10 Tips and Tricks for Private BitTorrent Sites
The first thing to notice when you join a private BitTorrent site is the eye-popping quality of the torrents. Each one is carefully culled, hand-picked through a strict moderation process. However, before you start hammering away on that download link - here are a few things you need to know.
On private torrent sites, everything revolves around ratios. A 1:1 ratio (or 1.0) means that you’ve downloaded exactly the same amount of data as you’ve uploaded. Thus a 0.80 ratio indicates that you’ve uploaded less than you’ve downloaded, which is hurtful to the health of the torrent. Inversely, a 3.0 ratio means you’ve uploaded 3 times more data than you’ve downloaded. Strive to achieve at least a 1.0 ratio - each site will have specific consequences for members who maintain a ratio of less than this. Attain a ratio over 1.0 and the rewards shall follow you into the P2P afterlife.
If you’re brand-new to a private site, it will be difficult in the beginning to acquire a 1.0 ratio. Luckily, users are given a ‘grace’ period to achieve this. Since there are so many more seeds than leechers (a total flip-flop from public BT sites), it becomes harder to upload to others - due to the fact that there are fewer people to share with.
So why go through all the trouble to keep an honest ratio? Because deep down, you’re an upstanding denizen of file-sharing society! Aside from that shameless pat-on-the-back, good ratios offer many perks, including an upgraded account on the tracker (i.e. VIP status), higher download speeds, free “invites” for your friends, and no waiting periods associated with accounts in arrears.
Here are Ten Tips to get your ratio in top-shape as fast as possible:
1. Start out with Smaller Files
Initially, opt for smaller (i.e. under 1 GB) files for downloading. This gives you a greater chance of someone coming along after you and downloading the same torrent (and you’ll be able to upload to them). Obviously a 700MB movie file will be more appealing to other site members than a 30GB ‘Blu-Ray’ rip.
2. Jump on the ‘Newly Released’ torrents
This is a great tip for increasing your ratio in a hurry. Camp out in your favorite private BT site, and refresh the torrent listings frequently. Newly added entries will have many more leechers than seeds, so you’ll be able to share (upload) more data. To maximize this tip, select smaller files - the “TV Episode” category works great for this.
3. Select Files that have a High ‘L’ or upload number
This is important. When selecting torrents, base your initial selections on a high number of leechers (the more, the better). This will ensure you have many avenues to upload to during (and after) the transfer. When starting out on a new private BT site, we would even go so far as to say that you should download torrents that you don’t want - just start grabbing torrents that have lots of leechers. Once your ratio get over the 1:1 (1.0) mark, delete them.
TIP: If one of your seeding torrents remains popular, leave it running in µtorrent permanently. This will always help to boost your upload ratio.
4. Avoid ‘Zero-Leech’ torrents
When you’re new to a private site, steer clear of the ‘zero-leech’ torrents - it is impossible to increase your share ratio when there are no other downloaders. When viewing a list of torrents, look for the “Leecher” column (or just “L”) and avoid anything that has a zero ( “0″ ) in it. After your account ratio has become relatively stable, now is the time to snag whatever you want.
5. Leave some tasks running in uTorrent
After the completed download of a torrent, leave the task running (as a seed) in µtorrent to increase your upload statistics. Don’t delete (or move) the files of a running task! You can, however, extract (unRAR) the files, or copy the files from one place to the next. In the event of a movie/video file - you’ll be able to “burn” or “extract” the *.avi file (or even play it on the PC) without affecting the seeding torrent.
TIP: Always keep a few things running as ’seeds’ in your BT client. If you notice that they aren’t uploading, replace them with newer ones.
6. Go for the ‘Freebie’ downloads
Many private sites will offer “free” torrents that won’t count against your download statistics (thus, your ratio will remain unchanged). Grab these freebies - especially when searching for torrents on a new account.
7. Use ‘Credits’ to purchase…
A popular feature among superior private BitTorrent sites is the addition of a ‘credits’ feature for account holders. Credits can be used to ‘purchase’ VIP status, increased sharing ratios and other perks. Not all sites are the same, but some credits can be acquired just from staying active in their IRC channel, or from just having the torrents available for download in your BT client.
8. Do NOT try to ‘cheat’ the Private Trackers
There are a variety of ratio cheating tips available out there, but don’t be tempted. Trackers are fairly sophisticated and ever-evolving. If you get caught cheating, you won’t even be warned - it’s a permanent ban for you and bye-bye for good.
9. Set a proper Upload Limit
Setting a proper upload limit in the BT client makes all the difference! You’ll want to supply a high enough limit to maximize uploading, but not have it eat into your download bandwidth. The general rule is to set it at 80 - 85% of your upload limit. To figure this out, visit www.speedtest.net and conduct the simple test. Results are shown in kilobits, so divide the result by 1/8 and then multiply that by 0.85. This will give you the proper number in KB/s (KiloBytes).
In µtorrent, go to OPTIONS > Preferences… > Connection and enter your upload rate. Click “Apply” and then “OK” to save the changes. While your in that same ’settings’ page, make sure to use a port number from the good list (e.g. 49152 - 65535).
10. And if all else fails…donate
Most sites allow for monetary contributions to keep up with the server costs. If you enjoy a particular site immensely but cannot seem to be able to approach a decent sharing ratio (due to turning off your computer at night, going to work, or sharing your computer with your kids, wife, husband or siblings), think about donating. In most cases even a not-so-generous gratuity will robustly affect your account status - plus you’ll feel good about helping out the BitTorrent community.
Other Tips - Follow ‘The Rules’
Yeah, we know: you hate rules! That’s why you probably moved out of your parents’ basement. Rules are probably why some turned to P2P.
Nevertheless, rules are an important aspect to private BT sites - they ensure healthy torrents and blazing-fast download speeds for all. Each site will have their “rules” posted - the link is usually not hard to find. Below are some general rules / tips that pertain to any private BitTorrent site:
Use an ‘Accepted’ BitTorrent client
Not all private trackers are the same - and each one has different rules in regards to which BitTorrent client is on the “allowable” list. Most sites recommend µtorrent, but only specific versions (or builds) of it. If you stick with v1.6.1 or the latest version v1.7.7 (recommended), you can’t go wrong with ANY private site (avoid any versions in between these numbers). And do not use BitComet on private trackers.
Proper BitTorrent client configuration:
Many trackers recommend that you disable DHT and Peer Exchange (PEX) in your BT client’s settings. To do this in µtorrent, go to OPTIONS > Preferences… > and select the BitTorrent tab. Remove the three checkmarks that pertain to DHT and PEX (see image below):
Do not ‘Hit & Run’ a Private BT site:
A ‘Hit & Run’ (or H&R) is when someone joins a private tracker, and downloads as much as they can before making off without uploading to a proper ratio. While this practice is frowned upon even on public sites such as mininova.org, it is deplorable to private sites. This can (and sometimes will) lead to your IP address being banned from the site - forever.
Stick within these guidelines for HAPPY Torrenting!
Previously: BitTorrent Sites Show Explosive Growth
Next: ‘Good’ Pirates Help Companies Sell More Products
198 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 » Show All
^ DHT wastes some bandwidth anyway, so unless you’re downloading some massive pile of shit of TPB with a million seeders who aren’t seeding very well, there’s no need to enable it.
also, sometimes, there’s some lamers who don’t tick the ‘private’ flag when uploading torrents to private sites, and if you’ve got DHT on a torrent from a private site you can end up uploading to a non member or cheating your ratio.
I would think that these tips would be common sense, but they are good tips nonetheless.
“also, sometimes, there’s some lamers who don’t tick the ‘private’ flag when uploading torrents to private sites”
You don’t need to tick the private flag, decent private sites add the flag automatically.
DHT doesnt waste any bandwidth dumbasses, also, if the tracker is enforcing private flag on torrents, having DHT enabled doent make the slightest bit of difference. All private trackerd that I know of have a banned client list, forcing all the peers on the tracker to use a client that honors private flag. With a client that honors private flag in combination with a tracker that enforces private flag, it is impossible to leech from either through DHT. The only reason that private sites would require that users disable DHT is because they are fucking morons that obviously dont know how to run a tracker, or have the slightest idea of how DHT and private flag works.
Another option: avoid private bittorrent sites like the plague they are!
I’m a a member of 5-6 private torrent sites… Not one of them REQUIRES 1:1
Get off tpb for 5 minutes and do some research torrentfreak.
I once knew a private tracker. Eventually they all became seargents and the tracker had to look for a new job. Information wants to be free. It doesn’t want to hide like a pussy. First we hid juice in the cellar and now torrents? No fangs.
In all seriousness… if you’re going to write a technical guide, do it properly. Give justification for what you do in the settings windows. DHT and so on can be extremely advantageous.
I would also suggest not recommending uTorrent- as shown by the fact that increasingly it’s being blocked (And just staying on old versions is asking for trouble, both security and feature-wise), the new versions are horrid and possibly full of talkback code. Azureus is by far one of the best clients out there, and even on public torrents I get in excess of 600kbps (I’m on 8meg UK internet) while uploading around 30kbps. On private sites there’s very little difference to how things work, quite honestly.
These 2 methods have gotten me 8.0+ ratios on very strict private trackers, trust me there is no quicker way of raising your ratio.
1. If the site allows user uploads, upload NEW torrents! This is the fastest way to get a high ratio. If it’s a music site upload v0 and flac rips. If you don’t have the cd, download flac rips and if there isn’t one yet convert it and upload it as a v0. The more popular the album the better.
2. If it’s a scene site that doesn’t allow user uploading:
Find a large torrent on your private tracker with many snatches and download it on a public tracker. Make sure it’s the exact size and exact files as the one on your private tracker.
Once the files are downloaded, download the torrent from the private tracker and set the download location to be the same as the file you downloaded from the public tracker.
correction:
Find a large torrent on your private tracker with many leechers/snatches and few seeds
i would rather see an article tipping how to get an invitation to a private site if you are a good upstanding 1:1 bittorrent citizen. =)
whats the point of file sharing when its private for some people. i like to share back but not to a selected people, but to the public. private torrents r fast, but u have to wait for peers to come to share back. and even when u share back the seed to peer ratio is high so u wont find enough people to get the ratio back again. its like 200 employees serving 2 customers. it defies the purpose of sharing back and downloading at hi-speed. it turns the members into servants instead of file sharers to the private network.
i download files from mininova, i seed back. i check the files on private trackers through btjunkie and download the public version of it.
DHT means you connect to people not only from the place (tracker), which you got the torrent from, but also from anybody, who is downloading this file anywhere on the net and is connected to dht network.
It increases your privacy risk a lot because antip2p people pretty much always monitor downloads through dht network, but you can also get many more normal sources too. So your choice.
From my experience using DHT with utorrent gives lots of bad hits, with Vuze lots of bad hits, with halite almost no bad hits, with bitcomet average number of hits, but I’ve not used it for ages as it is bloated as hell.
Gotta love the different opinions. Out of 28 posts, there’s 40 different takes on the situation . Me being me, I’m going to cloud the situation further.
1) Private Tracker sites are bad. Private sites are good. The two positions are not mutually exclusive. While a private sites locks out the general public, the private site I am a member of specializes in one type of content, which the vast majority of the universe isn’t interested in, and which is damned hard to find elsewhere.
2) Public Tracker sites are bad. Public sites are good. The two positions are not mutually exclusive. While a public sites allow everyone access, this means there is no consistency to the content, and that specialized torrents often die, as there is little general interest in them. Content that is not general interest is hard to find, and they tend to be over run with lowest common denominator torrents.
Me, I think that there’s a place for both types of sites. Each answers a need in the marketplace.
The present situation, where the torrent trackers are run by independents is in the public interest. Trackers run by commercial entities would tend to push those entities interests against the interests of the commercial entities, whereas the independents if they want their site to be popular act in the interests of the public, and generally give far better service to the public.
also u can grab a torrent off another tracker and seed it to your new 1 :D
I prefer open trackers where you dont have to maintain a ratio. Everything i want is on TPB anyway and i get about 10mbit/s there (20/2 line). I am a member of some private trackers but its only for a select few items i use them, so i could easily do without.
Another good tip:
When you start out, limit your DOWNLOAD speed to about what you are getting on your upload. For instance, I can download a torrent at 1mbs, but since I can normally only connect to enough peers to upload at 100kbs, I would limit my download to 100kbs, maybe even 75kbs.
That allows me to get my file, but still seed as it downloads.
Sorry, but I have to confess.
My up-bandwidth is very limited, but I can dl at speeds like 400-500kb/s (up only at 20-30kb/s). So as I couldnt care less about some Russian tracker etc. I just leech as long as I can, and when I get banned I just move to another one.
And when my ip is banned from every possible tracker, I request a new ip from my ISP, if thet haven’t already changed it. New ip, fresh sign-up.
I am now banned like 20 times from the same tracker :D Private trackers rules!
“Donate to the tracker” - Haha! Give me a break :D
“This can (and sometimes will) lead to your IP address being banned from the site - forever.”
This is a very misleading for the most users ans the most users have dynamically assigned IP addresses so all one needs to do is to disconnect and reconnect the Internet connection.
Of cause for people with static IP’s thats true but they are the very minority.
OMGZZZ!!! BUT HOW CANZ I GET MY AXXO RIPZ ON DA PRIVATE TRACKERS??? cAn sOMEONE GIVE ME AN INVITE TO A supER SECRET AXXO RIP PRIVATE TORRENT SITE??
None of those tips are helpful when 8 out of 10 users have seedboxes. One way or the other you end up paying. Either you get a seedbox or you pay (or donate if you want to call it that) for the privilege of downloading.
OMGZZZ!!! BUT HOW CANZ I GET MY AXXO RIPZ ON DA PRIVATE TRACKERS??? cAn sOMEONE GIVE ME AN INVITE TO A supER SECRET AXXO RIP PRIVATE TORRENT SITE??
AXXO HASNT RELEASED ANYTHING FOR MONTHS AND ANY NEW RELEASES WITH HIS NAME ON ARE FAKES TRY BTRACS FOR A LIST OF PRIVATE SITES OPEN TO SIGN UP
DHT doesnt hurt private trackers at all. DHT is almost essential if you use public trackers though, because not all available peers are present on 1 particular tracker. If you have 250 seeds spread across 5 different trackers then you want to hedge your bets, that means using Peer Exchange or DHT. I never disable DHT, and I have also never had a problem using a private tracker with it enabled. The argument that it some how is a security risk is absolute crap. Your just as likely to come across a bad peer on 1 tracker as you are from another tracker through DHT.
Private sites dislike DHT and Peer Exchange for 1 reason and one reason only, its a threat. With both there is no need for a central tracker. Peers can share amongst themselves without the need for an almighty overseer keeping tabs on everyones ratio. Fact is with clients like Azureus and utorrent, you dont need a tracker, and with Azureus, you can use your own built in tracker further removing the need for reliance on a site. Set up correctly, and with minimal knowledge you could run your own closed community far more secure than any private site can offer.
All this would be great If you could get an invite to the good sites. With demonoid gone I have NOTHING! I’m begging in the cyber back alleys for an invite and getting spat on by the lucky citizens how have had fortune shine upon them.
[quote comment="317162"]None of those tips are helpful when 8 out of 10 users have seedboxes. One way or the other you end up paying. Either you get a seedbox or you pay (or donate if you want to call it that) for the privilege of downloading.[/quote]
I have a sweet ratios on multiple private sites with nothing more than a plain jane residential cable connection. My friend who invited me to Oink reached over 75 gigs upped with a 56k modem! He did it by uploading his own torrents.
It is dead simple to maintain good ratio on private sites if you upload your own torrents. No need to buy a seedbox. No need to donate. Just share your stuff.
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 8 » Show All
Add your response