New Azureus version introduces decentralized torrents

[TankGirl]

Java-based Azureus is one of the best BitTorrent clients, and it is clearly under active, interesting development. The latest version 2.3.0.0 introduces some nifty new features, including support for trackerless, decentralized torrents and graceful decentralized swarming in situations where a tracker happens to go down.

What's new in 2.3.0.0:

1. What's new in Azureus 2.3.0.0

1.1 Distributed Database
Azureus now has a distributed, decentralised database that can be used to track decentralised torrents. This permits both "trackerless" torrents and the maintenance of swarms where the tracker has become unavailable or where the torrent was removed from the tracker. It uses the UDP protocol, if you have a firewall/router, you will need to open/forward the UDP port in the same way you did with TCP to download data.

1.1.1 Magnet Links
For torrents that are tracked decentrally, Azureus can export a "Magnet Link". This is of the form "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:..." and can be used to download the torrent from the distributed database via the "open->url" menu item.

1.2 Enhanced Protocol
Azureus now supports an enhanced inter-client messaging protocol, which is aimed at allowing plugins to use the connections created by Azureus to add functionality to the program. Other clients developers can see the specifications for this protocol at http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/inde...sagingProtocol . Plugin developers can check the plugin javadocs to see how to use it. For example, the JPC and Chat plugins make use of this messaging extension.

1.3 JPC
Joltid Peer Cache (JPC) is now integrated into Azureus. For users whose ISP support this, JPC should allow faster downloads, while helping the ISP reduce its bandwidth costs. The JPC Plugin is safe in the way that your ISP won't know what you are downloading, and can't use it to spy on you. The JPC plugin can be disabled through Tools > Options > Plugins > JPC.

1.4 Featured Plugins
The Distributed Database and the Enhanced Protocol allowed us to develop some new plugins. We won't auto install them for you, but we recommend all users who might be interested in them to install them using the Plugins > Installation Wizard menu.

1.4.1 Chat
This plugin will create a discussion channel for each torrent you are downloading. Each channel is independent, and you are free to discuss whatever you want inside the channel. This plugin makes use of the Enhanced Protocol. Developers of other clients willing to implement the chat functionality in their client are welcome to take a look at the very simple protocol used and described here : http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/index.php/ChatPlugin . You can also create/join an arbitrary channel by typing in its name inside the plugin. This will have the effect of creating a "virtual" torrent, with no seeds, in order to allow users to create connections to chat. The "virtual" torrents make use of the Distributed Database as their tracker, so while you can use the Chat Plugin without the Distributed Database, you won't be able to use the virtual channel feature if you disable the Distributed Database.

1.4.2 Ratings & Comments
This plugin will allow you to see ratings & comments from other users, as well as rate and comment a torrent yourself (right click the torrent in "My Torrents" then choose "ratings & comments". This plugin uses the Distributed Database, so you need to have the Distributed Database enabled for it to work.

The upgrade process went smoothly for my client. The client announced that an upgrade is needed and after my OK it downloaded the necessary files from other peers as torrents. The upgrade installation itself was mostly automatic (a couple of client restarts were prompted), and the whole process including the downloads took perhaps some 15-20 minutes. The new version seems to be stable and reliable and perform as well as the previous one.

If you don't have Azureus but want to give it a go, you can get it from here.

- tg

[Gutrguy]

fuck the update, stay with 2.2.0.2

I tried 2.3.0.0 and got nothing but problems.

I opened Azureus and it told me about an upgrade, so i clicked ok, the download and install went smooth and the client was restarted. Upon restart i was greeted with another pop-up box telling me about more files needed for the upgrade....at this point things went wrong. No torrents would stay connected....i would get peer and seed information but never connect for more than a few seconds to anyone else. The problem was so bad that the second set of update files would not download...thousands of seeds and peers and it wouldnt keep a connection.

I figured that something had gone wrong during the upgrade, so i uninstalled the program and downloaded the 2.3.0.0 win 32 installer from http://azureus.sourceforge.net/index.php After a fresh install of the latest client, i got the same problem of not being able to keep a connection to anyone (the tracker was always fine) From here i decided to go back to 2.2.0.2 and use a version that actually worked.

[Fantom]

I've read that some of the problems with the Azureus update are java related, and that updating java to the latest version can straighten things out.

I still prefer ABC 2.6.9, which is based on BitTornado. Less features than Azureus but the upstream capping is more stable, a steady line with no spikes, so I can almost use my full upstream without interfering with the downstream. The more upstream I can allocate, the faster the download. As far as features are concerned, the only feature I really want is a fast download

[Mazer]

Today I tried to download a torrent but couldn't connect to the tracker, it kept timing out. That was using the old version. I upgraded Azureus and tried the torrent again and even though it still couldn't find the tracker it managed to find every peer in the swarm using DHT, and only six of them were actually using Azureus 2.3.0.0.

Awesome.