Originally Posted by
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.
Bookmarks