51–60 of 89 posts
Hey! I invented the magnet link, almost 10 years ago. Great to see it still evolving and spreading, based simply on its loosey-goosey merits.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's weird, I've been seeing it for years but I never understood what it is. I still don't really. But when I click on the magnets things seem to download immediately. So looks like you built something pretty amazing. Congrats!
It's basically a URI that contains the torrent hash enabling a client to find peers through a decentralized network such as DHT instead of requiring a tracker. I believe you can append trackers and other info to the URI as well, but I'm not sure about that.
Can someone fill me in on the first step a client (BT) would take to find its first peers? That part is a bit magic to me right now. What would be the first IP it would query and how would it know?
There are three main methods (in order of preference): 1. Use a cached list from a previous run. This is ideal in terms of load balancing, and also helps with bootstrap time if your IP hasn't changed, so all major torrent clients have such a cache. 2. Ask peers you're connected to via a traditional tracker and .torrent file. This is the next best thing, but can only be used if the first torrent you download is via a…
To clarify, if someone has never downloaded a torrent before and starts with a rarely downloaded file, would the use of only magnet links mean they will probably not be able to find another peer? It sounds like unless you already have torrents downloaded, your list of possible peers to check for the file is very short.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are three main methods (in order of preference): 1. Use a cached list from a previous run. This is ideal in terms of load balancing, and also helps with bootstrap time if your IP hasn't changed, so all major torrent clients have such a cache. 2. Ask peers you're connected to via a traditional tracker and .torrent file. This is the next best thing, but can only be used if the first torrent you download is via a…
Thanks for the information, this part was always a mystery to me as well. To clarify, if someone has never downloaded a torrent before and starts with a rarely downloaded file, would the use of only magnet links mean they will probably not be able to find another peer? It sounds like unless you already have torrents downloaded, your list of possible peers to check for the file is very short.
Hey! I invented the magnet link, almost 10 years ago. Great to see it still evolving and spreading, based simply on its loosey-goosey merits.
Can someone fill me in on the first step a client (BT) would take to find its first peers? That part is a bit magic to me right now. What would be the first IP it would query and how would it know?
There are three main methods (in order of preference): 1. Use a cached list from a previous run. This is ideal in terms of load balancing, and also helps with bootstrap time if your IP hasn't changed, so all major torrent clients have such a cache. 2. Ask peers you're connected to via a traditional tracker and .torrent file. This is the next best thing, but can only be used if the first torrent you download is via a…
Can anyone say what the gist of this article is? Blocked from torrent sites at work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the information, this part was always a mystery to me as well. To clarify, if someone has never downloaded a torrent before and starts with a rarely downloaded file, would the use of only magnet links mean they will probably not be able to find another peer? It sounds like unless you already have torrents downloaded, your list of possible peers to check for the file is very short.
If your client connects to just one peer you essentially gain access to the entire bittorrent DHT network. As a dramatic simplification, your request for the rare torrent would propagate until it found the peers seeding or downloading it.
Hey! I invented the magnet link, almost 10 years ago. Great to see it still evolving and spreading, based simply on its loosey-goosey merits.