Transmission

I have Ubuntu server 11.10 with transmission-deamon install Works AWESOME I love it, been using it for about 5 months.

The other day i was having bandwidth issue with the Ubuntu server box, so i installed iftop to monitor the connections, Transmission did NOT Have ANY torrents listed or active, yet there were around 20 connections listed in iftop, I thought i was hacked, so I started shutting down any services that connect to the web, like ssh, webmin, transmission, the second I stopped the Transmission service the connections listed in iftop dropped to on 2 connections that were local to my own network.

So I figured it was just some ghosting connections and transmission is dropping them when no torrents are found, so i started transmission back up and in about 30 seconds there was 7 - 12 new connections.

I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I have very limited Bandwidth and these connection are consuming 2MB every 7 - 10 minutes that's like 8GB a month which is A LOT compared to my monthly bandwidth allocated.

I want transmission to be available when i need it, and not have to ssh into the box and start the service every time I want to use it

Anything I can do ?

I though DHT was based on the torrents that you had to send Keys to other nodes?

therefore if I have 0 torrents then DHT should not be distributing keys to other nodes.

anyway a script or something can be made to stop this traffic if you have no torrents ?

Yes , but is it possible for transmission to run a script when a torrent is added and when a torrent completes?

If so, myself or someone could write a script that goes:

torrent added
turn on DHT and PEX
torrent Completed:
check active torrents
if active torrents is 0 then
DHT and PEX disable

But isn't it the case that DHT doesn't actually help with torrents you have active so turning it on or off whether you have active torrents or not is actually irrelevant.

I think running DHT is more a thing to help keep the torrent network healthy. So if you don't want to pitch in, switch it off. I can see where there might be a case for "I want to help but not to the tune of 8GB/month" in which case, some kind of limit option might be the way to go.

That's my understanding anyway. I don't have a deep understanding of the torrent protocol.