Azureus Setup Questions

Hi Everyone,
I'm thinking of switching to Azureus and I'd really appreciate your help in setting it up. How do I completely shut off DHT, the Distributed Database, and Peer Exchange? Do I go to Tools -> Options -> Plugins -> and uncheck the checkboxes next to Distributed DB & Distributed Tracker that says load at startup? Any other settings to change with regards to DHT, the Distributed Database, & Peer Exchange? Also how about all the other plugins that are checked and set to load at starup. Is it ok to turn some or all of these as well?

The reason I want to turn off DHT, the Distributed Database, & Peer Exchange is that I don't want to announce the torrents publicly from private trackers. According to the Azureus wiki thats not a concern because it states that DHT is only a fall-back mechanism. Is this true? Also are the torrents from private trackers already setup to prevent the use of DHT with them even if the bittorrent client has DHT turned on?

Sorry for the deluge of questions but you'd really be clearing up a lot of this for me.

Thanks in advance for your help

Try this:

Go to Connection, Enable Public IP Network (not anonymous) and From a tracker. (uncheck the rest)

Go to "Plugins\Tracker\Web and disable it

Go to "Plugins\Distributed DB" and disable it

Go to "Plugins\Distributed Tracker and disable it

Go to "Plugins\JPC" and disable it

Go to "Tracker Client" and "Enable key passing to tracker for enhanced security"

Next go to "Tracker\Server" and disable all.

Last step go to "Sharing" and ENABLE "Private torrent - only accept peers from the tracker"
and Uncheck "Add hashes for other networks"

Final restart Azureus client, DHT should be disable completely.

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Originally Posted by grchl3

Also how about all the other plugins that are checked and set to load at starup. Is it ok to turn some or all of these as well?

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Any particular plugins that we are talking about?

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According to the Azureus wiki thats not a concern because it states that DHT is only a fall-back mechanism. Is this true?

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Correct.

I'm not sure whether you want to disable Peer Exchange (not sure how you do that anyway) - if every peer's BT client is behaving properly, then none of them would even get exchange any peers from outside of the tracker.

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Also are the torrents from private trackers already setup to prevent the use of DHT with them even if the bittorrent client has DHT turned on?

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Yes. If a torrent has the private flag marked on it (and most private tracker sites do), then it won't use the DHT for it.

Thanks very much for the help guys :) and the breakdown of the steps to take was very cool Chi Pheo :)

I tried downloading a torrent from demonoid to see how Azureus would work when downloading a torrent from a private tracker and when I get details for the torrent the following is listed under the Info tab:
Peer Sources: Tracker,Plugin

Is this normal for Plugin to be listed as a Peer Source and if not how do I disable it? Which plugin is this referring to anyway? I don't have any extra plugins installed, just the 20 that ship by default with Azureus. Are you guys seeing the same thing "Peer Sources: Tracker,Plugin" or is it something more like "Peer Sources: Tracker"

Also am I worrying too much about shutting off DHT/Distributed Database/Peer Exchange? I'm concerned about this because I don't want to inadvertently make a private torrent public, but is this even a possibility or will the tracker such as demonoid prevent this from happening regardless of the settings on my bittorrent client.

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In my client, there is nothing under Peer Sources. Did you see DHT disabled on the bottom panel ? As long as you can see DHT Disabled, you are fine.
I will look into the Peer Sources stuff and be back.

Thanks again for the help Chi Pheo. I really appreciate it.

Yes, I can see DHT Disabled on the bottom panel.

I double clicked the torrent file in the main window of Azureus and then I clicked on the Info tab. That's where I saw "Peer Sources: Tracker,Plugin". It was on the right hand side of the screen about 4 lines under the Pieces progress bar.

I followed almost all the steps you mentioned. The 3 steps I could not find were:

Go to "Plugins\JPC" and disable it
Go to "Tracker Client" and "Enable key passing to tracker for enhanced security"
Next go to "Tracker\Server" and disable all.

I'm guessing this is because I chose beginner mode when setting up Azureus for the first time and I need to be in Intermediate mode or higher. Now I can't seem to find the setting to get out of beginner mode. Could you tell me where to look for this?

tools > options > mode, set to advanced
tools > options > connection, peer sources, only check 'from a tracker'

Go to "Plugins\JPC" is not available in version 2.5.0.0 or higher.

Tracker/Client and Server can be found under Tracker on the left panel. (disabled all under Tracker external IP address)

Change mode can be found at Mode , right above IP filter.

Thanks again for the help guys.

Doh, I completely missed the Mode setting.:blushing:

So I guess I'm ok now that the bottom panel says DHT disabled. Chi Pheo, in general would you recommend disabling DHT to keep a torrent from a private tracker private or do you consider it unnecessary?

Thanks

Yes, I would recommend due to the following reason:
- Not loosing the amount of upload to outside peers.
- Keep the torrent private from unwanted ppl.
- Some sites disabled your account if you dont turn this feature off.

PS: Do you still have problem with changing mode ?

As helpful as Chi Pheo's instructions are - a lot of stuff that's being described here is over the top and not necessary at all.

First of all - the setting Chi Pheo recommends changing: the settings under Tracker are only used if you are running your own tracker in Azureus. If you're not intending to run your own tracker with Azureus, it doesn't matter what settings you put here.

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Originally Posted by grchl3

Is this normal for Plugin to be listed as a Peer Source and if not how do I disable it?

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It is normal - it means that plugins are able to be used to retrieve peers. I wouldn't worry about it, since you would know if you were running any plugins which supplied peers in this way.

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Also am I worrying too much about shutting off DHT/Distributed Database/Peer Exchange?

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Yes. :) But there's nothing wrong with asking questions.

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I'm concerned about this because I don't want to inadvertently make a private torrent public, but is this even a possibility or will the tracker such as demonoid prevent this from happening regardless of the settings on my bittorrent client.

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Well, Demonoid is a bad example, since they don't have private torrents there - you may need a login to get to the torrents on the site, but it's quite common for the torrents to be published to other torrent sites.

But for those trackers which don't want their torrents to be published via DHT, they will have a 'private' flag set on them that Azureus will listen to.

You don't need to disable DHT - if the tracker says to not use DHT, then it won't.

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would you recommend disabling DHT to keep a torrent from a private tracker private or do you consider it unnecessary?

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I'd re-enable it. Most people have it on - it's useful for those torrents which aren't private.

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Originally Posted by Chi Pheo

Not loosing the amount of upload to outside peers.

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That's not accurate. As I've said before, if the torrent is private, it won't try to get peers from other sources. Besides - if a peer (somehow) who does not use the tracker is able to make an incoming connection to you, Azureus will transfer data to them (as will any other BT client).

BT clients don't verify that incoming connections are valid peers from the tracker (Azureus does have some experimental code to do that, but it still needs some testing done).

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Originally Posted by Chi Pheo

Keep the torrent private from unwanted ppl.

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If the torrent is private, it won't be published on the DHT.

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Originally Posted by Chi Pheo

Some sites disabled your account if you dont turn this feature off.

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This used to be the case a long time ago - that was when DHT was first introduced. Tracker sites complained, and so the next Azureus release was changed to not use the DHT if a torrent had a private flag on it. I don't know of any site that I use which still requests DHT is turned off.

Agree, The instruction is abit complex for normal user. I used to be uploader at some sites and saw it my self how the data uploaded went to outside peers and not record correctly in my ratio. Also, someone always can give the torrents to their friends who are not members of the sites (my friend do it sometimes with exclusive files). Disable or Enable DHT is your personal choice and there is nothing need to be discussed. :)

Thanks so much for all the help guys. I didn't know where else to turn for info and you guys cleared up a lot of this for me. I love this community! :) Chi Pheo, thanks for patiently walking me through my endless array of questions. dollyoops, thanks for the detailed answer. Chi Pheo, I know you said that you had something different listed than what I see on my client - "Peer Sources: Tracker,Plugin". dollyoops, are you seeing the same Peer Sources line or something else. I tried looking at some other private trackers after reading what you said about demonoid. For all the other private trackers I've checked like oink I get "Peer Sources: Tracker,Plugin". For indietorrents I get "Tracker,PeerExchange,Plugin" Is this the same stuff you guys are getting?

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Originally Posted by Chi Pheo

I used to be uploader at some sites and saw it my self how the data uploaded went to outside peers and not record correctly in my ratio.

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But if I remember correctly, when your BT client contacts the tracker, it only submits the amount you've uploaded / downloaded, it doesn't specify how many bytes you have sent to each peer. So I'm not sure that's related.

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Also, someone always can give the torrents to their friends who are not members of the sites (my friend do it sometimes with exclusive files).

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But if they do that, then the tracker will usually match the torrent using a passkey - so the user still counts as a valid user. Alternatively, the other user would have to login to get the tracker to associate the account with their IP.

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Disable or Enable DHT is your personal choice and there is nothing need to be discussed. :)

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:)

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Originally Posted by grchl3

For all the other private trackers I've checked like oink I get "Peer Sources: Tracker,Plugin".

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I get that for Oink.

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For indietorrents I get "Tracker,PeerExchange,Plugin" Is this the same stuff you guys are getting?

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I lost my Indietorrents account a long time ago (didn't visit it often enough)... :(

But it's possible that torrents from IndieTorrents don't have the private flag on them - so that would make sense. Other torrents I have which aren't private have: "Tracker,DHT,PeerExchange,Plugin".

So if IndieTorrents doesn't have the private flag set on torrents, and you've not got DHT enabled, then that is what I would expect.

You might want to have a look at this page too:
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Secure_Torrents

azureus is good but i find that u torrent is better it is less buggy

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Originally Posted by micky3840

azureus is good but i find that u torrent is better it is less buggy

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There are plenty of uTorrent vs Azureus threads here already - this doesn't need to be another one.