BitComet Pollutes BitTorrent with Junk Data
Written by Ernesto on August 23, 2007Due to a new feature recently introduced into Bitcomet’s torrent maker, people who do not use BitComet (the majority) are sometimes forced to download so called “padding files” which is — for them — a waste of time and bandwidth.
So what are these padding files?
For every file in a multi-file torrent, BitComet includes a padding file by default. This overcomes the problem of ending one file and beginning another on the same BitTorrent “piece.” The feature was added to support finding sources from http/ftp/ed2k services on multi-file torrents.
For example, if BitComet users are downloading a set of .mp3 files, it tries to get some of those files from a non-BitTorrent source if possible. This is good both for the (BitComet) user and the swarm. However, the implementation of these padding files create problems for non-Bitcomet clients and the web sites that carry information from the *.torrent files.
Why is this a problem?
Unfortunately, BitComet’s development team sprung these padding files on to the rest of the community. If they had been more communicative, such as pre-publishing a specification, client makers and administrators of Torrent sites could then program their systems to mask them.
It impacts people who use uTorrent, Azureus or any other client than BitComet. The padding feature is enabled by default, so if a BitComet user created a .torrent, non BitComet users have to download these useless padding files. A padding file is created for every file in the .torrent, so if you download a collection of 100 MP3s you’ll be forced to download 100 (useless) padding files (see example). The average added overhead for an MP3 album will be around 3%, not too bad, but annoying because its junk data to most people. However, it is possible in rare circumstances that the amount of junk data caused by these files might exceed 10%.
The padding file feature might come to bite BitComet users. It has been reported that a malicious user could create a torrent with a fake padding file. This means that Bitcomet 0.85+ users will never be able to complete their downloads without switching to another client.
Some BitTorrent users are starting to get annoyed by these (for most people) useless padding files. “Fuzzier,” who has been leading the charge on several forums (including Wikipedia), sums it up:
“I and lots of my friends don’t use BitComet, and many others stick with older versions of BitComet. We see more and more useless padding files in torrents, and it gets really inconvenient — delete them then we cannot pass hash check and cannot seed; and no matter what, we get a bunch of wastes especially our precious upload bandwidth.”
Unless this practice becomes more widely adopted in the BitTorrent community, BitComet might consider disabling this feature by default, and suppling client makers and administrators of BitTorrent sites with the specs so they can decide how to deal with them.
Previously: BitTorrent Admin Monitored by US Government, Forced to Dump GNU/Linux
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54 Responses
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Not a real problem. Most private trackers banned Bitcomet.
Bitcomet is a well known cheater and bully, now we have one more reason not to use it.
utorrent ftw!! by far the best client
utorrent has its own problems, potentialy of far more serious consiquence that a few stupid padding files. Any 1/2 decent client will allow you to deselect those files, so you dont have to download them. A minor inconvenience at most.
i use bitcomet…..
dont have problem at all….
i dont care as long im happy with it
asians love bitcomet.. i wonder why?
My client has banned BitComet and so now do many trackers. Their marketing trick backfired.
Most trackers have been banning BitComet for a long time now…
Will removing them from the list in uTorrent, which is the best feature ever made, still affect the torrent? I hope not, because all i’ll do is just remove the padding files.
But here’s a message to the BitComet users out there, if they are there: get μTorrent!
How can I ban bitcomet from Azureus ?
why would anyone even think of using that adware-client when utorrent is complete free of junk?
it’s like paying for a bike instead of getting a free car.
Man, Bitcomet and decendants were banned everywhere for ages already. Because they have many other issues.
They ruin ratio systems. This bit of maldesign only confirms the devs are clueless lol.
How do I go about banning BitComet from μTorrent?
thanks for the info “spreeuw” but not all of us know everything about everything and need to read information thats new to us.
“How can I ban bitcomet from Azureus ?”
I’ve not tried using it myself but I think the Stuffer plugin would work for this purpose.
It is annoying, but in all honestly its not that hard to remove the padding files from downloading.
I’ve never encountered it before, but I can certainly see how annoying it can become.
I always kick-ban every bitcomet client I see, and this has always increased my download speed.
I think everyone needs to read this analysis of BitComet.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8945/STUDY:+‘Examining+the+Myths+and+Facts+Concerning+BitComet+Behavior’
Fuck BitComet and his boys! BitComet is just pure shit polluting the net! Fuck em all.
I think I’ve only encountered a torrent with padding once. I just skipped over the padding and got the files I needed. Most clients allow selective downloading.
[quote comment="151691"]asians love bitcomet.. i wonder why?[/quote]
Hmmm, is that a racial statement? You better be careful what comes out of your mouth. I am Filipino Canadian and I do use uTorrent, used to use BitComet, but I feel somewhat . . . offended by what you said.
Get your facts straight before you speak. Have you guys read the post by john? (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8945/STUDY:+)
None of these accusations is true in newer versions of BitComet (0.90,0.91). And regarding the padding file, I noticed it too. But after the download finished, I also noticed that the padding files don’t take up any space (0kb filesize).
Why on Earth would anyone use an ad-supported client, anyway? There are plenty of free and open-source clients available. BitComet doesn’t offer anything that they don’t.
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