The BitTorrent network has had another bad week. So bad, in fact, the quietly growing network has gotten the attention of the media.
The BitTorrent network is the best network for transferring enormous files because it can operate at very high speeds. Users cannot prevent the sharing of the files they are receiving, preventing people from downloading and never sharing anything. However, software can be used to slow down uploading. Because many sites make public the transfer statistics of users obtaining files, the individual that launched the original file can often ban greedy users, to varying degrees of success.
Several additional trackers and websites which provide the only method of finding new files and transferring them on the network, have gone down for a variety of reasons. Here is the current scorecard:
Bytemonsoon.com: Down more than a week after the administrator threw in the towel and headed off to NYC for a two week vacation. Some speculate the service might return when he does. Bytemonsoon was among the most popular tracker sites, and saw substantial growth after the RIAA announced it was cracking down on Kazaa.
Torrentse.cx: As already reported, a cease-and-desist letter from copyright authorities deceased the website. It was seen as a replacement for Bytemonsoon, but it lasted less than a week after Bytemonsoon’s demise.
Zenith-Net.co.uk: This site was launched using the software model formerly used by Bytemonsoon and saw substantial growth just a week after Bytemonsoon and Torrentse.cx closed down. Unfortunately, it was a victim of its own success. The administrator purchased a shared-server account with a hosting provider, and the fast growth rendered that server overloaded, with the host provider pulling the plug on Zenith-Net. A move to a new provider last only a day or so before the plug was pulled there as well. No explanation or warning was given to the administrator. The administrator apologized for the disruption, but as of writing this article, has gone missing in action and has not provided further updates.
Suprnova.org: Suprnova is among the largest of the remaining Bit.Torrent players. Unfortunately, it relies on mirrors to distribute the load, but several of the mirrors are frequently offline or are woefully outdated, making it more difficult for users to obtain an accurate listing and establish a transfer. It also has a clumsy system to provide file descriptions, requiring uploaders to provide descriptions through a link to another website.
Because of the centralized approach requiring users to obtain the .torrent files and a tracker which monitors the transfer from a limited number of websites, those sites are getting so much traffic that administrators are getting huge bandwidth bills, if their hosting provider can even sustain the traffic. Script kiddies have also staged several DDOS attacks (denial of service) which usually either makes sites very sluggish, or unavailable.
There is good news and bad news about BitTorrent:
The good news is that the RIAA has admitted it is not currently targeting the BitTorrent network for subpoena action.
The bad news comes from the network designer, Bram Cohen, who told ZDNet that BitTorrent is a very poor choice for maintaining user privacy:
“Distributing stuff that is clearly illegal with BitTorrent is a really dumb idea,” said Cohen, who advocates using the software to distribute large uncopyrighted files such as open-source programs. “BitTorrent doesn’t have any anonymity features. There are things about it that make it very incompatible with anonymity.” — ZDNet
Because all users who transfer a file share their IP address with every other user downloading it, it becomes very simple to track users from a central location, unlike Kazaa’s supernode system which can only reveal the identity of users connected to that supernode and others nearby.
