No reason other than that is provided, but it is likely that the decision is linked to recent events, in particular the Pirate Bay case in Sweden where founders of the site recently lost the final appeal and are looking at prison time, and the Megaupload takedown and the fallout that followed.

The announcement on the BTJunkie website reads:

This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!

BTJunkie, according to Alexa web statistics, was one of the top 400 Internet websites that was visited by millions of visitors per month. Much of the appeal of the site came from the fact that all of the site’s contents were publicly accessible.

It is likely that users, after a moment of grieving, will move on to other popular Bttorrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Kat.ph, or private Bittorrent sites that require an invitation to get access to the site’s contents. The very same sites have also benefited recently from the closure of Megaupload and other file hosting websites.

BTJunkie users who feel lost right now should check out the threads over at Reddit and Torrentfreak for a list of alternative sites.

I have received emails and user comments from several users who wanted to know if there is an alternative to Torrific. There is, and it goes by the name BitLet. It is a web Bittorrent client that is powered by Java. You can just visit the website to get started right away, an account is not needed. Torrents can be added in two ways, first as web urls and second from the local computer system. You can paste in urls right away, or click on the select local torrent button to select a torrent from your system.

A click on download torrent opens a download window that displays information about the download status.

You are asked to select a destination directory for the files, and sit back afterwards as everything else is handled automatically from that moment on. Once finished, you can keep the torrent open to continue seeding it, or close the window to close all connections.

Bitlet on the other hand is not completely identical to Torrific, as the latter service downloaded the files first to their service, before they were made available as http downloads to the user.

Users more interested in an identical service can try ziTorrent, which offers pretty much the same functionality as Torrific. A free account is good for 10 Gigabytes of traffic, with a maximum file size of 1 Gigabyte per torrent per month. The service did not work that well though during tests, but this may have been a temporary flux.

Bittorrent is another solution, one that requires basic knowledge of creating torrents and seeding it to friends. Bittorrent Share tries to reduce the complexity by making it easier for users to share data with their friends (keep in mind that Share is a temporary name subject to change).

Users can download the alpha version from the official website. A free account is required which can be created directly in the application. Share is initially available for Windows systems, with Mac and Linux systems announced to be available at a later point in time.

Share users can then use the file browser or drag and drop to add files to the program that they want to share with individual friends or groups. Multiple files, for instance a folder full of photos, are automatically grouped together.

You can share the files with users either by entering individual email addresses into the share form, a name of a user that you previously shared with, or by selecting a previously created group. Groups allow you to share with multiple users at the same time, for instance your college football team, your family or colleagues at work.

The emails users receive point to a download page. Users who want to download the shared files need to create a Share account as well before they can download the files. This is different from downloading shared files with software like uTorrent, as no accounts are required to do so.

Share has no file size limitations as it is based on the same technology that powers all Bittorrent clients. Users should however keep in mind that they upload the files to the users they share with, which can mean that the total bandwidth spend sending those files may be larger than the size of all files.

All users with access can leave comments in the program interface. Invited users will also share the files automatically with other users that have been invited to download the files. This access restriction is one of the advantages of Share, as it allows users to limit access to files they want to share.

Bittorrent (the company) notes that it will “initially host and remotely seed a file for a limited time” to “ensure quality of service and file availability”.

The big issue here is that the initial seeder needs to be online when other users start the file download. This can be a issue if the software is not open about this to both seeders and downloaders. This is probably one of the reasons why Bittorrent made that decision.

The company intents to integrate Share into Bittorrent and uTorrent clients. What they mean by this is that both clients will include features to download files shared via Share in the future. This is beneficial to existing uTorrent or Bittorrent users who do not want to download another software to download those files to their computer.

Share in its current form is a dumbed down Bittorrent client with integrated social features that simplifies the sharing of files. While it simplifies the sharing, it adds to the complexity of the operation by requiring accounts prior to downloading files.

What’s your take on Bittorrent Share?

Users of previous versions of uTorrent can check for the update under Help > Check for Updates. The update check should return that uTorrent 3.1 stable is available. A click on yes in the notification window will trigger the download and installation of the new version on the system.

The new version is not yet advertised on the main uTorrent website; The download link on the other hand leads to the download of uTorrent 3.1.

The homepage does list the new paid service uTorrent Plus prominently which we have reviewed previously here on Ghacks. It appears as if the release of uTorrent 3.1 has also triggered the release of the new service.

So what’s new in the latest version of uTorrent? The release notes lists three new major features and a handful of changes and bug fixes.

Among the new features are a built-in media player and a new device node to transfer content to connected devices such as mobile phones or gaming systems. Both features seem to be limited uTorrent Plus features. If you recall, uTorrent Plus adds a HD Media Player and converter option to the P2P software.

Fixes and changes mostly affect the program’s stability and performance.

The new client displays an ad for the uTorrent Plus service that can be hidden with a right-click and the selection to hide the advertisement. Some users have voiced concern over the addition of features that related directly to uTorrent Plus and not so much to the client’s original purpose.

These users have selected uTorrent because its lightweight, fast and stable. The addition of new program modules could seriously dampen the program’s reputation in this regard.

What’s your take on uTorrent’s latest version and uTorrent Plus?

So what’s uTorrent Plus, and how does it compare to uTorrent Free? Both programs use the same core, you could say that all features of uTorrent Free are included in uTorrent Plus.

When you look at the comparison chart, you will notice that the company lists four additional uTorrent Plus features. The exclusive features are built-in antivirus protection, a HD media player, a mobile device converter and the option to download contents remotely.

These new features come at a price; The company is asking for $24.95 for a 12-month subscription to uTorrent Plus (with six additional months for pre-orders). It is clear that the company is not targeting tech savvy users with the plus version of uTorrent, as they would not really have problems finding and running alternatives to what Plus offers.

But even inexperienced users who may benefit from the all-in-one application approach that uTorrent Plus offers may be left in bewilderment about the additional features. The program is currently in testing and that may explain the absence of information on the uTorrent website.

Questions that remain unanswered include:

• Which antivirus solution is integrated into the client. How does it compare, and how compatible is the feature with other antivirus software installed on the computer system.
• What exactly does remotely downloaded content mean?
• Which functionality is provided by Convertor?

You need to look around quite a bit to find answers to those questions. According to an Extreme Tech article the antivirus solution is provided by BitDefender. uTorrent Free users can download the Virus Guard app for their client which provides basic virus detection. The built-in antivirus solution of uTorrent Plus includes a larger database and virus removal options, which the free version does not offer.

Remotely downloaded content adds capabilities to uTorrent Remote, the web-based control panel of the software. It allows uTorrent Plus users in particular to download files remotely from the web interface. Users can log in from any computer to transfer files to that computer right from the client running uTorrent.

The convertor adds device specific conversions to uTorrent. The idea is simple. You add your mobile and external devices, like your smartphone, gaming console or hardware media player to the list of devices in uTorrent. You can then use uTorrent to transfer optimized contents to those devices.

The features that uTorrent Plus offers can make the life of uTorrent users more comfortable. Especially the ability to convert media before it is transferred to external devices from inside the software, and the ability to download uTorrent files remotely are noteworthy.

The antivirus protection on the other hand and the HD media player are additions that may not be necessary for the majority of users. It does not really make sense to use a built-in antivirus solution if system wide antivirus protection is running on the system. I personally like some of the features provided by uTorrent Plus, and do not have issues with the commercial version as long as it is not limiting the free version in any way.

What’s your take on uTorrent Plus? Let me know in the comments.

When you open the preferences in uTorrent, you will see a new DNA entry in the left menu. The preference lists a small explanation at the top:

Bittorrent DNA is a content delivery system that reduces publisher server load by using Bittorrent peer-to-peer delivery. Is is used only for content that you request.

DNA is enabled by default, at least in the latest test version of uTorrent 3.1. With DNA enabled, users may be able to download data that is powered by DNA faster. The service won’t accelerate standard torrent downloads.

It works exactly like those MMORPG downloaders that Blizzard and other companies offer. These downloaders use official servers and other users who download the data to speed up the downloading. DNA seems to be basically the same deal. Please note that you will also distribute part of the data to other users whenever you download with DNA enabled.

If you do not download data from websites or services that support DNA, you should consider disabling Bittorrent DNA in the preferences as it is of no benefit to you.

Just uncheck Enable DNA powered downloads to block Bittorrent DNA from being used by uTorrent. You may also check Alert me when DNA-powered downloads are added to uTorrent to receive notifications when downloads that make use of DNA are added to uTorrent.

Please note that DNA can also be distributed as a separate client alongside programs, games and other contents on websites. The program works in the same way but is completely independent of the Bittorrent client.

Remote is another new feature. Unlike DNA, it is disabled by default. The technology can be used to connect to the client from a web browser to manage and control the Bittorrent software remotely.

You need to supply a username and password and check the Enable uTorrent Remote Access feature. All you need to do then is to open the remote service on the uTorrent website and enter your computer name and password to remotely connect to the uTorrent client.

Hope this answers some of the questions that users may have when they encounter Bittorent DNA and uTorrent Remote for the first time.

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.

The release notes are as usually available on the official forum. Version 3 of uTorrent adds features such as a portable mode, streaming, torrent ratings or drag and drop sending of files. The complete list of changes and fixes is available in the forum.

The drop files to send feature is incredibly easy to use. Just drop a file that you want to share on the drop area, and uTorrent will create the torrent for you. The program displays a tiny url link that the recipients of the file need to open. The torrent is then added to their uTorrent version. If they do not have uTorrent it is installed on their system.

Streaming needs to be activated in the uTorrent options before it becomes available. All suitable media players are automatically available for selection in the options.

The Stream button becomes then available in the torrent listing. A click on the button loads the stream url in the selected media player. It is then possible to play the media in the player directly, even if it has not been downloaded completely yet.

Depending on your previous version, you may see a different looking client with additional features that you had not had access to before. This includes uTorrent apps which more often than not provide access to media and file releases of companies and organizations. You find some apps among the available ones that add features to uTorrent, a chat for instance.

The getting started guide in the client seems to be new as well. It offers a step by step guide, a beginners guide and links to faqs and information about the program (correct me if I’m wrong here).

The developers have fixed a boat load full of issues, from crashes and stability issues over freezes and hangs to cpu optimizations.

Users should take a look at known issues before they update, if they want to make sure that the program works on their system without difficulties. The list displays confirmed problems and issues that are not fixed in the uTorrent 3.0 stable release.

Most of the bugs listed seem to be limited to display issues, only a few indicate stability issues.

On a personal note. I’m running uTorrent 3.0 since the first alpha and did not have a single problem ever since. The update to version 3.0 went without difficulties. Some users in the release thread are on the other hand reporting problems with the version.

Have you made the update to uTorrent 3.0 yet? What is your impression of the new version.

But you do not only get purple text, you also get purple borders, a purple BitTorrent logo and prominent feedback button. It also seems harder to concentrate on a single element of the interface because of that new color scheme.

The interface itself looks like a metro experiment gone wrong, with no options to change the design to an older layout or to make color changes.

Personal content channels is the big new feature in Bittorrent 8. It’s aim is to simply sharing files over Bittorrent, which is now possible even if you do not know what torrents are or how you create them.

You can create an unlimited number of channels and add files to them. Once you have done that you can invite friends, colleagues, family or the whole wide world to download files from that channel.

Here is how you configure your channel in detail. Click on the arrow icon next to My Files in the BitTorrent client interface.

You then have the option to add a name, channel title and icon.

The channel interface loads once you hit the save button. Each channel has three distinct content sections. First the header with options to write messages or add content, second the file and message listing and third the sharing sidebar.

Content can be added by selecting already downloaded torrents or new files from the computer’s hard drive. Selected files are automatically added to the channel’s content listing.

It is only possible to add one file at a time from the local hard drive, which might become tiresome if you want to add more than a handful of them.

The BitTorrent software handles the uploading and creation of the torrent files. This is especially helpful for users with little technical experience.

Users can be invited by email, with a direct link to the channel or by posting the news on Twitter or Facebook.

All invited users and the channel owner can post comments or messages, but only the channel owner can post new files. Comments and messages are updated in real-time.

The link points directly to the download of the latest version of the Bittorrent software. The software comes bundled with the custom content channnel.

The custom version will install BitTorrent on the system if it is not already installed. It will otherwise add the custom channel to the version of BitTorrent on the computer system.

Please note that there is no way to create private channels. Even though channels are not publicly advertised, they are publicly available if someone manages to get the right web address for a channel. That said, it should be clear that personal content channels should not be used for important or personal files, considering that third parties who should not be able to access them might.

It appears as if the files that you want to share are uploaded to BitTorrent servers. This is likely done to ensure their full availability even if the channel owner goes offline.

It is mentioned in the beta announcement that channels do not have a file size limit during beta, and that their creation is free. This suggests that paid plans are in development and available with the release of the final version.

Windows users can download the beta of BitTorrent 8.0 from the Chrysalis web page at BitTorrent.com.

Torrents are created right on the frontpage of the service. Just paste a web url pointing to a file in the form on the start page to create the torrent. The file is then processed by BurnBit. The processing time varies, and depends on parameters like the size of the file, the connection to the hosting provider and the load on the BurnBit server.

Once processed, the torrent of the file is offered for download on a newly created page on the website. You can download the torrent right away from the page, or share the page or torrent with friends.

Webmasters can embed download buttons on their websites which display the current number of seeders and leechers. These buttons can be customized with CSS. Torrents can be downloaded with a click on the button and loaded into any software that supports the Bittorrent protocol.

Additional HTTP mirrors can be added to increase the number of web seeds. This improves the availability, connectivity and download speed for all users significantly. Additional file mirrors are added the very same way as the initial file locations. BurnBit compares file hashes to make sure that files are identical.

All users can register to become a member of the site. Registration is free and comes with additional privileges, like monitoring and customizing torrents, or receiving notifications.

Creating a Torrent, Restrictions

Users have two options to create torrents. They can either use the homepage of the service to create the torrents, or embed the download script on their site to automatically create torrents. Regardless of the method, they always have to link to a file on the Internet to create the torrent. There are no size limitations for the files that can be turned into torrents. The largest file seen on site had a size of more than 16 Gigabytes.

Seen on site? Yes, BurnBit maintains a torrent directory on site where users can download torrents uploaded by other members of the site.

A few restrictions have been added. It is not allowed to create torrents of copyrighted or adult files. Users may also notice that some sites are blocked by the developers because of past abuse of the service.

File downloads in theory, should not take longer than direct http downloads. They may even be faster if enough seeders are available to push the download rate for downloading users. Webmasters can save lots of bandwidth provided that multiple users download files hosted on their sites. They won’t benefit from the service if only one user downloads a file using torrents.

BurnBit is used as the tracker for the torrent file. This could be problematic considering that downloads will stop working if the service goes offline or out of business. An option to add multiple trackers to each torrent needs to be implemented to put webmasters at ease.

BurnBit is an ingenious service, especially for webmasters who offer downloads on their websites, and users who want to distribute files as torrents instead of web downloads.

Miro, in its core, is a video player. The developers have moved beyond that however and included lots of interesting options and features that make Miro more of a media management, downloading and viewing software.

You see, Miro supports Bittorrent, online video portals like YouTube and video conversions, something that only few video players offer at this point in time. Even better, it includes a show list to get you started right away.

As I said, Miro 4 Beta introduces new features. From improvements under the hood like a noticeable better performance when using the client, over geeky stuff like navigating the user interface with the keyboard, to something for everyone like the ability to sync devices or sharing with Miro libraries on a local network.

Especially the new synchronization and sharing options could prove to become very popular on campuses, companies and other mid-sized local networks.

Here is the full feature list of the first Miro 4 Beta:

• Share with other Miro Libraries on your local network
• Sync devices and copy media
• More ways to make playlists
• View the playback and download history
• Improved searching and organization of your music
• Easier ways to add music and video to your collection
• UI Navigation with the keyboard
• Better performance

Not everything is explained in detail in the beta version yet. The help file for instance loads the latest stable help which does not mention the new features at all.

Probably the biggest feature in Miro 4 is the ability to import music from iTunes.

Even better, it is possible to monitor the iTunes library for new music to add it automatically to Miro as well. The beta of Miro is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Expect a final release of Miro 4 in the coming months. (via Caschy)

Torrent Turbo Search is a free Google Chrome extension that can be utilized to search multiple popular Bittorrent websites at once. The extension supports various sites including ThePirateBay, BTJunkie, Isohunt, Fenopy and a dozen or so others.

It adds an icon to the Chrome address bar on installation that launches a local search form to find downloads on all supported torrent websites.

All you need to do is to enter a search term in the form and hit enter afterwards. The results are listed in tabs. The first tab displays mixed results from all torrent sites that are supported by the search engine, the remaining results from individual sites.

The developer states that the search adds the best matches to the top of the results automatically.

When you look at the results you notice that the title, website address and description are displayed on the search results page. The date is displayed if the site supports it.

A click on a result opens the page on the torrent site where you can read through the comments or download the torrent information to your computer.

The search appears to support many different torrent search engines, a lot more than are displayed as tabs on the search results page. Many of them appear only in the main tab listing where all search results are mixed and the Rus tab that lists Russian torrent sites only.

The core question is this: Do you really need an extension like Torrent Turbo Search to search for downloads on multiple torrent sites? The answer is no, obviously. You can use one of the existing torrent meta search engines, for instance Metasearch or NowTorrents instead.

Still, some Chrome users may like the fact that the search engine is pretty fast and that it finds torrents on a lot of different indexing sites.

Chrome users who are interested in the popular extension can download it from the official Google Extensions repository.

Torrific offers an interesting alternative to using seedboxes or downloading torrents directly to a local computer service. The free service can be used to create direct HTTP downloads of torrents. It basically works like this. The user adds a torrent file to the system. Torrific then uses its server to download the torrent, and make it available for download to the user of its service.

There are a few benefits of this, with the two most prominent ones the following: HTTP downloads are usually a lot faster than downloads from Bittorrent, and that’s true even with the added time that the downloads take before they are ready and available at Torrific.

The second advantage is that the user’s IP address does not appear in the P2P network at all. Torrific does all that, and it will be very interesting to see how they handle downloads of copyrighted media.

torrific

The download progress of each torrent that is added to the service is displayed on the user’s profile page. Having said that it should be noted that user accounts are mandatory but easy to setup and without verification whatsoever.

Torrents can either be added directly by pointing the service to a torrent url, or by using a keyword search, which makes use of a custom Google search form. It usually is faster to locate the torrent directly though, especially if the user has a few favorite sites for torrent downloads.

Email notifications can be configured, which dispatch an email whenever a torrent has been downloaded completely by the torrent downloading service.

Some torrents are available instantly, which is the case if another Torrific member already requested it and if it still resides on the servers of the torrent downloading service. The developers state that files are usually stored for a limited period of time, due to storage limitations. This currently seems to be less than a week. The oldest torrents expire first to make room for new torrent requests.

Premium accounts are available, which offer benefits like no wait time for large torrent downloads. The service is currently in alpha, and offers unlimited downloads for free users. It is likely that this is going to change over time. Everything else would simply be unreasonable, considering that the service has to pay for the bandwidth used by its users and the downloads of the torrents.

Check out Torrific if you want to give it a try.

Update: The Torrific website is no longer available. The latest version of uTorrent has made sharing a lot easier, I suggest you try it out as an alternative. You can also try the following two Torrific alternatives.

Torrent Indexers such as Isohunt or Torrentz often index torrent files that are hosted at other websites. They may provide direct torrent downloads, but do not offer magnet links to add the torrents directly to the torrent client.

The Firefox add-on Magnetiser adds an option to those two sites to directly send a magnet link to the Bittorrent client to download the files directly without having to download the torrent first.

This speeds up the process quite a bit. Here is how it works. The Firefox add-on adds a Magnetise text link to the status bar.

Clicking on that link while on individual torrent pages will automatically pull the magnet link and send it to the Bittorrent client.

It is not clear yet if the developer plans to add more torrent sites to the program. As of now, Magnetiser can speed up the downloading of files for users that frequent Isohunt or Torrentz on a regular basis.

Users who do not want to install a Firefox add-on for that, can take a look at the Magnet Catcher and Magnet Tracker userscripts instead. They work on more sites and are only executed when the user visits those websites.

Update: The Magnetiser add-on has been discontinued.

Apps for uTorrent are currently only available in the latest developer releases of the p2p client. The first version with integrated apps was uTorrent 2.2 beta with four applications in total.

The latest uTorrent 3.0 alpha ships with a total of ten apps, of which most can be installed from within the client. This article acts as an overview to provide uTorrent users with information about the apps that can be installed.

An experimental uTorrent client that only works on English language systems is required to work with apps in the software program. The latest version is always available at the Project Griffin project page.

The interface of uTorrent 3 looks different than that of previous versions. A sidebar is displayed consisting of search functionality, the torrent listing, feeds and apps.

A click on Apps displays all available applications that can be installed. Most apps are directly installed in uTorrent, some like TuneUp, trigger an external installer.

• Outspark – direct links to MMO game clients
• ClearBits Featured – Offers direct access to Clear bits open licensed digital media, mostly music albums and movies.
• uMap – utilizes Google Maps to display the locations of connected peers on a world map.
• uBrowse – a local file browser to quickly access downloaded files directly from within uTorrent.
• Tetronimoes – play Tetris in the uTorrent client.
• TuneUp – fixes mislabeled music, adds cover art, displays concert alerts.
• Virus Guard – virus protection, will scan downloads directly in the Bittorrent client
• Raptr Free Games – play free games in uTorrent, great to pass the time.
• uGadget – adds torrenting features to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox, ability to monitor and control torrent downloads in the browser.
• VODO – offers direct free movie downloads shared by their creators.

Currently there are three types of applications in the apps gallery: Applications that are directly torrent related, like the virus scanner or uMap, apps that add torrent selections directly in the client, like Vodo or ClearBits, and applications that add torrent unrelated features like the gaming apps.

Installed applications are displayed in the sidebar from where they can be selected easily. App development will take off once the first final version of uTorrent containing the apps feature is released. Apps in the long run will increase the popularity of the Bittorrent client further.

The latest stable version offered on the uTorrent homepage is version 2.02, the latest official beta 2.03. Utorrent 3.0 Alpha replaces the latest development release uTorrent 2.x. It is not clear yet why the developers have decided to make the version jump to 3.0.

The release notes of uTorrent 3.0 Alpha does not contain major feature additions, included are a handful of bug fixes and changes. The only feature addition is the ability to disable UDP trackers.

2010-06-24: Version 3.0 (build 20228)
- Fix: fixed uTP crash on sockets being closed with uninitialized read buffers
- Fix: default download directory fix for multifile torrents
- Change: rate limit uTP by default
- Fix: Fixed fast-resend bug in selective ack handling in uTP. This could cause too aggressive resends on packet loss
- Change: fix crash when formatting a string with NULL
- Change: make uTP slightly less aggressive on loss
- Change: Mention uTP in settings and reorganize new bandwidth checkbox since they apply to both up and down limits
- Change: Render TCP rates in speed graph when uTP is not throttled
- Change: Moved net.calc_overhead to the Bandwidth settings pane
- Fix: RSS items show a different icon if disabled
- Change: Turn on uTP throttling when scheduler is in “limited” mode
- Fix: Fixed a delayed ack issue in uTP (lowers overhead)
- Fix: RSS items would show when torrent list was empty
- Fix: made magnet links in RSS feeds work
- Change: made uTP packet size increase based on low delay measurements
- Fix: made uTP packet size depend on total send rate, not just uTP send rate
- Change: new advanced settings net.disable_ipv6 that defaults to True on 64bit Windows
- Change: Don’t show add torrent dialog by default.
- Feature: Add checkbox to disable UDP trackers

The latest alpha of uTorrent 3.0 is available for download at the uTorrent forum. Users who have already worked with development releases before will get an automatic update notification in the Bittorrent client to install the new version directly.

A closer look at the standard process of downloading files via torrents reveals several factors and parties that are necessary for this. The user needs a Bittorrent client like uTorrent or Vuze, a torrent file that is usually downloaded from a Bittorrent server which functions as a tracker and torrent provider and of course other seeders and leechers of that torrent.

A Bittorrent magnet link contains all the information needed to start downloading the files from peers directly. It is a server-less way of retrieving the right information to start downloading the requested files. A magnet link therefor is theoretically all that is needed to download files from other peers in the Bittorrent network. Magnet links can be distributed by email, messaging and other forms of communication but are most often found on the torrent sites that usually offer both torrent and magnet links to their users.

A magnet consists of several parts:

• magnet: (This is the magnet link identifier)
• ?xt=urn:btih: (Defines a Bittorrent Info Hash, the Edonkey identifier would for instance look like this xt=urn:ed2k:)
• 5dee65101db281ac9c46344cd6b175cdcad53426 (The content hash)
• &dn=name (The name of the file)

The full magnet link would look like this magnet:?xt=urn:btih:5dee65101db281ac9c46344cd6b175cdcad53426&dn=download. Detailed information about additional Magnet Link parameters are listed on Wikipedia. One useful parameter that has not been mentioned yet is the as= parameter which contains encrypted information about a download source. This speeds up the process of finding the first peers.

Main Advantages of Magnet Links

The main advantage for Bittorrent indexers is that they do not have to store the torrents on their servers anymore which could be beneficial for them in several ways. It could reduce the pressure from the media creation industry and reduce hardware infrastructure expenses thanks to less tracking and downloading.

The end users on the other hand benefit from Magnet Links as well. All they need is the link to start downloading the files which makes them independent from torrent indexers. It also allows them to distribute the information more easily. Torrent indexers remain on the other hand the main source of information for new files that are available for download.

Magnet Links use DHT

A tracker less environment should raise a question of identification. How can a download be initiated ff there is no tracker to inform the Bittorrent user about other users who download and seed the file? The answer is DHT, Distributed hash tables. DHT is enabled by default in popular clients such as uTorrent or Vuze. Without going into to much detail, the hash of the magnet link is used to find peers using DHT.

Torrent files

Torrents are still essential for Bittorrent as they contain information about the download that need to be present in the swarm. The only aspect that is changing is the way the torrents are distributed which is shifting from Bittorrent trackers and indexers to the server-less DHT procedure.

Many popular Bittorrent clients support magnet links already. This includes uTorrent and Vuze for Windows and Transmission for Linux and Mac systems.

This in theory should make it easy for third party developers to create apps for uTorrent that users can integrate into their Bittorrent client.

Apps have access to all the functionality of the client according to the developers. The apps come with the new file extension .btapp. Examples given in the project announcement are:

• Offer a simple and more integrated way for consumers to find and download different types of content
• Integrate with external programs which can provide services like BitTorrent-specific anti-virus
• Offer UI for a broad range of applications that simplify the experience or extend functionality

A total of four apps are already available for the preview version of uTorrent 2.2. Apps are accessible from within the bittorrent client by clicking on the Apps section in the left sidebar.

The four available apps are:

• Virus Guard by Bitdefender: A free virus scanner that works from within Bittorrent.
• Raptr Free Games: Play free games
• uGadet: Torrenting features from within Internet Explorer or firefox browser like monitoring and controlling downloads.
• VODO: brings movies to uTorrent

This new apps framework raises a few questions including performance and relevancy related questions. Windows users who want to give uTorrent 2.2 Beta a try can download the new client from uTorrent Labs.

The new version boasts slight fixes to uTP, an alternative communication method allowing uTorrent to automatically regulate the bandwidth usage to avoid that it has an impact on the Internet connection of the user.

It basically allows one use to download torrents while other users who use the same connection to use the Internet without noticing a big difference. Another addition to uTP is its own form of STUN which is a method of “getting incoming connections without direct connectivity to the Internet” which increases connectivity and speed.

The transfer cap finally was added to aid users with capped Internet connections. Some ISPs limit the monthly bandwidth to a certain amount and the transfer cap allows a user to track the upload and download bandwidth and configure uTorrent to stop transferring once a limit is reached.

The new uTorrent release can be downloaded from the official uTorrent forum (via Lifehacker).

Torrent Fetcher uses a basic interface that contains both the torrents search engine and the results listings. It is possible to enter a search phrase and start the search for torrents right away or configure some of the advanced options like the number of results that should be retrieved, the torrent download directory or a specific category that should be searched to avoid that unrelated torrents are displayed in the search result listing. Up to 1000 results can be displayed by the software. Categories include the usual assortment of games, tv shows, movies, software and music that one finds in almost every torrent search engine on the Internet.

Torrents in the search results are displayed with their name, size, seeders, peers and date it was added to the database. Torrents are color coded so that the user can see on first glance if a torrent is well seeded or not.

A double-click on any file will download the torrent to the local computer system. Some Bittorrent clients can be configured to monitor directories for torrents. The programs could therefor be configured to start the downloads of the files right after the download of the torrent file has finished if the client supports it. There is also an option to automatically launch downloaded torrents which is another way of adding them directly after download the Bittorrent application.

The developer of Torrent Fetcher could improve the software program by adding the following features to it:

• The ability to retrieve additional information about a torrent. It is currently not possible to see where a torrent originated from.
• The option to download multiple torrents at once.
• Search filters like excluding words from the search results or searching for an exact phrase.

Torrent Fetcher is a comfortable alternative to searching for torrents on websites. It does not offer the same amount of information that those websites usually offer on the other hand. This is something that the developer should consider improving on.

The software program is available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.