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KTorrent First BitTorrent Client To Adopt Open Source uTP

The KDE BitTorrent client KTorrent has become the first to implement the ‘improved’ BitTorrent protocol that was open sourced by BitTorrent Inc. a few days ago. With uTP, KTorrent users should cause less network congestion and interference with other applications. They are also the first to benefit from faster connections to uTorrent users.

ktorrentIn March the uTorrent team released the long-awaited version 2.0 of their popular BitTorrent client which introduced several significant changes.

One of the novelties in the new uTorrent release was uTP, a new and improved implementation of the BitTorrent protocol which is designed to be network friendly. Critics, however, have labeled the new release as unfair, which has resulted in the client being banned from several private BitTorrent trackers.

The critique was aimed at the new uTP protocol which causes uTorrent to favor its own kind when networking. This means that when connecting to other clients, uTorrent users will give preference to other uTorrent users.

Earlier this week BitTorrent Inc., the company behind uTorrent, open sourced the uTP protocol so other developers can make their clients uTorrent compatible. Although not all developers are equally excited about uTP, Ktorrent has already upgraded its client to support uTP with its new 4.0 release.

“Several KTorrent users asked for it, and it seemed like an interesting feature to add,” KTorrent developer Joris Guisson told TorrentFreak in a comment.

To our knowledge, KTorrent is the first client outside BitTorrent Inc. to implement uTP support. With uTP, KTorrent will be more network aware as it will throttle itself if congestion is detected in the network. In theory, this should eliminate the need for ISPs to throttle BitTorrent traffic, while KTorrent users should see less interference with other local applications.

Aside from adding uTP support the latest KTorrent release also adds support for magnet links, a feature that was pushed by The Pirate Bay and has now been implemented by all the prominent BitTorrent clients. The full KTorrent changelog can be found at the official website.

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  • :D

    nice nice nice but, who is using ktorrent ?

  • skybon

    @1
    KDE users, of course.

  • bruce

    I am and have been very happy with KTorrent. It gets torrents downloaded and shared without hogging all the machines resources. I find much preferable to Azureus, which is a hog.

  • anon

    So this UTP protocol promises improvement in speed. Can someone then explain to me how that makes any sense when in the same sentence it claims to throttle speed when congestion is detected? Doesn’t that just mean that instead of using 99% of the available bandwidth, downloading at max speed, I will now merely be downloading at, say 90% of my speed because space needs to be made for another user trying to stream video, and another downloading a file through a browser in the same network?

  • politux

    KTorrent is the best Linux torrent client. Bar none.

  • politux

    Oh and @2 Gnome users enjoy KTorrent as well with the installation of some KDE libs.

  • Arb

    @5
    ktorrent best linux client? umm HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA, outta all torrents i have used over last 3-4 years i have only seen a hand full of ktorrent’s. most nix use deluge or rtorrent

  • me

    @politux: ktorrent is nice for noobs and desktop users, but for pros, nothing beats text-only rtorrent running 24/7 on little linux or openbsd powered routers while the main box is powered off at night. ;-)

  • Anonymous

    nice nice nice but, who is using Gnome ?

  • Facebook=$#!T

    If it helps me protect myself from the MAFIAA I’m all for it!

  • Arb

    @9
    …. what gave you that dumb idea this protocol would protect you from them? only thing that would is you buying the music legit

  • pZ

    rtorrent is nice… the long hashcheck sucks when seedin…

  • WhoCares

    I have already used uTorrent, Vuze, Deluge, Transmission and other clients. I have settled down with Ktorrent, which is a great torrent client. It is also available for Windows, although I haven’t tested it, since I don’t use Windows.

    Now with uTP and magnet links I must say is the best client out there. You should try it.

  • Nobody

    “So this UTP protocol promises improvement in speed. Can someone then explain to me how that makes any sense when in the same sentence it claims to throttle speed when congestion is detected?”

    Try watching YouTube videos while you have a Bittorrent client running. Both will try to use 100% of your bandwidth and you will likely have trouble. Now that uTorrent is more network aware, it can throttle itself when needed, like those times when you’re surfing the internet while simultaneously downloading/seeding. In the past I used to have to manually throttle my client, but not anymore. It works quite well, though only when all online activities are done from the same PC. It tends not to throttle at all if another PC is trying to borrow some of the available bandwidth though, including my Xbox 360. Overall I would say speeds are a lot better, particularly with trackers that have always been slow for me in the past (Pirate Bay for example).

  • Jonas

    Please note that uTP has been implemented in KTorrent for a couple of months in the beta and RC versions of 4.0 and it’s therefor not the code released by uTorrent that is used.

  • spc

    ktorent – eats too much, cluttered interface
    qtr beats shit out of it…

  • Anonymous

    Ktorrent is excellent for casual users who don’t have much linux experience. I used ktorrent for years and I still use it on occasion. However, like some others have mentioned, ktorrent is a hog compared to rtorrent, which is pretty much what i’ve used ever since i found it.

  • Anon

    @4 it still downloads at max capacity. The major difference now is that it keeps track of network buildup and delays with the packets. If it notices anything, it will throttle itself down to prevent any noticeable network lag for you and for the ISPs. Just think of it like your mother watching you eat candy a few at a time and then stopping you when she’s noticed that you’re trying to make the rest of the bag fit into your mouth instead of taking small handfuls.

  • dpl

    “you’re posting comment too quickly. slow down.”

    Yo TF sucks my dick. Slow down!

  • The United Hackers Association

    this wont help you download fastr it will help your ISP make more money off yu cause it takes you longer to get stuff

  • Pingback: KTorrent first to Implement Open Source uTP « SYSTEMA

  • Doink

    deluge

  • WLS

    I use Gnome and uTorrent in Wine. GO CELTS!

  • Anonymous

    Azureus 2.3.0.6 (released November 22, 2005) was the first client to support magnet links and Mininova (founded the same year) was the first website to offer them.

    The Pirate Bay didn’t have anything to do with it… until November 2009.

  • anon

    “Azureus 2.3.0.6 (released November 22, 2005) was the first client to support magnet links and Mininova (founded the same year) was the first website to offer them.”

    OFFTOPIC:
    the 15 year old kids here don’t remember about SuprNova (released in 2002 as the best tracker at that time)

    ONTOPIC:
    uTP = useless (i have deactivated it and my torrents use max bandwidth compared to 60% when it was on)

  • Anon1000

    uTP is bullshit!!!
    They should have introduced UDP trackers earlier (in utorrent i mean)!
    And i consider any client respectable if it has the following features: DHT, PEX, local peer discovery, magnet links, UDP trackers and can work with trackerless torrents (if they have seeds of course)!

  • t0m5k1

    i tried azreaus & that is too clutered
    utorrent in wine is just wrong
    transmission is ok
    deluge client & server approach is just what i need on my lan
    utp is just a slow down

    built in tor & i2p would help a shed load

  • Soundwave

    So, what, Anon1000?

    UDP is there now, that’s all that matters.

    uTP is a _compact_ protocol; that means it uses less bandwidth to send and receive communications.

    So automatically, right off the bat, you’ve got more available bandwidth. Period.

    uTP is also _much_ easier for network devices, keeping them running smoothly.

  • Infinity

    KTorrent is the best! Have used it as long as I used Ubuntu. (5+ years)

  • Pingback: KTorrent primero en adoptar el protocolo uTP | Linux Zone

  • Anonymous

    @27 what a bullshit you are saying. uTP in its current implementation uses way more overhead than TCP. To send the same amount of information, uTP also uses more packet than TCP, causing routers to sometime simply crash. Go check utorrent problems forum and see it by yourself. Add to that the fact that the client will now throttle itself when congestion is detected (meaning you can’t download @ full-speed anymore) and you got a fucked-up protocol.

  • KTorrent User

    @1

    If you never use KTorrent, it doesn’t mean nobody is using it. Are you living under a rock? :p

  • Pingback: KTorrent First BitTorrent Client To Adopt Open Source uTP - makin's posterous

  • Anonymous

    My only experience with UTP is that it slows everything else down so web use is impossible.

  • Anonymous

    why is my message not showing here in the comments?

  • Anonymous

    fuck tf I made a long comment and it vanished.

  • Anon1000

    @ 27 Soundwave:
    more bandwidth -> ya right and the throttling is there just for laughs!!
    easier on network devices -> that’s why i heard that many, many routers died using uTP!!
    The basic idea of uTP might not be bad, but i do not think the implementation is ideal and neither the fact they try to spread it in this form

  • Manja

    Excellent news! Ever since I switched to linux I’vee been looking for a nice BitTorrent client similar to uTorrent and I found KTorrent simply the best of them all. i fact I like it even more than uTorrent now. And it is great to hear they have also added support for uTP. Rock on KTorrent developers!

  • Anonymous

    @34

    You are aware that you can simply turn it off, correct? Have you ever actually used it, or are you really just going off what you’ve “heard” it does? I’ve seen some info that is blatantly wrong posted in comments on this site, such as the one above about UDP trackers somehow having something to do with uTP. I have a windows machine in the other room running utorrent with uTP turned on and it runs perfectly well. If your router messes up, well, that’s just a shitty router that can’t handle many open connections at once.

  • thecalmcritic

    More importantly let’s have our ktorrent users to come in and report on this latest version’s performance/issues and so forth with uTP.

  • Super Torrent Freaky

    I upgraded from uTorrent 1.8.4 to 2.0.2 not too long ago and am happy I did. For some reason TCP transfers were always slow, usually around one twelfth of what I pay for. uTP completely solved my speed issues. Instead of a file downloading in four days, it arrives in four hours.

    It is interesting that some people see the opposite. My guess is that it probably has something to do with differences in how various ISP’s operate. The fact that uTP doesn’t work well for some folks just isn’t a good enough reason to dismiss it out of hand, since it clearly works quite well for others. Besides, it’s not like it isn’t going to improve with time. Hopefully more programmers will look at implementing it into their clients as well. If you don’t like it, simply turn it off. Problem solved.

  • Joker_

    @36

    “If your router messes up, well, that’s just a shitty router that can’t handle many open connections at once.”

    uTP runs over UDP. There is no such concept as “open connection” in UDP communication. You might want rephrase your comment because obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.

  • Anonymous

    @39: For purposes of Network Address Translation a UDP stream is treated as a connection by routers.

    Older hardware tends to have problems with number of connections and the packet rate (µTorrents implementation shrinks packet size, this isn’t part of the actual protocol though). Packet rate being what ISP’s complain about, small Russian ISP’s anyway.

  • Pingback: KTorrent primero en adoptar el protocolo uTP « Red-Orbita

  • CrashUK

    Some of old versions of uTP in utorrant was slower.. But I can say the lastest version is a lot better.

    I run utorrant on my mediacentre 24/7 using webgui..

  • Pingback: Un mundo libre » Blog Archive » KTorrent primero en adoptar el protocolo uTP

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