TorrentFreak

A few months back, project Gazelle was announced by What.cd, a new tracker suite for private BitTorrent sites. The first trials of it in Alpha have now started, and the big question is: How does it shape up?

It has been three months since the popular (semi)private BitTorrent tracker Demonoid went offline. Since then, there has been a lot of speculation about its future, and many feared that the site would never return. Totally out of the blue, however, the tracker is now responding again.

Hollywood had hoped otherwise, but it has been a good year for The Pirate Bay, despite all the legal hassles. Most impressive is the explosive growth in number of torrents and peers that are using the Pirate Bay tracker.

Most BitTorrent sites don’t run their own tracker, and the ones that do often go unnoticed and don’t always get the respect they deserve. It might not be a surprise that The Pirate Bay is by far the most popular, but you might be surprised to find out which trackers complete the top 5.

The decision to become an administrator of a BitTorrent tracker can be a difficult one. Even if one puts aside the issues surrounding legality in certain countries, to the inexperienced there’s a technical mountain to climb. Thanks to XBTIT team, the mountain has eased to a small incline, bringing tracker ownership within reach of BitTorrent enthusiasts.

Nothing is more frustrating than your download getting stuck. The fact that a torrent has stopped downloading can have several reasons. One of these reasons is that the tracker has stopped functioning.

Just as many social bookmarking sites are said to be run by a small group of active users, the same seems to hold for BitTorrent communities where 10% of the users upload as much as the rest of the 90% put together.

The popular semi-private tracker Demonoid.com announced that it will open its doors during the weekends. Until today Demonoid’s registration was mainly “invite only”.

A couple of months ago we posted that demonoid’s registration opened (for a couple of hours). It closed soon after that, but visitors kept asking for invites in the comments.