A Seminar Report

On

bitTorrent Protocol

Submitted By:

Name Khalid Kawoosa

Enroll No. 1358
Under Guidance Of
Mr. Sohail
Table of Contents
BitTorrent ±
................................................................................
........................................................... 5
................................................................................
....... ...................................................................... 6
Be savvy about copyright laws...................................................
............................................ 7
Getting Started. ...............................................................
...................................................... 8
Prepping up.....................................................................
......................................................8
................................................................Q
. ..............................................................................
....... 8
Gearing up the torrent client . ................................................
.............................................10
On the trail of our first torrent download......................................
........................................12
................................................................................
................................... ............................................
14
How to be a good member of the torrent community? . ............................
.............................16
................................................................................
..............................................................................16
................................................................................
.....................................................................17
Yourtorrent toolkit.............................................................
.................................................17
Tweak under the hood ±
A fine-tuning tutorial for faster downloads ...................................1
8
Share alike ±
Creating our own Torrent .......................................................
.......................23
.............................................................................."
...........................................................................27
................................................................................
..............................................................................28
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It gives me immense pleasure in presenting seminar on
the topic bitTorrent. I acknowledge the enormous assistance
and excellent co-operation extended to by my
respected guide Mr. Sohail. I would also like to thank
the staff members for their valuable support. Lastly I
would like to express my heartfelt indebtedness towards
all those who have helped me directly or indirectly for
the success of the seminar.
-Khalid Kawoosa
(Enroll Num: 1358)
BitTorrent ²
........................................................................V

................................................................................
................................................................................
..................

preached,butperhapsnotpracticed asoften asHewould haveliked. Thankfully,theWorld

WideWebcamealongtochangeallthat.Theinternetzipsandzapsacross bordersbringing
information at our fingertips. From restricted bits of data to a free for all ex
change of entire
files, the outbreak of file sharing has been as swift as it has been widespread.

Most of us are more familiar with more conventional forms of file sharing such a
s email and
FTP. BitTorrent is just another file sharing protocol (a set of rules on how to
do things) we
can use. Email and FTP rely on one computer hosting the file and transmitting it
to another
connected computer. BitTorrent introduces a major difference ±
the hosting and the
downloading is spread out over many computers using a technology called Peer-to-
Peer. We
can use BitTorrent to share or download any type of files ±
.exe, mp3, AVI, Jpeg, and Doc
etc.

Hey, stop the muddles ..........................................................

..............................................................................
..............................................«

There is a book I want to read but I have only one chapter with me. I look aroun
d and find a
................................................................................
..........................................................o we search for few mo
re
guys around the block who might have the remaining pages. We find a bunch of guy
s and
though nobody has the complete book, we share the chapters amongst each other ti
ll all of
us get a copy of the complete book one by one.
On the .........................................................................
................................................................................
.....bits. Each
................................................................................
................................................................................
......................

Each piece one of us downloads is available to all the others for upload. Thus w
e all share
rather than placing the onus on one computer to host the file and distribute it.
................................................................................
................................................................................
........................

loving BitTorrents.
................................................................................
....o
Torrent ±
At the beginning of all this is the torrent file itself. The .torrent file is no
t the entire
................................................................................
................................................................................
....................................

the people who are sharing it. It is like a map which is used by the BitTorrent
client to
assemble all the pieces together.
BitTorrent client ±
A Bit Torrent client is one of the most important parts of the torrent
process. It is a piece of software which takes the .torrent file, reads the info
rmation in it and
starts the download.
Peer -A peer is any computer participating in the download and upload of a torre
nt file.
Seeder -A seed (or seeder) is anyone who has a complete copy of the file being s
hared
across the torrent network.
Leecher -A leech (or a leecher) is the person who does not have the complete fil
e yet but
has joined the network to download it. A leecher becomes a seeder when he downlo
ads the
entire file and then shares it across the network.
Share ratio ±
The ratio is the amount of data a user has uploaded divided by the amount of
data they have downloaded for a particular torrent (UL÷DL). A share ratio of 1+ ha
s a
................................................................................
................................................................................
..........................

other users than he has received. Conversely, share ratios under 1 have a negati
ve effect.
Swarm ±
The swarm is the sum total of all the leechers and seeders (i.e. all the compute
rs)
participating in the torrent process.
Tracker ±
The tracker is a server which has the information of who has what files and who
needs which ones, thus acting as a bridge between seeders and leechers. Some tra
ckers
are private requiring a registration where most are public.
Index ±
An index is, as the name implies, a searchable list of .torrent files, hosted on
a
website.
Be savvy about copyright laws
As you scroll deeper, you will see the potpourri that you can lay your hands on
using torrents.
................................................................................
................................................................................
..................

there, you can get your hands on it. The world of digital distribution can often
be seen
clashing with copyright laws. Peer to Peer file sharing is completely legal but
using it to
................................................................................
................................................................................
..........................

personal use but distribution makes it a punishable offence. With torrents, the
water gets a
bit muddied because the protocol makes everyone a downloader as well as a distri
butor.
There have been numerous cases where torrent trackers which index the torrents
available
have been shut down for infringing so...........................................
...........................................................
Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of Ame
rica
(MPAA) have become proactive against many of them, because it represents a sourc
e of
piracy.
..................................................n be pinpointed by their IP ad
dresses so the cloak of anonymity
is not there to hide behind.
The safest course of action is to follow the copyright laws as laid down. Browse
to the
copyright policy link of the respective tracker website; the better ones have it
.
For instance, here is a snapshot of ..........................V
copyright policy.

If you are unsure about the rules laid down, look for material which falls under
the umbrella of
unlicensed content or under a General Public License like Creative Commons.
Getting Started
................................................................................
................................................................................
............................

our hands on a good torrent client, set it up and download our first file.
Prepping up
Life on the BitTorrent lane gets easier if we have a good client to do the job f
or us. A good
place to get acquainted with the whole shebang is the List of BitTorrent clients
on
Wikipedia. Or you could directly go for the oft favored ones like µTorrent, Vuze (
formerly
Azureus) or the BitTorrent client itself. All are free, lightweight and cross pl
atform (for all
operating systems).
Make sure you have the latest updated version. For the sake of clarity and conve
nience, the
screenshots here on will depict µTorrent running on Windows XP SP3, although this
should
be more or less the same on other operation systems.
..........................and the installation
At 266KB, µTorrent downloads in a blink. If you are installing µTorrent for the firs
t time, just
follow the screenshots. Installations of the other BitTorrent clients are also s
imilar.
1. When you click on the downloaded installer, your operating system might ask f
or your
permission to install the file. This screen might differ in Vista, Mac OS X or L
inux.
2. The second screen recommends downloading the software from the parent site it
self to
prevent malware.
3. The final screen completes the setup by asking for the location where you wan
t to install
the file.
................................................................................
................................................................................
....................................

do some post-installation stuff before we begin our first torrent download.

Gearing up the torrent client
................................................................................
................................................................................
................................
................................................................................
................................................................................
......................

smoother run.
Fortunately, µTorrent makes this very easy for the beginner. Here are the basic st
eps

1. When you start µTorrent for the first time it helps you out with a Speed Guide.
2.
The speed guide helps you to choose your correct upload speed. If you are not aw
are
................................................................................
................................................................................
....

button. Do not run any other

application or browser at the time you are running the speed test. Run the test
2-3
times to get an idea of your average upload rate.
3.
Select a setting close to your obtained upload rate using the Connection Type
dropdown.
When µTorrent runs for the first time, a port is automatically selected for you. A
port is
where your computer receives the communication signals from the outside network.

..........................tell you how to open these ports further on in the gui

de.
from DSLReports website. Connect to the site by pressing the
To check whether this port is open to signals, click on the
button.
4.
................................................Use Selected Settings button and
you are ready to begin.
5.
If you want to recheck your upload speed, you can also run the speed test from t
he
µTorrent toolbar ±
Options ±
Speed Guide.
................................................................................
................................................................................
........................
On the trail of our first torrent download
Downloading a torrent file is not any different from the normal downloading we d
o daily on
the web. Though we can use a search engine like Google and download a torrent fi
le from
................................................................................
................................................................................
............................

have a searchable index of torrents and therefore we call them indexes. These si
tes are just
storehouses for .torrent files and usually don't create any of the content avail
able. Going to a
reliable torrent site also lets us avoid the pitfalls of downloading a corrupted
file or even
worse, a malicious virus. A good torrent website filters out the undesirable and
hosts clean
.torrents.
The recommended ones are ±

PirateBay ±
By its sheer size it is probably the most popular site in the torrent world with
nearly 3.5 million users. The torrents also have little icons labeling them whic
h say whether
the torrents are from VIP users or trusted users. This reputation management ser
ves as a
mark of quality assurance. In their fight to bring the best they are constantly
facing lawsuit
threats; check out the Legal Threats link at the footer.
Mininova ±
It enjoys a very good reputation of filtering out junk torrents. It is also one
of the
oldest torrent sites out there and definitely one of the cleanest sans any objec
tionable ads. If
you have to restrict yourself to just torrent sites, then these two do the job.
Vertor ±
In your continuing hunt to find clean, virus free and quality torrents, Vertor i
s a good
place to stop by. Vertor separates itself from the herd by providing snippets of
the file you are
about to download. This helps to confirm the torrent as safe for download. Verto
r by the way
....................................................................

Demonoid ±
This site, though amongst the best, has one shortfall ±
you need to register for
a free account. The registrations are only open for some time and you require an
invitation to
get into Demonoid. If you manage to get an account you will see why this is one
of the best.
Being a restricted circle, it has a strict usage policy.
Isohunt ±
Another premier torrent website, but typically caught in a legal wrangle.
................................................................................
..........................................................................«

Legit Torrents and Legal Torrents list only torrents which are in the public dom
ain and thus
100%legal.
Public Domain Torrents does the same for movies in the public domain.
Etree ..........................................................................
......................................................................

Sugarmegs is another musical stopover if you miss any torrent at Etree.

Meta-search engines
Then there are the torrent meta-search engines, which basically search a bunch o
f torrent
sites in one go and bring together all the results in one page.
Torrentscan ±
................................................................................
..........................................................................
out your torrent.

Torrent-Finder ±
Search 172 torrent sites and trackers with this multi-search engine.
Torrentz ±
A simple no fuss torrent meta-search engine.

The number of torrent sites reflect the popularity of the protocol. And of cours
e, there are the

................................................................................
................................................................................
........
................................................................................
................................«

1.
Hop over to any of the torrent sites and search for your desired torrent file.
Remember, a torrent file is nothing but a small 15 ±
100Kb sized file which points to
the contents of the whole file and the people in the swarm. These .torrent files
are
uploaded by torrent sharers around the web.
2. Click on the desired file (or any download link) to download the file to your
computer.
The small file sizes will take up just 5-10 seconds of your time.
3.
Browse to your saved .torrent file and double click it to open the file with you
r torrent
client (e.g. µTorrent). You can also use the menu of the software to add the .torr
ent
file for download. Or alternatively, drag and drop the .torrent file into your s
oftware
window.
4.
Now, your software begins the download by first connecting to the tracker server
to
find out who else is downloading the same file and which bits they have.
5.
The tracker server identifies the users participating in the share and labels th
em as
either seeders or leechers. Look for a torrent with a higher number of seeders.
The
ratio of seeders to leechers is the share ratio and a higher figure makes for a
healthier (and faster) torrent.
6.
The download begins ±
................................................................................
..........................................
up as the swarm increases.
The time to complete the download will of course depend on the file size, the sp
eed of your
connection and the quality of the swarm. After your download finishes, you may e
njoy the file
you just got. Now after all that hard work if you are thinking of deleting the l
eftover .torrent file
and closing the client software just pause here. This single selfish act is know
..............................
................................................................................
..................................................................
How to be a good member of the torrent community?
The real world harbors hit and runners. The torrent community calls them leecher
s. Strictly
speaking a leecher is one who does not have a complete copy of a particular file
yet. A
leecher turns into a seeder only when he starts sharing his copy with the rest o
f the swarm.
Unfortunately, the term has also come to symbolize those users who download with
out
uploading i.e. take but not give back to the swarm. To avoid this name calling f
ollow the
cardinal rule ±

After your download finishes, leave your Torrent client software running for at
least three
hours, or until you have uploaded as much as you have downloaded. Sometimes it m
ay
not be possible to follow this rule but it is important to get close to it.
Tip: Do your downloading at night so that by the time you wake up you have downl
oaded
your file and you would uploaded your share too.
..............................................................«

At first you might feel like a kid let loose in a chocolate shop, but beware as
there are a many
fake torrents out there. Most of them are malicious. Here are three golden rules
which have
..............................«

1.
Make it a habit to scour around for any comments left by earlier downloaders
regarding the quality of torrents.
2.
Download torrents from a reputable website or join a private tracker. Private tr
ackers
moderate the quality vigorously but then they are equally rigorous with their ru
les.
3.
Try to avoid downloading files which have been split and zipped into mass of kil
obyte
sized files. Commonly they are fake torrents.
4.
Always read the rules and the copyright policy of the website you are downloadin
g
from.
Read the MakeUseOf.com pointers on some torrenting pitfalls to avoid.
........................................Z

You started with an idea about torrents, a torrent client and a net connection.
With the help of
some search engines you got to your first .torrent file and downloaded with succ
ess your first
file. Now just like a good handyman, you need to assemble some more tools to go
from a
torrent newbie to a torrent ninja. Chances are that you already have some of the
m installed
on your computer.
Your torrent toolkit
x
Dependable Security Software ±
This ...........................................................................
.....................
but are a must have for the overall safety of your PC. The worthy ones are: Zone
Alarm Free Firewall, Comodo Firewall Pro, AVG Anti-Virus, Avira Anti-Virus,
Avast..............................................
While on the topic of security, you can hop over and read this post on the Best
Programs to Keep Your Computer Secure.
x
An archiving utility - Downloaded torrent files can be in many forms and you may
have to un-zip or un-rar them or convert them to a more usable format. WinZip an
d
WinRar are the most popular programs going around though they are not free. One
excellent freeware alternative is 7-Zip. ZipItFree is another freeware WinZip
alternative.
x
An all-purpose media player - The four all purpose video players that should han
dle
and play any video file are: Windows Media Player, VLC player, Media Player Clas
sic
and DivX player. You can download these at their respective websites.
Tip: you can also check out what is the most popular video player among MakeUseO
f
readers here. It's also likely to be to be the most comprehensive one when it co
mes
to playing different video files.
VLC
Windows Media Player
DivX
Media Player Classic
x
Codecs to handle all media files - Codecs are little programs used to compress a
nd or
decompress large digital media files. They are frequently required in order to b
e able
to play certain video files in your media player. For instance, the K-Lite codec
pack is
among the most popular downloads (in some cases it comes with the media player
itself, like aforementioned Media Player Classic). For Windows Media Player, cod
ecs
can be found at the Microsoft website. .........................................
.............................................«
Free-Codecs.com
Fourcc.org
XPCodecpack.com
Tweak under the hood ²
A fine-tuning tutorial for faster downloads
By now you should be feeling confident about tackling a few settings under the h
ood. Just a
few nips and tucks to the default settings will help boost your torrent download
speeds and
optimize it for your bandwidth.
1. Your ISP is where it starts
................................................................................
................................................................................
..

specific bandwidths for both uploads and downloads. Obviously your torrent downl
oad speed
................................................................................
..............this article on Speed.io on how to check your
broadband speed. There are many other bandwidth testers like DSLReports which is
the one
used by µTorrent.
................................................................................
................................................................................
............................

internet service which can help you out. Read about it here.
MakeuseOf.com has some other helpful hints on ways to increase your connection s
peed.
2. Choosing the right BitTorrent client
This fundamental step cannot be emphasized enough ±
it will save you half the bother. The
choice of client used should always be updated to the latest version.
3. Go for healthy seeds and peers
For high torrent speeds, the best bet is in numbers. Greater the number of seede
rs, healthier
is the torrent and better is the chance of higher speeds. The rule of thumb says
to choose
torrent files with a high number of seeders and preferably lesser number of leec
hers i.e. a
higher seed-leecher ratio.
4. Get through the Firewall
Firewalls can block all incoming BitTorrent connections coming through. To ensur
e
otherwise, a firewall should be manually configured to accept the connections an
d let it
through the client. Windows XP has the Windows Firewall. Configure the firewall
installed to
accept the connections by checking the BitTorrent client on the allowed list i.e
. Options Preferences
±
Connection -check Add µTorrent to Windows Firewall. Also, check the
Windows Firewall exception (if you keep it enabled) in your client too. Shutting
 down the
firewall is not recommended as it leaves the computer open to attack.
Note: If the home computer is behind a router, it also should be configured thro
ugh the
feature called Port Range Forwarding to enable torrent traffic. The router docum
entation
should have specific information on this.
5. Limit your upload rate
................................................................................
................................................................................
..............

download rate too. Using the speed tests, find out your maximum upload speed and
then set
................................................................................
............................................................................r ma
ximum
upload speed. You can try varying your upload speeds ±
keep it high initially and then
gradually bring it down towards the middle of the download. Downloads also tend
to go
quicker if you seed more.
Note: Mind the speed units ±
it may be given in kilobits per second (kb/sec) or kilobytes per
second (kB/sec). 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobit
6. Go to a different port
The default port for the BitTorrent protocol is any between port numbers 6881-69
99. ISPs
throttle traffic on these ports as BitTorrent sharing ..........................
............................................................
configure a different port in your torrent client. Use some number above 10000 t
o get around
ISPs and also avoid problems with other applications. By default, the µTorrent por
t is
randomized each time it starts. Set a specific port by not enabling the Randomiz
e Port
setting. Again check if the port is forwarded properly using the button in the S
peed Guide.
Remember, different types of data, such as web sites, file downloads, and torren
ts, are each
given a specific port. Port forwarding is the process that a software (or hardwa
re like routers)
uses to screen the right kind of data to the right port. Portforward.com provide
s step-by-step
guides on how to set up this port forwarding.
7. Increase the number of Max Half Open TCP connections
This figure specifies how many connections a torrent client should attempt to es
tablish
simultaneously at any given time. To make it clearer ±
it is the number of connection
attempts in progress and NOT the total number of connections.
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or newer, limits this to a default of 10 as
a barrier
................................................................................
............................torrent speeds as torrents too need a
large number of simultaneous connections. A patch has been available for a while
from
www.LvlLord.de, which modifies the TCPIP.sys file in Windows to allow higher num
ber of
TCP connections.

After running the patch, you have to set the number of connections in your torre
nt client. For
example, in µTorrent go to Options ±
Preferences ±
Advanced -net.max_halfopen. Set any
number from 50 to 100. But see that net.max_halfopen is set lower than the value
set in
TCPIP.SYS. Always check if it is still patched because Windows updates sometimes
overwrite it.

Mac and Linux need not sweat it as this is a Windows O..........................

8. Experiment with Protocol Encryption
Some ISPs love to act like Big Brothers and constrict bandwidth for P2P protocol
s. Protocol
Encryption in most of the torrent clients helps to over ride this bandwidth shap
ing. Enable
outgoing protocol encryption and put a checkmark on Allow Incoming Legacy Connec
tions.
With protocol encryption, ISPs find it difficult if not impossible to detect tha
t the traffic is
coming from BitTorrent. Experiment with enabled, disabled and forced options bec
ause you
could be getting better speeds with encryption disabled. Non-encryption makes a
torrent
connection compatible with someone who is not using encryption but as a minus it
makes the
torrent detectable but an ISP with a bandwidth restricting policy.

9. Bandwidth and connections

......................................................................ptions wil
l let you enter figures for ±

Global maximum number of connections gives the maximum number of connections tha
t a
BitTorrent client can make for any P2P exchange. Setting this too high DOES not
mean
higher speeds. Setting it too high would take up useless bandwidth and too low a
figure
would miss out on peers. For my 256kbps connection, I have a setting of 130
Maximum number of connected peers per torrent gives the maximum number of peers
that a
BitTorrent client can connect to for any P2P exchange. Experiment by setting thi
s number
close to the available peers for a particular torrent. For my 256kbps connection
, I have a
default setting of 70.
Number of upload slots per torrent gives the maximum number of peers that a BitT
orrent
client will upload to for any P2P exchange. A low setting may affect downloads.
For my
256kbps connection, I have a setting of 3
µTorrent has a Speed Guide which handily calculates the optimal figures for a part
icular
connection.
10. Some common sense
Most BitTorrent clients allow us to view the individual files in a download. You
can selectively
................................................................................
................................

Familiarize yourself with the customization settings of your particular client a

vailable in the
Help files or at the website FAQs.
Some useful torrent software and FAQs, which are a mine of information and tips.

BitTorrent User Guide

µTorrent FAQ
Vuze FAQ
Optimizing the speed of torrent downloads is a lot of trial and error and a bit
of patience.
Share alike ²
Creating our own Torrent
So far we have been preoccupied with downloading features but torrents are not a
one way
street. The community survives and thrives because somebody out there is taking
the pains
to create and upload the torrents. Uploading a torrent is not all about being la
rge
................................................................................
................................................................................
........................

torrents and uploading them for your friends to download is also a cool way to d
istribute a
large digital chunk in one go.
................................................................................
................................................................................
......................

and the manner of torrents before you start with your first upload. If you have
jumped the
................................................................................
..........................................................hemselves. Here µTorrent
........................................«

1.
Open µTorrent. On the menu bar click on the wand button ±
the Create New Torrent
icon.
2. The Create New Torrent box opens up. For uploading a single file click on Add
File
and for uploading a bunch of files in a folder click on Add Directory.
3. Browse to where you have kept the files (or folder) for upload. Click on OK t
o include
these as your source files.
4.
Filling in the Trackers box is an important step towards finishing your torrent
upload.
Mininova lists a few reliable public tracker URLs. You can use one or many. If y
ou
decide to list more than one, put a blank line between each URL by hitting Enter
twice. Check the Start seeding box and click on ................................
......Give your
torrent file a nice descriptive name.
4 More Tracker URL Resource Sites for your reference.
Beehive.v2 -BTList -Fenopy -Fileshare Freak
Though some of the trackers might be inactive or dead, the tracker URL lists are
quite
large and within the haystack you will get the one to do your job.
5. As soon as you save your torrent file, it gets added to your active list in µTo
rrent, and
th..............................................................................
....................................
6.
All that is left is to upload the .torrent file to a tracker website like Minino
va or
Piratebay. All tracker websites have an Upload link. Some like PirateBay require
a
log-in for you to access their upload page. Please read the rules and the copyri
ght
policy before you upload your .torrent file.
Enter the details in the form. Click on submit and you are done. Not quite! Now
let the
torrent seed for a while (......................................................
........W
for 100%) so others can pick it up.
.............................................................................."

Surely a beginning, you have just discovered a wonderful way to share and gain.
BitTorrent
is almost like a Utopian world where the person who shares (or seeds) the most b
enefits the
most. This co-existing network grows without limits as every new player not only
takes from
the network but also gives. The popularity of BitTorrent has spawned numerous tr
acker
websites and search engines, and of course the huge wealth of digital content. A
ll it takes to
find a desired torrent file is a search. But as Peter Parker (a.k.a Spiderman) p
ut it ±
with
great power comes great responsibility ±
it isuptothe swarm to follow the rules of the game.