bittorrent - uTorrent DHT patch == privacy threat?

07
2014-07
  • Gacek

    There are releases of uTorrent with DHT Patch and I was wondering if they do not pose a privacy threat.

    DHT Patch is basically a patch, that allows you to use DHT on torrents marked with private flag.

    If I'm not wrong, whole idea of private torrents is to allow only auhtorized (for example through registration) users to use torrent. Making it harder to spy on users' downloading habbits.

    And now, there is DHT Patch, which enables to use DHT on those more "secure" torrents. Isn't it that patched client starts to propagate IP adressess of people who think they use private torrent and make them exposed?

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    Related Question

    What is uTorrent? How is it different from BitTorrent?
  • The Green Frog

    What is uTorrent and how is it different from BitTorrent? What is it used for? Where is a tutorial? What is BitTorrent?


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  • David Pearce

    µTorrent is just a different client for the Bittorrent protocol. µTorrent would have to be one of the most 'respected' and popular BitTorrent clients for Windows.

    According to Wikipedia, BitTorrent is:

    A peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files. BitTorrent protocol allows users to receive large amounts of data without putting the level of strain on their computers that would be needed for standard Internet hosting

    Now this is where it starts getting a bit confusing. BitTorrent is:

    The company BitTorrent, Inc. develops and distributes a program called BitTorrent which is just one of the many programs that work with the BitTorrent protocol. See this Lifehacker Hive Five on the Best BitTorrent Applications for other recommended BitTorrent clients

    When people talk about 'torrents', they are most likely talking about the set of files they are downloading using the BitTorrent protocol.

  • Phoshi

    uTorrent is a program that uses the bittorrent protocol to share files. It's generally accepted as one of the best clients on Windows, and certainly the best for it's resource usage.

  • hasenj

    BitTorrent is a protocol for file sharing, uTorrent is a program that implements/uses this protocol to share files.

    It's like the difference between HTTP and Firefox. Though Firefox is only a client (not a server); it only implements the client side of the protocol.

    Though, there's also a program called BitTorrent, which was the original BitTorrent client, and according to wikipedia, it's now (after version 6.0) only a re-branded version of uTorrent.

  • William Hilsum

    Bittorrent is the name of the protocol AND a program.

    Bittorrent the company purchased Utorrent, If you are talking about programs, Bittorrent is simply a rebranded version of Utorrent with no additional or different features.

  • Don Salva

    Bittorrent is the peer-to-peer sharing protocol (and its programm in one, the core UI if you will), uTorrent is the programm that utilizes the Bittorrent protocol in order do download and share files.

    utorrent, despite its mixed and/or unsustainable opinions whether its in bed with the media giants or not because the utorrent author sold its source, is one of the best download clients for .torrent files out there.

    So far nothing has been able to beat utorrent to its size, options and resource usage!

    Though there are open source, thus perhaps safer, alternatives like Vuze or Deluge.