Talk:Comparison of BitTorrent clients

Suggestions

Please fill in the cells in the table with question marks. This is a large table and it still has lots of data to add.

Should practical limitations be included on a client's "max active torrents" rating? If so, it is of course impossible to give Azureus a rating of infinity. Maybe the number included should be based on a citable report of most active torrents seen or tested on a specific computer.

I don't think the max active column is particularly userful, actually. For instance, the official BitTorrent might only support 3 (although it only supported 1 last time I tried it), but there's actually nothing stopping you from running it multiple times to exceed this limit...

The official BitTorrent client supports unlimited simultaneous torrents as of version 4.2. I'm going to change the page to reflect this. glyphobet 00:35, 5 December 2005

Furthermore, I think a column for whether the client allows you to prioritise files within the downloaded torrent would be useful, as this is a facility offered by many but not all clients. But the table is too wide as it is, so I'd rather not add more columns to it. JulesH 09:44, 4 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've got 5 active torrents right now on the official client under OS X. So somebody who knows the exact maximum should correct it. As far as I know it might be infinity. 209.161.224.130 02:38, 15 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I miss mldonkey, but I dont know what features are supported.

Should a column be added for program size/ram needed? I know this is a big thing with some clients, clients are as small as 80k to some that are much larger. Ones that require java will obviously need some extra memory footprint for java to run. Anyone agree/disagree? Matthewvelie 06:19, 26 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I believe TorrentStorm should be removed as it is not an active project anymore. If no one disagree's I'll remove at the end of the week. Matthewvelie 05:49, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

And it's gone. ¦ Reisio 01:57, 11 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Should Peer Exchange be added to the category list? It often goes hand in hand with DHT after all, and is a useful feature.

I will try to add a few. Please help me fill it out. WP 02:30, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The 'Tracker' column for BitTorrent should at least have a footnote since the only release that doesn't contain the tracker is the Windows binary version. intgr 08:29, 9 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Tracker Column

I think the Tracker column should be removed since most people don't use them anyway. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ladude626 (talk • contribs) .

I agree. Or perhaps separate to two tables, one with more general properties (freedom, supported OS's, etc.) and one with more specific (like the one you mentioned). --logixoul 19:30, 15 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It would at least be nice to include an explanation of what this column is about. In this instance, I have no idea what "tracker" means. It certainly doesn't seem to be the kind mentioned on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_tracker. And what is the difference between "Built-in" and "Yes"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.131.75.92 (talk • contribs) .

It's similar to those trackers, but usually a lot simpler and less scaleable. Some (µTorrent's) lack a web interface altogether, and is nothing more than a tracker. It's still a BitTorrent tracker, however. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.45.50.121 (talk • contribs) .

RSS Feeds

I think it would be a good idea to add whether a client supports RSS feeds to this page. Jacoplane 02:41, 27 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. I'll put it in now. splintax ^(talk) 10:47, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, it's already been done.. splintax ^(talk) 10:47, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

analogx bitpump

It's still in beta. Consider this a note to investagate it when/if it matures.

rename page?

"Comparison of BitTorrent compatible applications" - my reason for this would be because some programs are not just for BitTorrent (Shareaza), and some programs are clients (but servers, or servers ONLY).--x1987x 17:42, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

I agree that the current name is inappropriate, but I'd rather go for one of those:

Comparison of applications supporting BitTorrent
Comparison of applications supporting the BitTorrent protocol
Comparison of applications that support BitTorrent
Comparison of applications that support the BitTorrent protocol
Comparison of applications which support BitTorrent
Comparison of applications which support the BitTorrent protocol

--logixoul 19:12, 15 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of renaming it, lets just remove those programs that are not BitTorrent specific. Amren ^(talk) 14:41, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Wait a sec, according to the Wiki article on BitTorrent clients, Shareaza, Edonkey2000, and the like ARE by definition BitTorrent clients. So there really is no need to rename the page. Amren ^(talk) 14:42, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, but it looks like getting a higher rate of confusion than preferable. As you can see yourself, to know what was it all about you had to check a separate article out — something which we should not require the user to do. Let's summarize - not renaming has disadvantages. Renaming does not (or does it?). --logixoul 19:50, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if it supports bittorrent, it's by definition a client. If you use your browser to access an FTP site, it's an FTP client too, for all intents or purposes. I vote for this one:

Comparison of applications supporting BitTorrent

--Jonne 11:56, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I guess that is the best title for all these applications. Amren ^(talk) 23:32, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Renamed. --logixoul 15:30, 4 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand this. It is clearly acceptable to call all of these programs "BitTorrent Clients", because their names are in a column with the heading "BitTorrent Client". Why not use the simpler name "Comparison of BitTorrent clients"? Brian Jason Drake 04:48, 16 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The old name was not wrong per se. It was a bit misleading, though. Somebody could have thought that all of those support only BitTorrent. The new, longer name is less ambiguous, hopefully. User:logixoul 10:21, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I see your point but I don't think this is necessary. The new name also is not restricted to clients ("applications"). Brian Jason Drake 08:19, 5 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Umm. You are right. The current name doesn't exclude server software. So can you suggest a better name (not forgetting what I said right before your last comment)? --logixoul 16:23, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think the page should be called Comparison of BitTorrent software. Simple, direct and not ambiguous. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 01:04, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've moved the page and redid the redirects and fixed many of the links to the page. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 01:48, 4 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

That's even worse than the initial version (Comparison of BitTorrent clients) IMHO. At least it used to explicitly exclude any server-only BitTorrent software, and now it doesn't. --logixoul 11:10, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

If the article survives, which it will, I'm moving it back. Okay? --logixoul 13:43, 12 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(4 months later...)Changed my mind. From now on this list is officially proclaimed (by me) to contain any software directly related to the BitTorrent protocol, be it client, server or both, be it BitTorrent-specific or more protocol-agnostic. Anybody got problems with that? --logixoul 21:05, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Selected downloads

As we've all(?) seen, some torrent downloads contain multiple files. As an example, if you grab a torrent containing an entire season of a particular episode, it will usually have multiple files, one (or more) for each episode in the season. BitComet and TurboTorrent allow you to select individual files within the torrent, and set priority on them or disable their download. The term "selected downloads" seems to be the term to search for on Google, on this count. This would be really handy for someone who only wants to see a couple episodes out of a season, when individual torrents for the individual episodes don't appear to be available. If we add this to the list of columns (a simple yes or no would do), it should increase awareness of this feature and, hopefully, push developers to include it in more client programs.

malware in bittornado?

can someone clarify why it isn't malware-free? It should be in the bittornado article. — Omegatron 00:12, 16 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I used BT some years ago, and there was no evidence of any malware. Was this report of malware a false positive? - Derfy 05:44, 16 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I seriosly doubt that there would be malware in an open source poject.

I think this might have something to do with the link to "Viral Video Solutions" on the BitTornado homepage. I haven't confirmed it, but it could seem they're bundling some advertising with the downloads.

BitTornado has always been and will always be 100% malware & spyware free. Viral Video Solutions arranges product placement advertising so that producers of content are paid to create and content users can download and share free & legally. By integrating the advertising into the scripts of the show it eliminates annoying commercials and gives producers control over what their content is used to promote. Producers are paid 100% to create content. They earn a living and can focus on making what users want.

Viral Video Solutions works with BitTornado, and others in the BitTorrent community, to distribute free & legal content.

www.viralvideosolutions.com

www.bittornado.com

malaware free

how can someone be shure that a proprietary bit torrent client has no malaware if we don't have the code? it's impossible so we must put a ? in all proprietary programs that have {{yes}} because we aren't shure

Open source software. Learn about it. For that matter, learn English, too.Kirbysuperstar 13:39, 26 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

UPnP footnote

Is it correct that UPnP requires Windows XP, regardless of client, as stated in footnote 2? I can understand it only being supported in the Windows versions of some clients, but not all of them. Why can't it work on Mac or Linux versions of programs?

That's a good point. Can someone confirm if UPnP works on Azureus on Linux or Mac?

UPnP works using Azureus and Mac OS X 10.4 (maybe others, too, but it has not yet been confirmed for other versions).

UPnP is a protocol for talking to routers. In theory, it should work from any operating system. However, Windows exposes special system calls to make UPnP very easy to support on that OS. UPnP support under OSX or Linux is more difficult to implement. glyphobet 01:01, 5 December 2005

Yes, Windows makes it easier to write UPnP-capable applications but that doesn't mean UPnP is OS-specific, quite the opposite, UPnP was designed to be OS and language independent. Therefore there's no such thing as UPnP-capable OS, as every OS that supports TCP/IP is. So i'm correcting that part of sentence. - JohnyDog 01:39, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I dont think it has alot to do with what OS you're using, unless your using your modem in bridge mode. Ollyx 08:31, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Turbo Torrent maleware

Turbo Torrent is not completely clean. In some way, this software comes with a trojan although Im not sure how yet. After installing and running the software, symantec auto-protect detected in under half a minute a 'trojan.dropper' specifically file name: "tt87.exe"

According to user, "ArcCoyote" and his AVG software at http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?p=562021 this file is a trojan clicker (see http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojclik.shtml for more info).

I'm new to editing articles on wikipedia, so I decided to post in the discussion first. would it be prudent for me to simply change the entry in the future?

Absolutely. Leaving this note on the talk page at the same time would be best. — Omegatron 01:40, 25 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed this hadn't been changed yet, so I changed it on the table. Matthewvelie 06:17, 26 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Aways change the trojan inside Trojan.Win32.VB.aci. and dont have anything it have. or dont show to have, no udp conections, no nat transversal no nothing. Suns 201.23.104.2 07:13, 10 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Active Torrents

As far as the Active Torrents, Arctic Torrent allows for "unlimited" torrents. As far as Bram's "Bit Torrent", I could only get it to run/download/ 3 active torrents at a time. Though, it does have a "Finished" pane where you could "hide" other inactive torrents behind, which are complete, but that you might want to re-start/re-seed at a later date. It would not allow me to execute another client to load other torrents.

The official BitTorrent client supports unlimited simultaneously downloading/uploading torrents as of version 4.2. You may have to tweak the preferences for "Downloading," however. I've changed the page to reflect this. glyphobet 01:03 5 December 2005

Libtorrent

libtorrent is a library for C++ code, which also included a minimal working client. "libtorrent is a C++ library that aims to be a good alternative to all the other bittorrent implementations around. It is a library and not a full featured client, although it comes with a working example client." Libtorrent @ sourceforge

Arctic Torrent is based off of libtorrent. (sorry, Im kinda new to editting Wikipedia pages) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.110.231.35 (talk • contribs) .

ABC - selected downloads?

I'm using ABC and can't find how to download only some of the files in a torrent. Is the table wrong or am I missing something? --SPUI (talk) 16:23, 8 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

AFAIK that isn't possible, it should be on the Advanced view, but ABC doesn't use the exact same core as latest Bit Tornado (I think, I don't tried ABC in 2 or 3 months).

To set up selected downloads in ABC: Right-click on the torrent link in the main windown and select "Torrent Details..." Then select the File Info tab, and you'll see a listing of the files in the torrent. Select the files you DON'T want to download (ctrl+click for multiple files) and right click in the file list. You'll see a dialog box that gives several options - pick "Download Never" to skip these files in the torrent. Once you close the window, you'll see the "Size" column reflect the actual data to be downloaded xxGB/xxGB.

Aha - I had an old version. Upgraded and it works now. --SPUI (talk) 11:39, 17 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Free software

129.244.140.145, you made edits saying that BitComet and utorrent are free software. Neither of them is, because the source is not available. Read the page free software please.

I changed ZipTorrent and uTorrent to say "no," because, although they are available at no monetary cost, they are not free software in the sense that their source code is not available. glyphobet 01:06, 5 December 2005

Software using BT

The GunZ international version also uses a patch distribution method similar to bittorrent, could someone research this? (moved from article) There seems to be a .torrent file that is downloaded to the GunZ directory that is openable in normal clients.

µTorrent search function

According to the 2nd table µTorrent has a torrent search function, which is wrong afaik.. it simply uses a internet explorer webbrowser API to access some tracker sites, so it should be relabled to "(yellow) Built-in webbrowser". This edit was already in place but was reverted. --89.49.239.197 15:54, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure it counts as adware, since the ads are neither integrated into or bundled with the client. They're in an external website. Agree/disagree? 70.45.50.121 09:46, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm the one who changed the malware field and added the footnote. I'm happy as long as the footnote stays. I think the question of whether or not it qualifies as adware belongs primarily in the uTorrent article, and any change there should be mirrored here. 59.167.22.209 10:59, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removed footnote, 'cause the ads have been switched off.70.45.50.121 21:02, 8 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The best one

What is the "best" BitTorrent client? -- Zondor 05:15, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How do you define best? WP 08:38, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Merge List of BitTorrent software

The comparison is much more comprehensive than the list (it also seems to be less of a lightning rod for link spam). See Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_image_viewers for precedence. --Karnesky 19:50, 19 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

AfD discussion

Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_software (aeropagitica) 15:46, 12 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Runs on XX OS

About the runs on Windows, Linux or Mac columns, do we need to state that emulators/compatibility layers don't count? WP 08:15, 26 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that's should be common sense... if you start with emulating and that stuff every application runs on nearly every system --89.55.183.98 19:18, 28 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I do not think it matters because if it is able to run on Nix or windows with an emulator it still running on that OS. What there should be is a note saying that it does not natively support this OS but still can run under it. AgentSmith15 00:15, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

UDP protocol

There should be an additional column for UDP support. µTorrent does not support it (says it's broken), for instance.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.158.3.66 (talk • contribs)

There really should. I have so far been unable to find a client that supports UDP trackers. I've been trying command-line apps, and tried the original client, BitTornado, and rtorrent. So that's two popular clients (µTorrent and BitTornado) at least, that lack UDP support. Seem like a feature worth listing. 156.34.86.96 21:14, 13 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

UPDATE: rtorrent actually does work with UDP trackers, it looks like there was just some weird problem the first time I tried it. All the more reason for a column for UDP support, though, right? Otherwise you get punks like me spreading misinformation, and nobody to correct them.

Unlimited torrents in the official BitTorrent client?

It's been a few years since I've used the official client, but last time I used it, each instance of the program could only run a single torrent, and for multiple torrents you had to start multiple instances of the program. If that's still the case, should it really be listed as unlimited torrent capacity? Sure, you can start as many instances of the program as you want (if you have enough memory), but that's not really the same as the more full-featured clients that let you use multiple torrents in a single window and selectively ration your bandwidth between them. If that's still how it is, maybe it should be listed as "1 per program instance"? Of course, if they've changed the client in the past few years, then just tell me I'm out of date. 4.226.111.130 23:28, 17 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I hadn't used the Mainline client in a couple years either, but I just downloaded it, and the interface is completely different. It's no longer one torrent per process; it looks almost like a real, usable client now. --Nasarius 03:55, 8 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple torrents were always possible in the console version using btlaunchmany/btlaunchmanycurses at least as far back as 2.0; I did so frequently. —pfahlstrom 02:21, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On the same topic, last time I checked, BitTornado and Gnome BitTorrent, both modelled after the old-style mainline BitTorrent, used the one download per instance model. Unless they have both changed recently I think the "max active" value is wrong for each of these. Pimlottc 04:31, 22 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bittorrent is now Free Software

The mail refered to at the bottom quotes the license, saying "You and Licensor expressly waive any rights to a jury trial in any litigation concerning Licensed Product or this License." This sentence is no longer in the Bittorent license. Also, if it wasn't free software, it wouldn't be in Debian Main, which it clearly is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.252.191.79 (talk • contribs) 20:41, 16 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

BitTorrent changed its licence with the 4.0 release. This is why Debian still ships a 3.x version. If the licence really was changed, you might bring this to the attention of the Debian bittorrent maintainer, so he can finally package a 4.x version. -- RealLink 18:35, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hydranode is not present

I have not seen Hydranode client in the table. Is this on purpose? If not, can somebody add it?. Thanks. --Aimak 09:21, 17 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

BitTorrent Plus!

I just wanted to point out a BitTorrent client that isn't on this list -- BitTorrent Plus!. It is based on BitTornado, and it looks sexy. However, beauty may only be skin deep. I don't have any time right now to analyze the client, but perhaps someone else could? -- Masamunecyrus^(talk)_(contribs) 04:54, 27 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

µTorrent has malware

Yes, the "install" version (not the stand-alone version of µTorrent)has malware; it installs a file in %systemroot% /windows/system 32/ as xplorer.. This file installs malware "w32.trojan downloader" in the registry and will be detected by Ad-Aware. Just remove the file WINDOWS/system32/xplorer.. and run an Ad-Aware scan. /Roger

Did you download it from the official site? Third-party downloads may have malware. — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 21:12, 24 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

IPv6 support?

What about the support for the IPv6 Protocol? Which clients do support it? Which clients lack support?

some more suggestions

im new to wikipedia so i decided not to just dive in and change things. i have been trying to use this table to make some corporate decissions and i have some suggestions..

1. in the TRACKER field why are some caveats footnoted and others in the field (i.e built-in, seperate download) seems like built-in equals "yes" same with those marked as seperate download.

2. implement a way to hide fields or filter them. if it wernt for the footnotes filtering could be done with a tool like firefox/tabletools. then you could make it a single table.

3. some of the footnotes seem like they should instead be moved to the page for client.

GetRight

Since version 6.0 GetRight offers the possibily to download torrent files. So maybe someone might be willing to add GetRight to the list. - Jack's Revenge 07:47, 14 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Last Update

How about a "last update" column, to see which of those client are still recieving updates, and which projects are abandoned?

Yeah I think that's pretty important. # Ido50 (talk to me), at 23:18, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Numbers of notes

Numbers of notes are unreadable in Opera 9.01 ale5000 17:47, 18 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

File:Unreadable notes numbers.jpg

NAT Traversal

What is the difference between NAT traversal and UPnP/NAT-PMP? Aren't they the same thing? If so, why have separate columns for each one? Suicup 06:57, 19 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

UPnP/PMP are protocols that automatically create port forwardings through the NAT devices, whereas nat traversal exploits patterns in the NATing system to allow 2 NATed devices to esablish connections. So nat traversal is sort of a dirty hack to trick the NAT device where the other protocols are intended to open ports. Compare UDP hole punching and UPnP --89.55.223.212 18:57, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your response. If you look at NAT Traversal though, it seems that UPnP (ie IGD) etc fall under the umbrella of 'NAT Traversal'. That is, UPnP/NAT-PMP is in fact the same as NAT-Traversal, however not vice versa. Hence my question about the separate columns. Cheers Suicup 13:54, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

NAT Traversal in this case probably refers to non-router-assisted stuff like UDP hole punching, STUN and similar tricks for TCP (e.g. STUNT) --89.55.153.87 13:29, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

New BitTorrent clients

Xtorrent Still in beta, runs only on Mac, but I have been using it for a couple of days now, and I think its worth a mension. I wasn't sure if there was going to be mensions of beta clients; but I'm sure this will sooner rather then later become a proper client. it has some great features, and its intergrated with iTunes... Ollyx 08:24, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Extending selective downloads column

I suggest all the clients which support selective downloading but aren't smart enough to not create files unecessarily on the filesystem have their "selective download" support changed from green to yellow. There are really four levels of support in this category: no support, supports but creates all files, supports but creates some unwanted files (when pieces straddle file borders for the purpose of hashing), supports and (uses some sort of temporarily file OR removes unwanted files when stopping/removing/closing the torrent). Anyone who is interested in the selective downloads column should also be interested in this further information. --4.253.68.195 06:33, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]