bittorrent - How to download a trackerless torrent?

07
2014-07
  • Noob Doob

    I have a somewhat old PC at home, and I would like to try to extend its useful life with a linux distro. Reading various reviews, I decided that the first one to give a try would be LXLE. However, it's download can only be done through a trackerless torrent. Having downloaded the torrent file, I have seen no progress so far, and as some other people had this problem too, I know it has something to do with my settings (e.g. my port 80 is not visible). Can someone give me a brief "tutorial" as to how to overcome this?

    • Answers
  • Vinayak

    You could find the torrent hash from uTorrent:

    torrent hash

    And look up the hash on Torrentz.eu. From the search result, download a uTorrent compatible list of trackers by clicking on the µTorrent compatible list here link.

    tracker list

    Then in uTorrent, update the torrent properties to add those trackers to the list.

    torrent properties

    After that, the trackers should auto update and if there are any seeds or peers available, you should be able to see them in the Trackers tab.

    seeds and peers

    NOTE:

    LXLE's website however does state that they use trackless torrents and after waiting for a while to find peers, the download should start.

    LXLE torrents currently do not utilize a third party tracker, unless specified by the seeder, to respect user rights. Therefore the torrents may take slightly longer to start, its also likely it will not report any seeders only peers, this is the nature of a trackerless torrent. Make sure your torrent ports are open and be patient, once peers are found download speeds are quick.


    • Related Question

    bittorrent - Can a torrent with zero seeders download?
  • ripper234

    I've heard a claim that a torrent with zero seeders can actually be downloaded in a finite amount of time, because not all people subscribe to the same torrent file, but you can still find them using other techniques such as DHT. Is this true in practice?


    • Related Answers
  • Eran

    DHT and Peer Exchange are not tracker related, but program related, so yes they can find people who are downloading the same file but are not connected to the tracker you are using. Those people that are found might be either seeders or leechers.

  • David M

    Yes, it is true in practice - but not always. With no seeders, there's no guarantee that 100% of the download is available.

  • splattne

    From this BiTorrent FAQ:

    When there are zero seeds for a given torrent (and not enough peers to have a distributed copy), then eventually all the peers will get stuck with an incomplete file, if no one in the swarm has the missing pieces.

    When this happens, someone with a complete file (a seed) must connect to the swarm so that those missing pieces can be transferred. This is called reseeding. Usually a request for a reseed comes with an implicit promise that the requester will leave his or her client open for some time period after finishing (to add longevity to the torrent) in return for the kind soul reseeding the file.

  • Seasoned Advice (cooking)

    DHT clients do not need tracker to operate, so it can download without any seeders, as seeders are reported by tracker itself. Good explanation of DHT relating to torrenting can be found at : http://www.tamiltorrents.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8819