Forgive the presumptuousness

[Aristocles]

I am curious about the spate of recent closings. . . does this signal anything? What I mean is that I read what seems to flailing and paranoia. Is this just justified or is it just a youthful paranoia? I am older than most, I suppose, and I tend to be measured in the way I take things, however I don't wish to be naive.

Over the years, it (the closings) seems to be a rather regular thing, soon followed by new openings. It sort of waxes and wanes.

Perhaps it is becoming something to worry about? What do you guys make of TPB's DHT PEX notion? Self serving tripe? Good path? Actually, I am unclear on it. I cannot get my mind around how the client uses DHT to find peers sans a tracker. I guess I just don't understand how it does this. Does the client use the .torrent file that it downloads from an indexer?

Thanks for the indulgence :D

[KushBlow]

The thread name sounds delicious.

[Aristocles]

In retrospect I might have a bead on the 'trackerless torrent' thing. The client would download the .torrent, then it would calculate the hash, then search out peers. But wouldn't, at some original point, it be a necessity for thyere to be a tracker involved? I'm confused :)

"The thread name sounds delicious."

I have 'torrented' for years but never really considered the whole process.

[anon]

Perhaps it is becoming something to worry about? What do you guys make of TPB's DHT PEX notion? Self serving tripe? Good path? Actually, I am unclear on it. I cannot get my mind around how the client uses DHT to find peers sans a tracker. I guess I just don't understand how it does this. Does the client use the .torrent file that it downloads from an indexer?

Finding peers via DHT is relatively easy. I'm not an expert on the BitTorrent protocol, but since you'll already have the info_hash from the .torrent file, it's a matter of telling the nodes on your proximity "you know any peers for hash ABC? Pass it on". They'll do so until a certain amount of hops is reached, then bring you the results.

PEX is similar, but you ask the peers you're connected to if they know of any sources you don't.

Magnet links (which is what TPB has implemented recently) allow you to download the .torrent metadata from DHT nodes by simply knowing its hash. Once you get it, you'll also ask the DHT for peers. The download should then start.

[Detale]

Is that you Ben? Maybe Art. Hmmmm I got my eye on you pal

[Aristocles]

Perhaps it is becoming something to worry about? What do you guys make of TPB's DHT PEX notion? Self serving tripe? Good path? Actually, I am unclear on it. I cannot get my mind around how the client uses DHT to find peers sans a tracker. I guess I just don't understand how it does this. Does the client use the .torrent file that it downloads from an indexer?

Finding peers via DHT is relatively easy. I'm not an expert on the BitTorrent protocol, but since you'll already have the info_hash from the .torrent file, it's a matter of telling the nodes on your proximity "you know any peers for hash ABC? Pass it on". They'll do so until a certain amount of hops is reached, then bring you the results.

PEX is similar, but you ask the peers you're connected to if they know of any sources you don't.

Magnet links (which is what TPB has implemented recently) allow you to download the .torrent metadata from DHT nodes by simply knowing its hash. Once you get it, you'll also ask the DHT for peers. The download should then start.

Again, I am much obliged.

So, the client uses the hash to cast about for other 'hash possessors' until a number of them are found? If I understand, how is this accomplished? I thought the original .torrent file had something in it that directed the client to a tracker, that then would check hashes. So the client can do this basically alone? Forgive the puerile questions but I am trying to grasp this. :unsure:

[anon]

So, the client uses the hash to cast about for other 'hash possessors' until a number of them are found? If I understand, how is this accomplished? I thought the original .torrent file had something in it that directed the client to a tracker, that then would check hashes. So the client can do this basically alone? Forgive the puerile questions but I am trying to grasp this. :unsure:

The hash is calculated from the .torrent. You can say it's taken out of it. Your client then asks the other DHT nodes if they know any other peers which are active on a torrent with the same hash.