Talk:Magnet URI scheme

Page formatting

There is a problems when visualising Magnet_URI_scheme#url_magnet_.28mediawiki-1.15.1.tar.gz.29, the link goes beyond the width of the page. If we breakline, we break the link. Any way to fix it (maybe with CSS)? 4v4l0n42 (talk) 13:48, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Comments

the link merely contains a SHA1 hash value, which uniquely identifies a file or resource

SHA1 can't uniquely indentify a file or resource (multiple files can have the same SHA1 hash -> a unique SHA1 can describe multiple files) If this wasn't the case, you could re-create the file with just the hash, with no need to download the actual file... I think we can put a little more details about this in the article (I don't write english well enough to do it myself...)

I disagree. SHA1 collisions don't normally happen (they are possible in theory ofcourse). SHA1's are used for a reason. If you load the magnet link in the article into any P2P app that can search for sha1 files, you'll get the same file the person that pasted the link meant. That's the whole point of magnet links Jonne 08:26, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Regardless the original poster has a point, it is possible to have collisions with SHA1 hashes. Is there a mechanism in place for resolving collisions or is it a theoretical problem with the spec? This should be mentioned in the article. TheCycoONE (talk) 18:39, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

"magnet link is an internet hyperlink standard"

It's no "standard" at all, there isn't even a RFC for it. This is merely a link format used by some P2P tools.

"the file sharing community"

I really question that there's a file sharing "community". There are people using file sharing and there might be smaller communities based around some file sharing but something like a general file sharing community doesn't exist. Or is there a water drinking community? A web browsing community?

"Other advantages to the use of magnet links include their open nature and platform independence."

Huh? That can be said about every kind of hyperlink and most real standards used on the internet. Furthermore, the draft specifies very little. For example, the encoding of these links is not clear at all. Does it only work for ASCII? Does it use UTF-8? So "platform independence" is questionable, especially if you consider that every little application interprets things differently in the absence of a consensus.

"a property not found in, for example, bittorrent files."

Well, what's the point of comparing apples with oranges err... files with links?

"Recent versions of major web browsers understand those links"

I doubt it. There are certainly plug-ins for Mozilla or IE but that's all. It would be a good idea to keep the article more sober. --82.141.60.41 13:58, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

It's a standard in the sense that several P2P applications' developers agreed on using the same syntax. (Those are LimeWire, BearShare, Shareaza, Kazaa, DC++, Azureus, and others). It might not be an official IETF standard, but that doesn't mean it's not a standard.

The 'File Sharing Community' means part of the developers of P2P applications. Specifically (for this context) the people that participate in the magnet-uri Yahoo mailing list. The draft seems vague, but if you have a question, you can ask the people on that mailing list. Platform independance is true, as the links work in Azureus, which is crossplatform.

Bittorrent files and magnet links allow you to do the same thing: download a file without knowing the location beforehand, and just searching for it because of the file's own properties (not location, as with http/ftp links). Magnets and torrents are different, but there are some striking similarities.

'recent versions...', they don't support it out of the box, that's true. Either the application registers the magnet 'protocol' in the system (Most p2p apps do that on Windows), which allows the browsers(IE and Firefox do that without extra configuration, in Opera you have to specify it manually) to send the magnet links to the right application. So browsers don't ship with 'magnet' support, but it's not a plugin either. It's just a setting, and most application take care of that for the user.--Jonne 20:45, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Use this info: http://forum.sharereactor.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=40490&start=20#p475799

I do not understand the "aMule 2.2" paragraph at all. 130.149.15.223 (talk) 17:59, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Technical Tag

I've added it again, nice rewrite lately but it's so extremely techy at the start and needs a far simpler intro imo --PopUpPirate 00:08, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

SHA-1 hashes

What encoding scheme is being used for these SHA-1 hashes? It obviously isn't hexadecimal, as SHA-1 hashes usually are. --Zantolak 05:16, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Base32#RFC_3548_Base32_alphabet Mike Linksvayer 06:29, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Unicode UNION and INTERSECTION

The unicode characters, already established, for Union and Intersection, would be appropriate methods of representing public (union) magnet availability and private (intersection) availability, there are also various other established symbols of horizontal form, however the group based availability would most effectively make use of these known concepts and related characters.

HTML Entity (decimal) ∩ HTML Entity (hex) ∩ HTML Entity (named) ∩

HTML Entity (decimal) ∪ HTML Entity (hex) ∪ HTML Entity (named) ∪

75.208.26.125 (talk) 23:48, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I think the Magnet Icons from the official website shoudl be used to mark Magnet links.

mfg, OldDeath - 15:39, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Removed "HowTo"-tag on section Description

It's no more HowTo than the decription of how Uniform Resource Locator is made up! Algotr (talk) 20:28, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

magnet scheme "logo"?

Since the horseshoe magnet is widely used, could use something like this image? --Sav_vas (talk) 19:44, 29 April 2010 (UTC)