Torrents…..

Revolutionised Apportion
CHAPTER 6

CLIENTS

In order to download a file from a .torrent, you need a BitTorrent client. Now a
days you have many options but in all cases you will automatically be uploading the
file(s) you currently download. This starts as soon as you have the first chunk of data and
continues until after the file has been completely downloaded. There are a couple of
features that every client should have. How important these features are depends on your
personal preferences and usage of BitTorrent. If you use BitTorrent only to download
linux distro’s “RSS support” is probably not that important to you. However, if you use
BitTorrent to download TV-shows you might consider RSS support as an essential
feature.

6.1 Essential Features Of Clients

1) Priotarization: Is the client able to assign download priorities to the torrents?

This option allows you to assign more bandwidth to a torrent
2) DHT: Does the client support “trackerless” torrents. DHT keeps the torrent alive
if the tracker goes offline
3) Selective Downloading: Can you select files within the torrent that you want to
download (or not). Can be very useful to check samples (most movies have
samples) or to download 1 album out of a “complete discography” torrent
4) Encryption: Does the client support “protocol encryption”. To protect yourself
against traffic shaping / throttling ISP’s.
5) Tracker: Does the client have a (built in) tracker. Can be useful if you’re
publishing torrents
6) Remote Control: Does it support (web based) remote control. A web Gui allows
you to access your torrents from any computer in the world.
7) Super Seeding: Are you able to super seed. Super seeding is different (more
efficient) from seeding because it tries to send out pieces of the file that have not
been sent before.
8) RSS: Does the client have RSS support. With RSS you can automatically
download your favorite torrents
9) UPnP Port Mapping: Is there UPnP support. If your router supports UPnP, you
don’t need to forward any ports

6.2 Client Rankings

Department of Computer Engg 18

AVCOE,Sangamner
Torrents…..Revolutionised Apportion
CHAPTER 6

1st place: uTorrent

uTorrent is the absolute winner, without a doubt. It supports all the features that I
mentioned. Is is extremely lightweight, it uses only 7000K memory instead of 50.000K
that a clean install of Azureus uses.Another great option, especially for starting users, is
the “setup wizard” that helps you to configure uTorrent’s settings

uTorrent supports 9 out of 9 features.

2nd place: Azureus

Azureus is the runner up. They do support all the features that are listed (some via
plugins), Azureus and uTorrent are in fact the only clients that support all these features.
Azureus is a great client, and especially for those who don’t care about memory and cpu
usage but like to get all kinds of fancy features to pimp up their BitTorrent client.But it
uses 7x as much memory as uTorrent, and requires Java, which some people might
consider a problem.Azureus has an outstanding dev team that is constantly improving
their client, the runner up, but a really great one.Azureus supports 9 out of 9 features.

3rd place: Bitcomet and XBT

Bitcomet and XBT are two totally different clients. Bitcomet had some troubles in
the past and was banned from several private trackers for ignoring the “private flag”. In
the meanwhile those problems are solved and Bitcomet is regaining its credibility. It
removed the IE toolbar in the latest release, and the torrent encryption is now compatible
with Azureus and uTorrent. Bitcomet doesn’t have a Remote Control feature and it
doesn’t support Super Seeding. The memory usage is on average 30.000k.

Bitcomet supports 7 out of 9 features.

XBT is a no-nonsense client. No great looks, but it does what it has to and is very
lightweight like uTorrent (10.000k memory). So if you don’t care about looks, XBT
might be something for you. XBT does not support BitTorrent encryption, RSS, and
DHT.

XBT supports 6 out of 9 features.

5th place: ABC

Department of Computer Engg 19

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Torrents…..Revolutionised Apportion
CHAPTER 6

ABC (another BitTorrent client). Decent client, nice interface. ABC does not
support BitTorrent Encryption, RSS, DHT and it doesn’t have a tracker. BitTorrent is
based on Bittornado, and added a queuing system.

ABC supports 5 out of 9 features.

6th place: Bittornado

Bittornado has the same options as ABC but without the queuing system. It is the
successor of Shad0w’s Experimental Client, one of my all time favorites (used it for
almost a year). Bittornado was the first client to implement the Super Seeding feature.

Bittornado supports 5 out of 9 feature

FIG 6.1 VUZE INTERFACE-CONTAINS THE FEATURE TO WATCH AND

LISTEN MEDIA

Department of Computer Engg 18

AVCOE,Sangamner