Since the launch of TorrentRelay, Kevin Kowalewski, the creator of the site, hasn’t been letting the grass grow under his feet. During the last few months, things have certainly moved on, and now TorrentRelay offers lots of brand new features which are mostly unique to a service of this type. We take a look.

One of the new features is ‘Fast Relay’. It allows users to save their files before the torrent has actually finished, with a save link becoming available during the first few minutes of transfer. As the torrent downloads on TorrentRelay, the data is sent directly to a ‘Save As’ dialog on the user’s PC, cutting down on save time. ‘Auto Save’ allows the user to start saving automatically to their default Firefox ‘save’ location. Selective file downloading from within torrents is available.

‘Load Again’, another new feature, makes it possible to easily restart previously loaded torrents, since the service is able to save a list of every other torrent used so far. TorrentRelay now also allows users to receive an email when a torrent has been completed, and the site now displays the combined speed and percentage completed of all active torrents.

Sites like TorrentRelay, or the Imageshack service we reported on earlier, are bandwidth intensive projects and of course, bandwidth costs money. While TorrentRelay continues to offer a free service like Imageshack’s, greater functionality is available to those who can afford a few dollars a month. The free version allows the user to download 3 torrents per day (2 simultaneously), each with a download rate of 500KBps and an upload rate of 250KBps

The ‘Prime’ service, costing $9.99 per month, allows intensive users to customize the experience and get a more feature-rich environment, allowing six active torrents and enhanced torrent transfer speeds. Prime also offers a personalized login which enables users to keep all their settings just the way they like them, regardless of login location. Other features include the ability to keep downloading after closing the browser, seeding to a ratio of 1.5 instead of 1.0, and a nice time-saving automated online RAR extraction.

One of the early applications of TorrentRelay was its Playstation 3 compatibility. Now it’s possible for ‘Prime’ users to stream video (.avi or .wmv) from torrents straight to the console. A video tutorial is available here.

Overall, TorrentRelay seems to be developing into a decent service with some nice features. It’s to be expected that bandwidth intensive users should pay a little for the service, and $9.99 isn’t going to break the bank, but it would be nice if some of the additional functionality of the ‘Prime’ account was available to all users.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

TorrentFreak spoke with Kevin Kowalewski of TorrentRelay, which is designed to bring BitTorrent functionality to platforms that don’t support a native torrent client, such as the PlayStation 3, Wii or iPhone.

As we had an iPhone to hand, we decided to give this system a go, choosing the easy mininova option (detailed below) and downloading a single .jpg image from a wallpaper pack. In just a few seconds the image appeared in Safari as promised, but due to limitations in the current version of Safari, it wasn’t directly possible to save the image. I know there is an addon somewhere that already provides this functionality, if only I could find it…but the file transfer component worked fine.

Here is a video showing the process on PS3. We follow up with an interview with Kevin below:

TF: Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background.

KK: My name is Kevin Kowalewski and i’m a student at Seneca College’s Computer Systems Technology program. I’ve always been interested in computers, Perl, PHP, Python etc and wanted to make a project over the summer.

TF: Could you give tell us a bit more about history about the project?

KK: A lot of work needed to be done in reverse engineering the BitTorrent protocol – my original plans were to have it completely “stream” the download from peers into a browser. Over time the project evolved, from this simple goal to download pieces in order and to get them to the browser, to the user friendly and stable code base you see today.

Mostly written in Perl, the TorrentRelay site aims to provide any user with the ability to download torrents. Any browser that supports Javascript will do great and any other browser will still work! Desktop browsers get the most enjoyment by unchecking the ‘Load only when complete’ check box but leaving Ajax support on.

TF: What technical challenges have you faced?

KK: There were many hurdles to overcome while on this project, Perl’s handling of memory for one, interfacing with the core downloader, managing all these users requests in a timely manner and allowing it to seed as well.

TF: So how does the system work exactly?

KK: The system itself is really straightforward. Simply visit the TorrentRelay site and there you’ll be presented with three ways to get your torrent:

1.) The most common way is “Browse and select”, which allows you to choose a torrent from your local file system.

2.)The URL method which allows you to simply copy the URL of where the torrent is online.

3.)The third option, my personal favorite, is by Mininova ID. Just jot down the short 7 digit code found on Mininova torrents, and hit ‘Get ID’. You can easily find the corresponding Mininova ID from the download link, just hover over it and you’ll see it in the bottom of your browser.

Next you’ll be presented with a list of the files within the torrent.

Leaving the “Load only when complete” checkbox ensures your browser won’t timeout when downloading. The server will temporarily buffer the entire contents of the file prior to sending it to you. On desktop browsers, unchecking this produces amazing results. As the torrent downloads the data is sent to your ‘Save as’ dialog, improving overall download time to you.

Leaving the “Ajax” checkbox lets you see updates in real-time. Most browsers (including the PS3) support Ajax, so leaving it checked it recommended. On smaller browsers (like the Nokia N95), un-checking this is a good idea. The constant Ajax requests are too much for its browser to handle. You’ll get the same updates, just in a list style.

Just click on the file you want, opening it in a new tab (or window) is recommended. Here you’ll see your torrents progress.

As it downloads you’ll get regular updates. If you unchecked the ‘Load only when complete’ box, you’ll get a save as shortly after it starts to download. Otherwise you’ll get the ‘Save-as’ when its complete.

TF: What are your plans for future development?

KK: Hardware-wise, plans for the future include getting a new server! The demand has been great and we’re in the process of getting a new dual Xeon, if anyone could donate it would be great, since I’m but a poor engineering student.

From a software perspective we’re planning on allowing users to run and view their torrent progress side-by-side, in a nice list format. Also, they’d be able to come back later and use the same previously downloaded data again. This way they can setup their torrents, close their browser and can come back at a later time to get them!

TF: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us and good luck with the rest of the project!

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.