Transmission-QT is an unofficial Open Source port of that Bittorrent client for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is an alternative to uTorrent, and maybe the better choice for users who work with Transmission on a Mac or Linux system.

Almost as important as the ability to download and seed files is support for popular features that users expect their Bittorrent client to support.

Transmission-QT users can tick off a lot of those features from their imaginary requirements list. The program supports features such as speed limits, encryption, PEX and DHT, a blocklist to prevent certain IP connections, the option to change the local port and a web client to manage the program from a remote web browser. It is definitely more than an average Bittorrent client offers, but not as much when compared to programs such as uTorrent.

The program is in many regards not as sophisticated as uTorrent. There is for instance no option to configure a transfer cap per day or month, no scheduler, no support for apps or add-ons, no torrent discovery options, and no option to stream video files even if they are still downloading.

That does not necessarily mean that the program is inferior. It all depends on what you want to use the program for. If you only want to download files then Transmission-QT is a perfectly fine choice. If you want to use those extra features that uTorrent or comparable clients offer then it is not the best of choices. It needs to be noted that Transmission-QT supports loading an IP blocklist while uTorrent does not.

Some users at least will like the program’s simplicity and pick it because of that. Then again, uTorrent is not more complicated as all additional features are optional. If you do not want to use them, you simply ignore them.

Windows users who are looking for an open source Bittorrent client can take a closer look at Transmission-QT Win. The program is actively developed and definitely a solid application for downloading files via Bittorrent. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Utorrent 3 adds several interesting features to the torrent client, some of which have already been available for some time in alpha versions. Among the changes is a new portable mode to run the Bittorrent client without installation and the option to stream media torrents while they are being downloaded.

You can click on the Stream button under Playback in the torrent listing to stream the media contents while downloading. The uTorrent client displays the time it will take before the stream becomes available on your computer.

The service opens the stream in the default media player that is installed on the system. This can be changed in the program’s settings. Here it is possible to select another media player for streaming.

Another interesting new option is the ability to send Torrents. You can right-click a torrent in the program and select Send Torrent to do that.

This creates a web link on the uTorrent website where recipients can download the torrent to their system and torrent client. Even better, users without a torrent client installed have the option to download a bundled version of uTorrent which reduces lots of the explaining that you may need to do if you send a torrent link to a first time user.

The drop files to send feature builds up on that. You can use it to create a torrent file by dragging and dropping files to the uTorrent interface. This opens the same Send Torrent wizard. This simplifies the creation and sharing of torrents noticeably.

Additional new features include torrent ratings, a new encrypted web user interface that requires almost no configuration.

You can download the 32-bit and 64-bit release of uTorrent 3.0 beta from the official forums (32-bit here, 64-bit here). The new web gui, called uTorrent Remote is accessible here. You need an account to use that feature. The beta is only offered for the Windows operating system. (via)

What this means is that it is possible to upload the same file much faster effecting the download speed as well for trackers that reward users who have higher upload speeds. Next feature that differs is the so called recommendation feature. You click on a torrent and receive possible recommendations that you can download right from the menu.

Several minor features exist as well such as showing the location of all seeders on the world map with detailed information about them, priority queue system, multiple downloads and basically all the important features of a nice bittorrent client.

Torrent Swapper Main Window:

Torrent Swapper Geo Location:

Torrent Swapper Recommend Feature:

I’m not really sure what the Torrent collecting feature does when you look in the options which is why I did disable it. Other than that it looks pretty solid and is surely worth a look if you are looking for a new bittorrent client.

After outlining the main advantages of running a torrent client from a web server I would like to point out that there are also some disadvantages. If you happen to download “questionable” torrents they can be traced easily back to you. You rent the web server, you pay the bills and a simple whois can reveal your real name, address and phone number in a matter of seconds. The conclusion is that you can perfectly use it to distribute your own files (or share files with close friends) but should not consider downloading copyrighted files with it.

Back to the client that I’m going to introduce now. It is called Torrentflux and requires a *nix system, PHP, MySQL and Python 2.2 or higher. A version for Windows is also available for those who run a Windows server.

Torrentflux has many options that can be compared to the options of popular clients such as uTorrent or Azureus.

• Upload Torrents via URL or File Upload
• Start, Stop, and Delete Torrents with a click
• Advanced Torrent start options (ports, speeds, etc.)
• Multi-user interface
• RSS Feeds, download Torrents files with a click
• View Download Progress of all torrents at a glance
• View drive space at a glance
• View Torrent file meta information
• Built-in User management and Security
• Private Messaging
• Themes (selectable per user)
• Upload History
• Detailed User Administration
• Admin Searchable Logs
• Advanced Torrent Search (many major sites included)
• Cookie support at the user level for private trackers
• Queue Manager
• Maketorrent — supports making torrents
• Language Support

Installation for Torrentflux does not take long, just follow the following easy steps:

Unpack the files from the archive. Use tar -zxvf torrentflux.tar.gz if you the files are already on your web server or tools like Winrar or Winzip to unpack them in Windows.
Create a new database on your server. The easiest way to do this is use MySQLAdmin to create the new database and the new user who has access to it.
Import the SQL file named mysql_torrentflux.sql into the new database
Edit the file config.php with the values for the new database. (Username, Password, Host and name of database)
Upload the contents of the HTML folder to your web server. Create a new directory that is read and writeable. Chmod it to 777 if necessary.
The first time you run the torrent client you are asked to define a username and password for the super admin. Make sure you remember that.
Add the directory created under 5 to the path that is showing up at first startup. Make sure all settings have a green light next to them. If that is the case everything should be working fine. If not you have to fix this before you can continue.

That is it. You successfully installed the bittorrent client on your web server.