Private BitTorrent Site Reviews - A Look Inside

March 28, 2008 by sharky

We offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some of the best, most sought-after private BitTorrent trackers. If you’ve never seen the insides of some of these elite private sites, we recommend you take a look at what you’re missing.

TorrentLeech

TorrentLeech is quickly becoming one of the most coveted private BitTorrent accounts for any BT fan. With unrivaled speed and amazing pre-times, TL offers 0day/0sec torrents in all categories. While never open publicly to new signups, invites are handed out to qualifying members on a regular basis. TL is also one of the most used private trackers - there are a ton of seeders and leechers so uploading to other TL members isn’t all that difficult, either (a seedbox helps, but isn’t mandatory like some other trackers). New members have a 48-hour ‘wait time’ before the torrent becomes active - once a sharing ratio hits 0.4 this goes away.

Browse SiteNews Classes

Blackcats-Games.net

It goes without saying: Blackcats-Games is all about the games - be it console, Windows or Linux releases. Registered users hover in at around 50,000 (they stopped taking new signups back in November, 2007). With a 2,100% seed/leech ratio, downloads are assuredly zippy from their 6,000 offered torrents.

Browse Stats Categories Rules

Shareaza vs ShareazaPlus - Which One is Best?

March 27, 2008 by sharky

Everyone is familiar with Shareaza for P2P filesharing. But there’s a neat little spinoff called ShareazaPlus that’s recently been released. ShareazaPlus is a mod version of Shareaza, and includes enhancements to significantly speed up downloads, file searches and networking performance under WinXP.

New Features

ShareazaPlus has added a few features to its original predecessor, Shareaza. New features include:

Search by URI:

Unheard of in the original Shareaza, ShareazaPlus allows for searching from a variety of known URNs / URIs, including SHA1, Tiger Tree, MD5, BitTorrent (BTiT), and eD2k. This is particularly handy if you already know (or have) a magnet link, but can’t find any sources.

How to Add eDonkey Servers & Serverlists to eMule

March 26, 2008 by sharky

Alongside with IP Filtering, selecting proper eDonkey servers is crucial to eMule security. Wherever possible, it is recommended to connect to Kademlia exclusively (see our article) without using servers. However, this is not possible for everyone, and in some cases a server must first be connected to in order to generate KAD client connections. Thus, eDonkey servers are still an integral part of eMule.

Using a good eD2k server (in addition to KAD) can add variety to the search results, especially when switching between them. While KAD generally brings about more search results (with more sources), requests are somewhat predictable and static. Specific eDonkey servers may help you find a particular rare item that otherwise wouldn’t be available through Kademlia.

Using eMule Safely & Securely - IP Blocking

March 25, 2008 by sharky

Several experts have rated eDonkey as the second largest contributor to Internet-based piracy, behind BitTorrent. Currently, with over 4 million users worldwide at any given time sharing roughly 500 million files, few can question its success.

The eDonkey (eD2k) network has forever been an easy target and a brunt of punishment for anti-piracy organizations. Anti-P2P groups (MediaSentry and MediaDefender - to name just two) have flooded the network with bogus files, and filled the network with rogue users that share nothing but misery. They’ve even managed to shut down high-profile eDonkey servers from all corners of the globe, and set up their own ‘fake servers’ in an attempt to marginalize the filesharing.

As a counterattack, eMule users can incorporate two preventative measures - IP Blocking, and the use of known good eDonkey servers (serverlists). When combined, they provide a high level of protection against most threats.

Connecting to Kademlia in eMule

March 23, 2008 by sharky

Kademlia (KAD or Kad) is a serverless network used primarily to index files shared by eMule clients. Clients can connect to the eDonkey network and use it to find sources for files, without the need for mediary intervention (in this case, “servers”) to track down and find files among connected peers.

The Kademlia Network & its Significance

Since KAD is a decentralized (DHT) network, eMule users don’t have to rely on the validity of eDonkey (eD2k) servers. Think of it as a ‘direct connection’ to other peers on the eDonkey network - without the (otherwise necessary) interaction of a centralized eDonkey server.

KAD is a viable implementation, for the reason that it nullifies the dependency upon eDonkey servers:

1.If a server is temporarily offline, closed or even shut down (purposely or forcibly), users can still search, find and download files from other KAD-connected peers (nodes). Not only does this increase search results from nodes spanning across all of the servers, but it also significantly heightens the number of sources for files. Residual benefits include higher download speeds and access to otherwise unfindable “rare” material.

2.“Bad” eDonkey / eD2k servers have no ill-effect to the KAD network (directly), thus there are fewer decoy and spoof files. It’s safe to say that anti-P2P agencies have a much more difficult time polluting the network as a whole.

Omemo - P2P’s Next Big Thing?

March 22, 2008 by sharky

Store your files online, share your stuff and browse what other users store in the world’s largest multimedia library: The Omemo peer-to-peer virtual hard-drive.

Could Omemo be the next big thing that file sharers are looking for? Perhaps. We took it for a spin to see for ourselves.

What is it?

Omemo is a peer-to-peer file-sharing service that stores files on a virtual hard drive online. The service requires that users donate a small portion of the space on their hard drives, which are combined to form a collective virtual network. Shared files are not saved on the users’ hard drives; rather, the space is donated to the Omemo P2P network in a virtual online environment.

Features:

— Omemo is billed as a filesharing protocol that is as anonymous as (technically) possible (for both uploading and downloading).

— Content on Omemo is always accessible. No one can erase or alter the content of the Omemo “O” drive.

Sites that offer Open Private Trackers and ‘Invite Swapping’

March 15, 2008 by sharky

We all know the difficulties associated with joining exclusive private BitTorrent sites. With some of them, it’d probably be easier to get into MENSA. We’ve recently released some tips for joining private trackers through software such as Open Registrations Checker; or simply outright buying your account through Torrent Auction.

If these tips don’t do the trick, and you’re feeling brazen enough to wade through pages upon pages of gobbledegook - try out some of these links. Here you’ll find ‘invite swapping’ forums & links, as well as other sites that post private trackers that are open to new accounts.

‘Invite Swapping’ Sites

We all know what this is about: You send some schmuck a working “invite” in the hopes that he’ll reciprocate in an honest manner. If you’re gonna do it, start out with an account that you don’t care about. If you can find someone who is genuine about their motives, you may be able to develop a good trading relationship and possibly start swapping good sites.

Here are a few links that are specific to private BitTorrent “invite swapping”:

Find Open Private Trackers with ‘Open Registrations Checker’

March 14, 2008 by sharky

Unless you were born last night, we probably don’t have to tell you that elite private BitTorrent websites occasionally offer new unannounced signups, usually to replace or “trim” inactive accounts or kicked users. Aside from a few lucky ones that happen to be there at the right time, there’s no sure way of knowing when new accounts are going to be announced. That is, until now.

Torrent Open Registrations Checker from TeamRoots is a brand-new tool to find private BitTorrent sites that are accepting new signups. It’s like Tracker Checker 2 on steroids and speed at the same time. Requires Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 or higher.

Can’t get into a Private BitTorrent site? Buy your way in!

March 13, 2008 by sharky

OK, we know what we said - never pay for P2P. We’re not getting soft on you - we stand firmly by that credence. But if there was ever just one exception to the rule - it’s this. Looking to get into that oh-so-coveted private BitTorrent site, but you don’t have an invite? Ever tried ‘trading’ private BitTorrent invites only to get ripped off? You’re not alone.

We know the hassles of trying to get into a great BitTorrent website. TrackerChecker never green flags them, btracs.com doesn’t post them, and P2P forums everywhere are loaded with messages from people who want in but don’t post any working invite codes.

Why not skip all the crap and just buy your way in?

Speed Tests - Azureus ‘Magnet Links’ vs Torrents

March 13, 2008 by sharky

To confirm our belief that bonafide torrents would be faster than decentrally-hosted Azureus magnet links, we decided to put them head-to-head in a speed test.

To achieve this, we downloaded four different torrents and the four corresponding ‘magnet links’. Since we couldn’t open both the torrent and magnet link in the same BitTorrent client (Azureus v2.5), we opened the torrents in µtorrent (v1.6.1).

The results really aren’t all that surprising. Nor should they be - Azureus magnet links are not designed to be the Porsches of BitTorrent. Their purpose is to potentially squeeze out those last few packets that otherwise wouldn’t be available from a seedless or dead torrent.

Using Azureus ‘Magnet Links’

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‘Magnet Links’ Explained

March 10, 2008 by sharky

A magnet link is a unique link to a specific file, typically on a P2P file sharing network.

Magnet Links allow users to directly download files into a P2P file sharing application. Through the support of magnet links, users can follow links to find specific files quickly and accurately. In short, getting the file is as easy as following a link - the magnet points to a specific file and launches the P2P program, adding the file to the user’s download list.

Magnet Links are an extension of a greater group of URIs/URNs (not to be confused with ‘URL’) - whereas a URL will point to a specific website; a URI will point to the specific contents, or, location of a file. Read the technical jargon for Magnet Links on Wikipedia.

Magnet Links - What are they for?

The main reason for the conception of magnet links is for increased authenticity (and less redundancy) of files being shared via P2P programs. For example, if you conduct a search for something specific in a filesharing program (such as Limewire), you’ll notice “multiple sources” for some of the results. We don’t have to tell you that ‘multiple source’ files offer the best availability, in terms of transfer speeds and chances for a successful ‘working’ download. All of the sources use the same hash link (that points to the exact same file).

RIAA: Three Down, Limewire to Go.

March 07, 2008 by sharky

With an ‘assimilation agenda’ that only the Borg would be proud of, the RIAA / IFPI and their puppeteers have almost completed the takeover of all the major P2P players, and just need one final filesharing cornerpiece to complete the home-run. Batting .750 with the new Bearshare, iMesh and the most recent takeover (webjacking) of Shareaza[dot]com; there’s but just one lone P2P juggernaut remaining - Limewire. We suspect that there, too, will come a day when filesharers will rightfully have to avoid the Limewire domain - probably sooner than later. The empirical RIAA will use it’s normal modus operandi to acquire Limewire, much in the same surreptitious way they snagged Shareaza less than three months ago.

Movie Download Scam Sites

March 06, 2008 by sharky

Start your dream movie collection today! 100% free movie downloads. No download fees ever! You have come to the right place; with us you can access all the movies available on the Internet instantly! The setup takes less than one minute! We Guarantee 100% satisfaction! We are 100% sure our service will satisfy your needs and therefore we can offer you a satisfaction guarantee for 60 days! And we also guarantee you a never ending flow of new movies, mp3’s, games and softwares for you to add to your collection. Our service is EASY to use! You can download movies for free!” - scam website.

Sounds catchy, doesn’t it? Here’s our take on movie download sites, and what you can do to avoid being sucked in to THE SCAM. Want some REAL movie download sites, tips and info? You’ve already come to the right place.

Setting up ‘ProxyWay’ for Anonymous Browsing

March 05, 2008 by sharky

ProxyWay is a very good (Free) all-in-one solution for anonymous web surfing. Never again will you have to visit those slow CGI anonymous proxy websites (anonymouse.org, proxify.com). It offers the same features of a CGI proxy through software incorporated seamlessly through any web browser. The reason ProxyWay stands out among other anonymous web solutions is that it features multiple proxies working together simultaneously in the background. Not only does this put to shame the speeds of browser-based proxies, but it also acts as a dynamic proxy chain to provide an even higher level of anonymity. With ProxyWay; feel free to do your online banking or secure shopping - something that nobody in their right mind should ever do through a public CGI proxy.

Specialized Private BitTorrent Sites - ‘HD Video’

March 05, 2008 by sharky

It’s matter-of-fact that almost all BitTorrent sites carry movie torrents (if they know what’s good for them), and it’s not too difficult to find the High-Def (HD) video files in most cases. A simple query for x264 or 720p turns up some sweet LCD-friendly results in a public BitTorrent search engine. But very few (if any) offer a category devoted to HD - everything is just jammed into that VIDEO MOVIES pigeonhole. If you love HD as much as us, we feel your pain - finding a steady stream of high-res film releases on public BitTorrent sites is about as difficult as finding a Toshiba HD-DVD player that’s NOT on sale these days.

Private sites that strictly offer only HD releases fill a niche-market for us cinephiles. Never again do we have to wade through pages and pages of mis-categorized publicly-submitted flicks — all the while using every known trick-in-the-bittorrent-book to filter out the lowly KVCDs from the HDRips. Without further ado, we present a list of Private BitTorrent sites that exclusively deal in high definition video torrents.

Specialized Private BitTorrent Sites - ‘Sports Torrents’

March 04, 2008 by sharky

With the soaring popularity of BitTorrent, torrent mongers now have a wide selection of sites to choose from. We can’t think of a better way to aid and abet its growing success than to put out a list of private BitTorrent websites. So ditch those public sites and start narrowing in on what you really need.

Nowhere on the Internet could we find a big list of sports torrent sites - this was badly overdue. This list was compiled from hours of searching through P2P forums and other obscure links. Poker sites are not included.

Know of a Sports Torrent site that’s not on the list? Post it in the comments!

SPORTS TORRENT SITES

www.sport-scene.net

— OPEN? - YES.Members: 8,072 / 10,000.Minimum Ratio: 0.5 / 1.0.# of Torrents: 1,623.Features: Every sport imaginable, some in HD. Fresh content, updated daily.

www.sportbit.org

— OPEN? - NO.Members: 12,006 / 12,000.Ratio: 0.5 / 1.0.# of Torrents: 1,588.Features: Unknown - not open to new registrations at this time.

How to Hide Everything You Do from Big Brother

March 04, 2008 by sharky

When it comes to the Internet, no matter how overt and honest people are, we don’t want our privacy to be invaded. While President Bush may defend domestic eavesdropping, it doesn’t mean you should. Things have gone from bad to worse - why, we can’t even send an email without worrying about it being intercepted. Every site we visit, every facebook or hotmail login, every search in a browser - it’s all recorded, logged and saved in giant datastore farms, surreptitiously laying-in-wait for that one day where it’s all dragged out and thrown back in our faces. It’s anyone’s guess who’ll be granted access to this datamine down the road.

An exact copy of all Internet traffic that flowed through critical AT&T cables — e-mails, documents, pictures, Web browsing, voice-over-Internet phone conversations, everything — was being diverted to equipment inside the secret room,” - Mark Klein, a 20-year veteran for AT&T, referring to the sixth floor (secret room) in which the U.S. Government & NSA have unconditional access. According to Mr. Klein, there are 15 - 20 more buildings just like it across America, set up the same way. This is just the tip of the iceberg - there aren’t many whistleblowers like Klein that “leak” sensitive information such as this.

Whilst there’s not much one can do about Big Brother™ and his Orwellian cohorts from videotaping you at the local convenience store, or taking pictures of your licence plate at every street corner, or even RFIDing your next born - the least we can do is not let it happen to us in our own living room.

Porn and BitTorrent? - Yes, the Rumors are True!

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The anoNet Darknet - a ‘Private’ Internet

March 02, 2008 by sharky

What is the anoNet?

It is a self-contained private version of the Internet - a “darknet” for lack of a better word. AnoNet is similar to the Tor hidden services (websites that end in *.onion) and I2P’s “eepsites” (sites that end in *.i2p). It is also comparable to Freenet, except that it’s easier to set up, and it’s faster. Users can host their own anonymous blogs, IRC channels, forums.

What runs through anoNet?

Almost every Internet service. BitTorrent, web servers, search engines, email, FTP, IRC, Instant Messaging, P2P file sharing. They’ve tried to create an anonymous alternative to most services currently available through regular Internet. anoNet is not a proxy or ‘tunneling over’ service for Internet applications - it’s all rather self-contained through the VPN service and secure web pages.

Is it anonymous?

It’s probably best to just let the anoNet FAQ do the talking. Our article is about how to set it up and run some programs through it. But yeah, we’re convinced!

Which BitTorrent Client is the Fastest?

March 01, 2008 by sharky

Fastest BitTorrent Clients - The Tests - A Comparison of Speeds in Realtime

Every BitTorrent software developer claims that theirs is the fastest BitTorrent client, but which one really IS the fastest? There are so many variables to be considered: Seed/peer ratio of individual torrents, public or private trackers (and number of trackers in a torrent), DHT “trackerless” support and UPnP port forwarding, just to name a few. Even the default “factory” settings of each client can have an big impact on download speeds.

So how it is truly possible to really know? Conduct speed tests in a controlled experiment, natch! Let’s put ‘em to a test!

About The Tests

To create a semi-controlled environment in which the data could realistically be used, we needed to conduct the experiment in realtime - in a scenario where ALL BitTorrent clients were using the exact same torrent (loaded simultaneously in each) and thus were ideally downloading at the same time. Not only that, but we repeated the same text three times with 3 different .torrents (all 5 clients were loaded with the exact same torrent at the same time, on three separate occasions).

OK, no peeking - don’t scroll down to the bottom just yet. Out of the five tested clients (µtorrent, BitComet, Azureus, BitTorrent and BitLord), which one do YOU think won the races?