September 07, 2009 by Hangman
One of the most important parts of a torrent site is definitely the search engine. It is probably the first thing people are going to use, and a bug free search form will greatly improve user experience. In this tutorial, we are going to implement a Browse section including torrent details columns, paging, and a form which will be used to filter results based on search queries.
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August 17, 2009 by Hangman
In this third part of the tutorial (Parts I & II here), our goal is to show some information about our torrents and users. We’ll go through a bunch of tips and snippets that any developer may find useful while developing a torrent site, such as some util functions to display relative times, friendly sizes and a tree with files and folders.
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July 15, 2009 by Hangman
In the previous part of this guide, we have seen how to run the XBTT tracker on our server and built a basic torrent download system with passkey support. Now we need a way to upload our torrents, so in this second part we’ll see how to create a fully working upload form featuring validation of metainfo .torrent files, including checks such as MIME type, private flag, announce URL, and torrent hash to detect duplicates.
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June 24, 2009 by Hangman
Our good friend Hangman over at Valadiléne.org is writing a series of tutorials beginning with Part 1 on How to Create a Torrent Tracker with PHP and XBTT, and wanted to share his knowledge with FSF readers. If there’s enough demand, the series will be expanded to include future coding goodies including ratio system, upload form with torrent validation, and search engine. We recommend all aspiring tracker developers to stay tuned into his blog; surely there’s more interesting tidbits to come. Hangman is also the brain behind the new tracker vgmTorrents.net, which is actually based on WordPress as a frontend…
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May 23, 2009 by sharky
In the wake of ThePirateBay trial and subsequent aftermath related to the risks of hosting a BitTorrent tracker in Sweden (or, even being a denizen and hosting it elsewhere), most major Nordic private trackers have now all but complied with AntiPiratByran. However, two such trackers are having the last laugh - SweDVDR and SoftMP3 have willfully made their tracker source code available for anyone who wishes to set up their own tracker. Just don’t do it in Sweden.
Ironically, the source code for both trackers is publicly available on BitTorrent.
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September 22, 2008 by sharky
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September 14, 2008 by sharky
These days, setting up a private BitTorrent website is almost as easy as setting up a blog. Simply grab a domain name, purchase some hosting (that supports torrenting), and install yourself a script such as TBDev, TBSource, or even Gazelle. Tweak it up a little, add some custom images, and voilà - an instant torrent site. It’s done all the time. But to launch a successful private tracker, there’s more to it than that. No, we’re not talking about badgering members into donating to keep it running - you need an angle that the real pros are using. This includes the entire A-to-Z gamut of IRC services such as PreBots, PreNET and IRCd - not to mention total anonymity with offshore bank accounts & offshore hosting.
It’s not often that true sceners will divulge the secrets for developing a private tracker and turn it into something really special - and even profitable. This is "in-the-know" knowledge that takes years of internal scene experience to hone - rarely is it information easily parted with. For the first time ever (that we’ve ever seen), we’ve found a select group of sceners who are more than willing to help the aspiring private tracker owner achieve the ultimate BitTorrent site.
Want to know more? Inquire here at this IRC channel - irc.p2p-net.eu/#programming. The OPs will be more than happy to answer any questions. Here’s a condensed look (and explanation of) just some of the outlined services that are being offered:
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August 16, 2008 by sharky
Now anyone can easily set up and run their own BitTorrent search engine website - thanks to the owner of ReleasePirate.com who has been tirelessly working on a Torrent Search Engine script, and has now made it freely available to the public for the first time.
The script is a mere 150 KB in size, and consumes very little server/system resources, since it relies entirely on the search engines of the BitTorrent sites (it’s not a database script). It’s also very customizable - you’ll be able to throw in Google AdSense or any other monetizing solution to the site theme, and add your own images, affiliates, links or anything else. Other features include:
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February 18, 2008 by sharky
We’re not going to wade too deeply here explaining all the different BitTorrent backends and available features. All three frontend packages that we featured in PART II include their own internal backend trackers. But if we had to pick just one of the bunch, we’d go with xBtit - BtiTeam has put all of their eggs in the basket for this one. Not only is it an “active” project from very motivated developers, but the list of features speak for itself. And if you have a couple extra bucks, xBtit Premium is also a very good all-in-one solution which is worth checking out, as well - for £20 you’ll get support, mods & hacks for your template. They’ll even offer VPS hosting for your BitTorrent site, if needed.
xBtit is not the only horse in town; here is a thorough release package consisting of many frontends and backends for BitTorrent, and below is a list of helpful links to BitTorrent files, templates, complete tracker packages, and other goodies.
We break this down into three sections. For all practicalities, there are only 3 ways for a BitTorrent site admin (you) to get .torrent files onto your Bit site. You could:
— 1. Download your desired existing torrents from public BitTorrent sites, and host them on your site, as-is.
— 2. Make .torrents from your own files, and either upload it to a public Bit site, or use an open public tracker for hosting.
— 3. Create .torrents from your own files, and use your own tracker to host the torrents. (This requires a more expensive webhosting plan, as you’ll require a dedicated server for your domain).
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February 19, 2008 by sharky
The frontend is a (PHP) BitTorrent theme, or template, that includes the visual aspect of the BitTorrent website. A typical “frontend package” will consist of two things: A GUI for the website and a tracker. The GUI of a frontend will house the user-interface and “Control Panel” through which the general settings can be modified, as well as the configuration of the site’s tracker. The tracker is a server between all of the peers, and coordinates the “who-gets-what” when distributing the data in a torrent. By default, the tracker in a typical frontend package will be a private one - whereby anyone using the torrent must be a registered user of the site, and thus registered with the tracker.
The backend is what runs the BitTorrent tracker. Many older frontends rely on an external tracker (software) to be installed and configured separately, and this approach is not for the novice user. Most newer BitTorrent frontend packages come with a backend (aka.. ‘tracker’) already incorporated into the template, making it possible for almost anyone to run their own BitTorrent website.
We detail the installation for three newer (PHP) BitTorrent frontends - BtiTracker, FTS and xBtit. Each of these three examples comes pre-configured with their own backend (tracker), and are implemented through an easy, web-based “installation”. NOTE: For the more experienced users who’d like more examples of frontends, we’ve uploaded an entire “BitTorrent frontend / tracker” release-package to rapidshare.com - it comes with these and many more (older) BitTorrent frontends, backends and trackers. Download it here. If this rapidshare link dies, let us know and we’ll re-upload it.
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February 22, 2008 by sharky
Do you ever wish there was a button you could push to delete all the crappy torrents at those popular BitTorrent sites? Ever wonder what it’d be like to run your own BitTorrent site? It’s a blast! And the best part - Total control! You get to add only the torrents that you want, without all the junk found on the public BitTorrent juggernauts.
There’s one thing that ALL BitTorrent websites have in common: they started out small. Here we document the entire process for setting up your own BitTorrent website - with your own trackers, as well. We’ll give you fair warning - this takes some work!
A few things we must first mention:
— There’s always a catch to free services - if too much monthly bandwidth is used, they can easily just remove your site. With a paid service, you just upgrade your account.
— If you draw complaints, they’ll take your site down without any notice. Many premium webhosting companies will have no issues with you running torrents on it.
— You won’t get any support from a free service. Many paid webhosting companies have “live” support at their website or at least a phone number you can call.
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