searches and is good for finding obscure stuff.

[MaxLee]

I have a question: Well when I download sth with bittorrent, sth strange is happening: My download rate for the torrent shows me high speed, but still it's downloading very slow, especially near the end, it seems like it's never gonna be finished although the download speed is high. What does that mean???

[Kyosuken]

@MaxLee

Depends how many people have bits of the end of the file you are downloading i guess ? especially on very large file. Or maybe you torrent software is cheating on you or it's showing "kb/s" instead of "KB/s" (bit vs Byte) so you think it's very fast but it's actually 8times slower ?

[Trevor]

Choice of 22 search engines ...

http://torrentpond.com/

[cdnvic]

I have a question: Well when I download sth with bittorrent, sth strange is happening: My download rate for the torrent shows me high speed, but still it's downloading very slow, especially near the end, it seems like it's never gonna be finished although the download speed is high. What does that mean???

That's because all the peers have the beginning of the file, but as you go along, fewer and fewer have the end of the file, and only seeders have 100% of it, so the further along in the download you are, the less sources for the data you need are available.

[nikster]

Only about 60% of downloaders chose to pay anything to Radiohead and even they didn't pay much, overall it wasn't a very successful idea.

Says who? Radiohead - the only people who have the actual numbers - have said that information released by 3rd parties was inaccurate. They haven't themselves released numbers.

Besides - if 60% paid $5 a record it was already a success. Many people who would never have considered a Radiohead album probably downloaded it to see if they like it.

I will still download it & I will give them $5. Not my fault the $ is so weak right now it's worth less than £2.50...

Edited November 19, 2007 by nikster

[raro]

I'm using Buitcomet, which basically does what I want. After reading the praise on uTorrent, can someone elaborate what uTorrent can do that Bitcomet can't?

Can I transfer the partly downloaded torrents to uTorrent incase I want to change?

[raro]

okokok....I did it myself. Installed the mysterious uTorrent and tried it out over night. Slower than BitComet which I usually use.

Moreover, different concept. BitComet creates a .bc! file that will be renamed automatically in the original file name once download is complete. uTorrent creates directly the original file which makes it a bit confusing as you cannot see (in the explorer) which is downoaded completely and which is not.

I'll stick with BitComet...it has also this nice tiny square on top of the screen that shows you the overall download speed (9 kB/s as by writing of this post )

[Thanh-BKK]

Yah

And BitComet is SUCH a bad cheater that it is BANNED on many private torrent sites It completely screws up entire swarms where the initial seeder is "super-seeding", it does not acknowledge having received a piece and it does not seed properly.

Strangely, it is primarily in asian countries where this client is used....... why?

I am active mainly on a single private site where ratio tracking is used.... BitComet is banned by most seeders and users starting with it are usually blocked within their very first download - not because the site itself blocks BitComet, but because that <deleted> just doesn't seed back properly and the ratio will drop below 0.25 during the first file. And people then come with the pathetic excuse "but my internet downloads faster than it uploads"........ yup, SPECIALLY thai BitComet users!

uTorrent is the way to go, Azureus is an alternative (but resource hog - JAVA based).

Best regards.....

Thanh

[raro]

Tanh: interesting comment! I am in the market for new HDDs and we're talking Terabytes...I had download speeds on Maxnet of 200+, not at the moment, though...

I would be interested learning more about this topic. What are "swarms"?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Ok just to explain that - a "swarm" is the whole bunch of peers (i.e. users) sitting on that torrent. In the beginning it is one "seeder" (the one who uploads the file) and the "leechers" (the ones that download the file). As soon as several pieces of the file are distributed from the seeder to the leechers the leechers also start "leeching" from OTHER "leechers". As soon as one of the "leechers" has the complete file (i.e. all of the pieces) he too becomes a "seeder". The swarm can have a whole lot of seeders, the more, the better (faster) the download for some new leecher will be. This is how the bit torrent protocol works.

Now "Super Seeding" is a mode where the initial seeder (the first uploader) sets his client (bit torrent software) in a way that it distributes a specific piece only to ONE of the leechers - it's then the LEECHER'S job to offer that piece to OTHER leechers. This way the file get's spread out very quickly as opposed to "traditional seeding" where multiple leechers (worst case - ALL of them) get the same piece - that way it takes a very long time for the file to be completely distributed, and the whole swarm may turn into seeders at pretty much the same time - killing off the swarm if there are no more new leechers.

To make this work, each leecher's client needs to "acknowledge" that it has successfully received a piece - it does so by sending a virtual "ok, got it" back to the seeder, who then will send a new piece. And here is where BitComet screws up - it does NOT send the "ok, got it" but instead "still working on it, give me another one meantime". As a result BitComet gets MORE pieces in SHORTER time - to the disadvantage of EVERYONE else who will not get that piece AT ALL, until BitComet finally decides to make it available. A single BitComet in the swarm completely ruins the Super Seeding process and makes the whole swarm slow - except for itself, which is a VERY SELFISH approach to "file sharing" and the reason why private sites and many initial seeders ban it. Of course BitComet users like the way they get their download completed faster - but for some (such as myself, without wanting to brag) file sharing is about SHARING........

Second, BitComet does not seed well, neither initially nor during the leeching process - because it applies the same rule to uploads that it applies to downloads. I.e. when a client requests a piece, BitComet will reply "wait, i'm busy" instead of starting to send it. Only if BitComet is not indeed busy with RECEIVING something, it will bother to squeeze a piece off to the swarm. Which sometimes does not happen untill it has the entire file completed - at which point many users simply stop the process alltogether, "being done". And again - the loser is the spirit of file sharing.

There is a second client out there which has the exact same behaviour and is for that reason also banned by some sites/seeders - it's "Bit Lord".

I hope you make a wise decision as to what client you are going to use - i recommend uTorrent not only because it's fair but also because it uses next to zero resources on your computer - and you don't even need to install it, it's a single executable that makes no registry entries and runs happily off a thumb drive.

With best regards.......

your Thanh

[cdnvic]

Excellent post Thanh

[raro]

Dear Tanh,

I am very impressed and convinced by your explanation! Will switch to uTorrent now, only the downloads still active in BitComet will run until they are eventually finished.

Both clients can run simultaneously from what I saw the other night. Or was that just a misconception of mine?

cheers

raro

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi again

Yes you can run them simultaneously Just don't "do" the same torrent with both of them at the same time.

Best regards....

Thanh

[raro]

Hi again

Yes you can run them simultaneously Just don't "do" the same torrent with both of them at the same time.

Best regards....

Thanh

....just realized that myself....

[scn]

Ok here is my take on this after having dabbled with different Bit Torrent Clients like

BitTorrent, Azuerus, BitComet, ABC, BitLord, BitTornado, uTorrent. I find uTorrent is the best so far it is compact and fastest

The best site that serves my needs for torrents are

http://www.torrentz.com

http://www.torrentscan.com/

Have not been able to register in Deminoid so if someone can send me a invite code I will be grateful.

I have also been using torrents to download software, movies, documentaries, TV shows, ebooks, etc etc...

Been using TRUE ADSL 256/128 KBps for 2 years without much problems. In feb 2007 they upgraded everyone to 512/256 KBps. this apparently was a Goverment of Thailand promotion for 6 months and then it was extended for 2 more months and then my speed reverted back to 256/128 KBps. I have locked myself into this program till the end of Dec 30, 2007 so it is agonizing that the download speeds have halved. But with just 1 and half months to go it is OK i suppose, after that I can get a 1024/512 KBps for 590 THB / month. This is a promotion for TRUE Move or TRUE Visions customers only.

Also when running Bit Torrent Clients do not expect that the download/upload speeds with be the speed of the ADSL connection you subscribe to. With 128/56 KBps you can expect about 15 KBps / 8 Kbps download/upload and doubling of ADSL speed will roucghly double the Bit Torrent client download/upload speeds.

Cheers

[jstumbo]

Hi

Having downloaded Prison Break already, i can tell you what to do.

www.isohunt.com - get everything you can imagine

www.utorrent.com - the best torrent client i know of.

Kind regards....

Thanh

I second uTorrent. I used several before and like this one the best.

Another site is www.torrentspy.com

[jstumbo]

deleted because duplicate post

Edited November 22, 2007 by jstumbo

[jstumbo]

I find that if you have remote access to a PC or server in the US or EU you can download your torrents on that machine much faster than here in Thailand. I then use a FTP client or download manager that splits and downloads the torrent in multiple concurrent parts from my US-based PC to my PC here in Thailand. I've found that it can take up to a month to download a 4GB torrent from Thailand (assuming you're downloading other torrents at the same time)... that same torrent can be downloaded a day or two in the US and then a few days later I have the complete torrent here locally. Same results with smaller torrents... I get much faster results by downloading the torrents remotely and then tranferring them using predictable FTP connections. Another plus is that your not bogging down your Internet connection and CPU here in Thailand with all the additional overhead of using a torrent client.

I don't think I would download torrents within the US. I think you would be inviting a knock on the door wherever the computer is located in the US.

[jstumbo]

I have a question: Well when I download sth with bittorrent, sth strange is happening: My download rate for the torrent shows me high speed, but still it's downloading very slow, especially near the end, it seems like it's never gonna be finished although the download speed is high. What does that mean???

That's because all the peers have the beginning of the file, but as you go along, fewer and fewer have the end of the file, and only seeders have 100% of it, so the further along in the download you are, the less sources for the data you need are available.

Not true. You get basically random parts of the file. It does not start at the beginning and go to the end.

What might be happening is that some of the parts that you are downloading might be failing the hash check and being discarded at corrupt. Also TV/Music/Movie companies put up machines that purposely put in this bad parts just to make it more difficult for people. Depending on which torrent program you are using, they can handle these better. Blocking IP addresses that give you bad parts. Also some torrent programs have black lists, where you can download a list of known bad IP addresses from the internet, and import them into the program.

[jstumbo]

Moreover, different concept. BitComet creates a .bc! file that will be renamed automatically in the original file name once download is complete. uTorrent creates directly the original file which makes it a bit confusing as you cannot see (in the explorer) which is downoaded completely and which is not.

In preferences, under download, you can select to have it add ".!UT" to the end of the incomplete file.

[jstumbo]

www.funfile.org is another good site.

[grrr]

rTorrent (Linux and Mac only) works great for me on an old laptop I use for bittorrent. Finding your way into some good private trackers will make you never want to use public trackers again. The difference in speed is usually pretty considerable, though you need to give back what you take.

[danfred]

Have not been able to register in Deminoid so if someone can send me a invite code I will be grateful.

FYI, Demonoid has been shut down for 2 months now and it doesn't look like it's coming back anytime soon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonoid

Edited November 22, 2007 by danfred

[danfred]

I find that if you have remote access to a PC or server in the US or EU you can download your torrents on that machine much faster than here in Thailand. I then use a FTP client or download manager that splits and downloads the torrent in multiple concurrent parts from my US-based PC to my PC here in Thailand. I've found that it can take up to a month to download a 4GB torrent from Thailand (assuming you're downloading other torrents at the same time)... that same torrent can be downloaded a day or two in the US and then a few days later I have the complete torrent here locally. Same results with smaller torrents... I get much faster results by downloading the torrents remotely and then tranferring them using predictable FTP connections. Another plus is that your not bogging down your Internet connection and CPU here in Thailand with all the additional overhead of using a torrent client.

I don't think I would download torrents within the US. I think you would be inviting a knock on the door wherever the computer is located in the US.

I think it's unlikely downloading torrents in the US would ever cause you trouble... hosting a highly popular tracker site located in the US might get you that knock on the door however.

[raro]

In preferences, under download, you can select to have it add ".!UT" to the end of the incomplete file.

thanks for that!

Another question: I have some 100 downloads in the queue. No is it better using the default max. downloads of 5 (I think it was) or rather set them to 200 or so. My philosophy is let all downloads try their best, I don't care whether file A or file B comes in first as long as something is downloading. Am I right here or what do the pro leechers say?

[jstumbo]

rTorrent (Linux and Mac only) works great for me on an old laptop I use for bittorrent. Finding your way into some good private trackers will make you never want to use public trackers again. The difference in speed is usually pretty considerable, though you need to give back what you take.

I use some private trackers, but find it difficult to keep my ratio high. When you are downloading, you have 90+ seeders and only 5 leachers. So you get it fast, but then when you are trying to seed back, you are one of the 90+ that are fighting for the 5 leachers. It takes a long long time to seed as much as you leached, and by then, everyone that wants the file already has it, so you don't have anyone wanting to leach off you. I guess you need to be one of the first leachers, that way you will still have people interested in leaching off you when you are seeding.