Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down

  1. #1
    Super Moderator
    Fernbay's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Newcastle
    Posts
    4,684
    Thanks
    1,515
    Thanked 3,458 Times in 1,141 Posts
    Rep Power
    670
    Reputation
    15830

    Default Tribler Makes BitTorrent Impossible to Shut Down

    While the file-sharing ecosystem is currently filled with uncertainty and doubt, researchers at Delft University of Technology continue to work on their decentralized BitTorrent network. Their Tribler client doesn’t require torrent sites to find or download content, as it is based on pure peer-to-peer communication. “The only way to take it down is to take the Internet down,” the lead researcher says.


    The Tribler BitTorrent client is no newcomer to the BitTorrent scene. It has been in development for more than 5 years and has delivered many innovative features, which have mostly been ignored by the masses.


    Today, however, Tribler is more relevant than ever before.


    Developed by a team of researchers at Delft University of Technology, the main goal is to come up with a robust implementation of BitTorrent that doesn’t rely on central servers. Instead, Tribler is designed to keep BitTorrent alive, even when all torrent search engines, indexes and trackers are pulled offline.


    “Our key scientific quest is facilitating unbounded information sharing,” Tribler leader Dr. Pouwelse tells TorrentFreak.


    “We simply don’t like unreliable servers. With Tribler we have achieved zero-seconds downtime over the past six years, all because we don’t rely on shaky foundations such as DNS, web servers or search portals.”


    So how does it work?


    Like many other BitTorrent clients, Tribler has a search box at the top of the application. However, the search results that appear when users type in a keyword don’t come from a central index. Instead, they come directly from other peers.



    Tribler’s decentralized search results






    Downloading a torrent is also totally decentralized. When a user clicks on one of the search results, the meta-data is pulled in from another peer and the download starts immediately. Tribler is based on the standard BitTorrent protocol and uses regular BitTorrent trackers to communicate with other peers. But, it can also continue downloading when a central tracker goes down.


    The same is true for spam control. Where most torrent sites have a team of moderators to delete viruses, malware and fake files, Tribler uses crowd-sourcing to keep the network clean. Content is verified by user generated “channels”, which can be “liked” by others. When more people like a channel, the associated torrents get a boost in the search results.


    The latest addition to Tribler is a Wikipedia-style editing system dubbed “,” where users have the option to edit names and descriptions of torrents in public channels. All without a central server, totally decentralized.



    open2Edit






    According to Dr. Pouwelse, Tribler is fully capable of resisting any pressure from outside, and it will still work when all torrent sites and trackers are gone. It simply can’t be shutdown, blocked or censored, whatever laws politicians may come up with.


    “The only way to take it down is to take The Internet down.” Pouwelse told us.


    One thing that could theoretically cause issues, is the capability for starting users to find new peers. To be on the safe side the Tribler team is still looking for people who want to act as so called peers. These users will act as superpeers, who distribute lists of active downloaders.


    “Together with software bugs and a code cleanup, that is now our last known weakness,” says Pouwelse.


    While the Tribler client only has a few thousand users at the moment, for avid file-sharers it must be a relief to know that it’s out there. No matter what crazy laws may pass in the future, people will always be able to share.


    Those who want to give it a spin are welcome . It’s completely Open Source and with a version for Windows, Mac and Linux.

    Reality is an invention of my imagination.
    ಠ_ಠ

  2. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Fernbay For This Useful Post:

    lsemmens (13-02-12),mickstv (10-02-12),tagg (10-02-12),weirdo (10-02-12),z1gg33 (10-02-12)



Look Here ->
  • #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Adelaide
    Posts
    568
    Thanks
    195
    Thanked 171 Times in 100 Posts
    Rep Power
    215
    Reputation
    1787

    Default

    reminds me of emule which was popular for a while
    problem is with only a small number of peers (file sharers) exchanging files can take weeks not minutes

    needs to have a very big user base to make it useful (speedwise)

  • Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •