6 ms·

Which legit activities are all you using torrent for?

Deukhoofd 5y ago
Linux distributions, downloads that are very popular, but where the servers can't keep up with it (i.e. small indie games people hosted the download links for themselves)
throwaway77384 5y ago
Funnily enough, everything possible. Everytime there is a torrent alternative to the direct download, I will choose torrent, always. But, thanks to pirating stigma, torrenting hasn't proliferated anywhere near as much as it should.
aarchi 5y ago
Internet Archive collections are available as web seed torrents and download much faster than over HTTP because multiple servers are used concurrently.
wiz21c 5y ago
raspbian download
ducktective 5y ago
Possible legit usage: https://academictorrents.com/ https://academictorrents.com/
freedomben 5y ago
I seed all linux distros that I use. Bandwidth is expensive when centralized. It pains me to think of dollars going toward paying for egress data rather than developer work for open source projects. Please download them via torrent instead of http, and then please seed!
- mishafb 5y ago
  Isn't most of the bandwidth spent on packages? Even immediately after the initial install you probably have gigabytes of updates + new packages.
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    I often wonder - who pays for pip packages that millions of server apps and CI/CD pipelines pull? There is some caching but still it’s gotta be enormous.
    - dwrodri 5y ago
      The official PyPI packkages are hosted on Fastly. I believe they donate the infrastructure costs through the Python Software Foundation, as the bandwidth is over 300TB a day, and would cost about 1.8 million dollars a month. Source: https://dustingram.com/articles/2021/04/14/powering-the-python-package-index-in-2021/ https://dustingram.com/articles/2021/04/14/powering-the-pyth...
      - minusf 5y ago
        interesting article. where is the 300 TB number coming from? > The “maximum” here is per-day, so this means that at the peak (which was the day I made these graphs) PyPI served nearly 900 terabytes over more than 2 billion requests per day.
        dwrodri 5y ago
        This tweet from Dustin Ingram: https://twitter.com/di_codes/status/1235707819955032069 https://twitter.com/di_codes/status/1235707819955032069 I think this number is dated but its what I stumbled across.
        minusf 5y ago
        might be. either way the numbers are impressive although i am afraid this massive bandwidth is necessary because of the docker's and ci/cd's that don't use caches...
kuschku 5y ago
I provide some large binaries and data dumps of my own projects as torrent as well.
andrewzah 5y ago
Unironically, linux isos. Mostly debian and raspbian based images.
faheel 5y ago
For seeding Big Buck Bunny of course. And Linux distros too. That's all :)
Zababa 5y ago
Usually downloading the contents of physical media that I have bought. It can be because I don't have anything to read it, or because I'm not at home.
emnudge 5y ago
While I've yet to do it, I've heard of many people using it for peer to peer file transfer. I tend to transfer files between devices pretty often and have never found a perfect solution. I'd like to do the same soon enough once I figure out exactly how to do it.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  Create a torrent for what you're trying to share, add a few open tracker announce urls[1] to it, then load it in you client. Then, anyone else who has a torrent client can download it with a magnet link[2]. One caveat is that either your client and router both have to support UPnP, or you have to manually open up a port for UDP traffic in your router and forward that to the machine you're running the client on. I also use transmission-create to make torrents from the cli, but the UI of your client will have an option. I use magnets to transfer all large files - although if there's anything confidential in the file, encrypt it first. The only thing keeping people from plucking your files out of the ether is a lack of interest. ----- [1] Such as https://newtrackon.com/list https://newtrackon.com/list [2] Which are magnet:?xt=urn:btih:[insert torrent hash here] Torrent hashes can be found in the UI of your client, or at the beginning of the actual .torrent file.
rapnie 5y ago
PeerTube uses it, so as you watch videos you start sharing as a peer with others to reduce load on the host. https://joinpeertube.org/ https://joinpeertube.org/
yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
Amusingly, Humble Bundle offers things like ebook purchases as torrent downloads.
ruuda 5y ago
Downloading Have I Been Pwned's list of pwned passwords (https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords)

Linux distributions, downloads that are very popular, but where the servers can't keep up with it (i.e. small indie games people hosted the download links for themselves)

throwaway77384 5y ago

Funnily enough, everything possible. Everytime there is a torrent alternative to the direct download, I will choose torrent, always. But, thanks to pirating stigma, torrenting hasn't proliferated anywhere near as much as it should.

aarchi 5y ago

Internet Archive collections are available as web seed torrents and download much faster than over HTTP because multiple servers are used concurrently.

wiz21c 5y ago

raspbian download

ducktective 5y ago

Possible legit usage: https://academictorrents.com/ https://academictorrents.com/

freedomben 5y ago

I seed all linux distros that I use. Bandwidth is expensive when centralized. It pains me to think of dollars going toward paying for egress data rather than developer work for open source projects. Please download them via torrent instead of http, and then please seed!

mishafb 5y ago
Isn't most of the bandwidth spent on packages? Even immediately after the initial install you probably have gigabytes of updates + new packages.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  I often wonder - who pays for pip packages that millions of server apps and CI/CD pipelines pull? There is some caching but still it’s gotta be enormous.
  - dwrodri 5y ago
    The official PyPI packkages are hosted on Fastly. I believe they donate the infrastructure costs through the Python Software Foundation, as the bandwidth is over 300TB a day, and would cost about 1.8 million dollars a month. Source: https://dustingram.com/articles/2021/04/14/powering-the-python-package-index-in-2021/ https://dustingram.com/articles/2021/04/14/powering-the-pyth...
    - minusf 5y ago
      interesting article. where is the 300 TB number coming from? > The “maximum” here is per-day, so this means that at the peak (which was the day I made these graphs) PyPI served nearly 900 terabytes over more than 2 billion requests per day.
      - dwrodri 5y ago
        This tweet from Dustin Ingram: https://twitter.com/di_codes/status/1235707819955032069 https://twitter.com/di_codes/status/1235707819955032069 I think this number is dated but its what I stumbled across.
        minusf 5y ago
        might be. either way the numbers are impressive although i am afraid this massive bandwidth is necessary because of the docker's and ci/cd's that don't use caches...

kuschku 5y ago

I provide some large binaries and data dumps of my own projects as torrent as well.

andrewzah 5y ago

Unironically, linux isos. Mostly debian and raspbian based images.

faheel 5y ago

For seeding Big Buck Bunny of course. And Linux distros too. That's all :)

Zababa 5y ago

Usually downloading the contents of physical media that I have bought. It can be because I don't have anything to read it, or because I'm not at home.

emnudge 5y ago

While I've yet to do it, I've heard of many people using it for peer to peer file transfer. I tend to transfer files between devices pretty often and have never found a perfect solution. I'd like to do the same soon enough once I figure out exactly how to do it.

pessimizer 5y ago
Create a torrent for what you're trying to share, add a few open tracker announce urls[1] to it, then load it in you client. Then, anyone else who has a torrent client can download it with a magnet link[2]. One caveat is that either your client and router both have to support UPnP, or you have to manually open up a port for UDP traffic in your router and forward that to the machine you're running the client on. I also use transmission-create to make torrents from the cli, but the UI of your client will have an option. I use magnets to transfer all large files - although if there's anything confidential in the file, encrypt it first. The only thing keeping people from plucking your files out of the ether is a lack of interest. ----- [1] Such as https://newtrackon.com/list https://newtrackon.com/list [2] Which are magnet:?xt=urn:btih:[insert torrent hash here] Torrent hashes can be found in the UI of your client, or at the beginning of the actual .torrent file.

rapnie 5y ago

PeerTube uses it, so as you watch videos you start sharing as a peer with others to reduce load on the host. https://joinpeertube.org/ https://joinpeertube.org/

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago

Amusingly, Humble Bundle offers things like ebook purchases as torrent downloads.

ruuda 5y ago

Downloading Have I Been Pwned's list of pwned passwords (https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords)