Creating a torrent to send files to a friend

[jowie]

Hi there,

I'm trying to use Transmission 1.54 on Mac (Tiger) to create a torrent file to send to a friend so they can download a chunk of files from me... I'm using OpenBitTorrent as a tracker and it created it fine, checked the file and started seeding. I sent the torrent file to my friend, and it opens in Transmission at his end okay but he can't find me as a peer to download from. I've tried ticking the "Private torrent" box, and having it public, but it doesn't seem to make a difference (I don't understand what it does anyway?!)...

Is it more complicated than this? Or is there a cure?

Thanks for your help!

:-Joe

[rb07]

The procedure you describe is correct.

There's one problem, openbittorrent uses an UDP tracker, your version of Transmission can't handle those. In fact when you created the .torrent file the application usually complains if you enter an UDP url (read that as "used to complain, in old versions").

UDP tracker support started with version 2.30 .

[jowie]

Thanks... Is there another tracker I can use? I heard that you can go ahead without a tracker even though it complains, is that worth a go?

[rb07]

I heard that you can go ahead without a tracker even though it complains, is that worth a go?

That probably means DHT, which is trackerless, but will only work for torrents known to other DHT members of the same cloud. In other words: no, it will not work in this case... unless you and your friend are on the same cloud (don't ask me how to find that out, I don't know).

I don't know of any open tracker that uses HTTP, only UDP (Openbittorrent and Publicbittorrent), but I'm not an expert. From Google I found this one: denis.stalker, but I think its one that doesn't work, or goes down frequently.

[jowie]

yes - it appears to be down at the moment so I guess unless we use Transmission 2 in Leopard, I guess there's not much hope?

[rb07]

I'm not sure, you should ask in the Mac sub-forum, but I think there are recent versions that can run in older Mac OSX versions, perhaps its the daemon, but it could be Transmission-Qt. I don't know if there are ready made installers for those on Mac.

Or you could use "the other guys" (flame proof suit on).

[jowie]

Okay thanks for all your help, didn't realise there was a Mac sub-forum (oops). I don't think I'd dare use any of the "other guys" since I'd have to explain to my friend how to download and install, and I've not used anything but Transmission for so long it would probably be more trouble than it was worth

Thanks.

[jowie]

Or you could just use any old filesharing site.

What do you mean, create a public torrent?

[blacke4dawn]

Or you could just use any old filesharing site.

What do you mean, create a public torrent?

No, like rapidshare, where you aren't dependent on seeders to share it with your friends, just the rapidshare server.

[jowie]

No, like rapidshare, where you aren't dependent on seeders to share it with your friends, just the rapidshare server.

Isn't there a limit? Was going to try Megaupload but the limit is 1GB. I need to transfer 2GB. I'm also worried about being halfway through a transfer and it losing connection... Bittorent is much more reliable on that score.

[rb07]

Isn't there a limit? Was going to try Megaupload but the limit is 1GB. I need to transfer 2GB. I'm also worried about being halfway through a transfer and it losing connection... Bittorent is much more reliable on that score.

Many people just make several pieces, instead of just one. The rar/unrar and zip/unzip applications can do that easy.

BTW on the other thread, the one about Transmission-Qt, beware that many people don't know how to use it. It should work as is, no need for installing a daemon.

The confusion is probably that Transmission-Qt can work in 2 modes: local session, and remote session. The first is you usual application, just like Transmission-Mac but with a different interface. The remote session is for controlling a Transmission daemon, which could be running anywhere.

Both modes have the Web interface available, the difference is that local session opens the Web interface to your running application (and this is what people on the other thread get wrong), the remote session opens the Web interface of the daemon. And there is no need to use the Web interface.