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General discussion

Stable BitTorrent Client?

Jan 30, 2005 10:31PM PST

Hi there.

I am trying to find a stable and reliable BitTorrent client. So far I have tried the original BitTorrent client, BT++, Azureus, ABC, BitTornado but none of them is stable enough. Azureus was the one I used most, but as with the other ones, it crashes very often.

Anyone knows of another BitTorrent client which is relatively stable?

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Nobody?
Feb 13, 2005 1:18AM PST

I guess not many people work with Torrents...

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reply
Feb 13, 2005 2:27AM PST

Dear tziyras,

What exactly do you mean by stable? If you mean the speed, the client has no say in that - torrents are Peer-to-peer protocols, and the speed of your downloads/uploads depends solely on your internet connection, their internet connection, and their bandwidth settings.

The most popular clients used are Azureus and BitTornado. I myself use Tornado with no difficulty whatsoever. Please let me know what exactly you mean by stable.

-AInTeL

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Stable...
Feb 14, 2005 2:50AM PST

By stable I mean one that does not crash often. For some reason all the BitTorrent clients I used, crashed very frequently. Also, while the clients were running thre internet activity of my connection would drop to zero for a minute or two, and then resume. During that downtime I would be unable to perform any kind of internet related activity.

Thanks again,

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Bit
Feb 13, 2005 9:30PM PST

Is this the software that is mostly used to steal, I mean share, DVD's ?

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reply to Duckman
Feb 14, 2005 1:48AM PST

Dear duckman,

The torrent system is based on peer-to-peer file sharing. Legally, I don't think it's considered stealing.

But that is not the issue at hand. The question was asking for something called a "stable" client, not whether it's legal or not.

-AInTeL

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Stealing vs Sharing
Feb 14, 2005 2:53AM PST

The use of such software is not illegal if people share data which is not protected by copyright. It is therefore unfair to say that all users of peer-to-peer software are thieves.

My question, however, was not about the legality of BitTorrent clients. I am just looking to find a client that is stable and will run smoothly without crashes.

Thanks

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Reply to Question
Feb 14, 2005 6:56AM PST

Dear tzouras,

I now understand what you mean by stable. Your torrent downloads/uploads do not crash due to a failure in the client. BitTornado and Azureus are very capable clients.

The problem you are experiencing is lack of good connections to your peers. Your downloads reach zero when you cannot establish a fair connection with the peers.

There is nothing you can do with the problem, other than finding a source of more populated, and courteous torrents.

-AInTeL

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Yes, but...
Feb 16, 2005 12:54AM PST

Dear AlnTel

What you are saying is very true but I think does not apply to my case. I uderstand why my connection speed in the BitTorrent client can drop to 0, but that does not explain why my connection is also 0 for every program that runs the internet.

When my connection speed drops to 0 it's like I am not connected at all. My borwser won't work, neither will other intrnet applications such as MSN, WinMX, you name it)

And the other thing is that when the BitTorrent client is being used my connection drops to 0 very abruplty, stays to 0 for a minute or two and then it goes back up to where it was before.

Check this out:

http://www.repertorio.addr.com/Internet_Activity.jpg

A picture says a thousand words

Thanks again for your reply

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reply
Feb 16, 2005 2:53AM PST

Dear tzouras,

You did not state in your previous posts that the problem was with all online programs.

Your BitTorrent client is not the cause of the problem. When you first connect to peers and seeders, your speeds are at zero. Soon, you establish connections, and your speeds (down + up) begin to rise.

What might be happening, is for some reason your internet connection if fluctuating madly, or is being disconnected for a short period of time. When this happens, your connections to your download peers and seeders are lost, and you once again have to wait a minute or two to restablish the connections.

The reasons for your internet to be course a few. For one, it may be your ISP's problem, it may be a problem with your computer, or a problem with your network (such as modem or router). Either way, your internet fluctuations are not, or should not be caused by your BitTorrent client. Of course, your downloads will slow down your internet speed while active, but they themselves would not be at zero, and at the same time using up all of your bandwidth.

That said, I might as well give an example. You may have the same, or a similar problem to mine old one. For some bizarre reason, one light-switch in my basement, caused split second of power shortage in one of the rooms, which contained the modem and the router. When the switch was flicked, my modem would reset itself and I would have to wait a minute before the internet was once again available.

Again, your problem might be something completely different, and I cannot pinpoint the exactly problem with your internet connection. Although what I can tell you, is that if your torrent speeds reach zero, along with your browser and such, then it's not a problem with your client. The problem is your internet connection which seems to flux, and your torrents temporarily lose connections to the seeders/peers.

Hope this helps,
-AInTeL

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it's probably your computer...
Mar 4, 2005 5:27AM PST

It's probably the computer itself, and not the ISP. If it's the ISP, the connection speed should sink to zero whenever you use the internet, and not only while Bittorrent is on. Also, it crashes you computer, ISPs usually don't do that...

What kind of computer do you use? Running on what OS?

I recommend TorrentStorm. It uses less processing power while running multiple torrents. That should help on slower computers.

Also, many ISPs now throttle TCP upload bandwidth on ports 6881-6900 to nearly zero. It's clearly done to discourage BT useage. If you don't upload, the other users' clients will choke your download, which means zero download speed. The newer clients get around this problem by selecting random ports on a wider range. So, it's better to get the latest client. This probably isn't your problem though...

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Thanks
Mar 4, 2005 10:00AM PST

Thanks for your reply

I am running Win XP Pro on a P IV 3.2 MHz.

I will try TorrentStorm and will let u know if I get any progress.

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reply
Mar 4, 2005 12:03PM PST

Dear tzouras,

No way you're running anything on 3.2 MHz Happy - You mean GHz.

You shouldn't have any processing speed with the torrents, so it's something else/

-AInTeL