So You Want to Create a Bittorrent Tracker
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog post is to educate people on how to create their own personal BitTorrent tracker for legitimate reasons. It is not my intent for any of this information to be used to break copyright law. What you choose to do with this information is up to you.
Introduction
The BitTorrent protocol is a distribution system that is much more efficient and cost-effective than traditional models e.g. HTTP, FTP, as it does not require information to be distributed and stored from a centralized location. Even though there are many benefits that the protocol brings, the technology is still regarded as a way to distribute video, audio, and other copyrighted material. As bandwidth and server costs become overwhelmingly burdensome as a site’s traffic increase, BitTorrent serves as a simple solution, even to those with limited technical and financial resources.
Bittorrent Tracker Software
| BT Software | Description |
|---|---|
| BNBT | BNBT EasyTracker is a complete port of the original Python BitTorrent tracker to C++ for speed and efficiency (LGPL) |
| Open Tracker | Opentracker is a open and free BitTorrent tracker project. It aims for minimal system resource usage and is intended to run on your wlan router |
| XBT Tracker | XBT Tracker is a BitTorrent tracker written in C++. It’s designed to offer high performance while consuming little resources (CPU and RAM). It can be run on Windows, Linux, and OS X |
| Leonidas | Leonidas is basically the ASP.NET porting of the phpMyBitTorrent tracker that is written in both C# and VB |
| RivetTracker | RivetTracker is a modified version of PHPBTTracker, written by DeHackEd. Written in PHP, this BitTorrent tracker provides the same functionality as most other trackers and uses MySQL as the database backend |
| LimeTracker | Written in PHP, LimeTracker installs easily on servers and web hosts. Torrents backed by traditional web downloads |
| TBDEV | TBDEV is a project to further enhance, update and develop the Torrentbits/Bytemonsoon source code. Its forum community offers an excellent place to learn and find new modifications for your new TBDEV tracker |
| Project Gazelle | Project Gazelle is based on the TBDEV source code. Its developers claim to have improved the speed of the and have suggested that a site running Gazelle can approximately handle about twice as much users as a current TBDEV based website |
| XBNBT | XBNBT is a modifed BitTorrent tracker based on BNBT, The Trinity EasyTracker and CBTT |
| BM | Broadcast Machine is open source, free, and can easily be installed on any website host that supports PHP to easily publish video files and create internet TV channels |
| phpMyBitTorrent | phpMyBitTorrent is an open source BitTorrent tracker that only requires PHP and a MYSQL database |
Alternatives
Alright, what are some other alternatives if you don’t have the patience or time to install any one of these BitTorrent trackers? Well, you have four options: OpenBittorrent, Mininova, LegalTorrents, and Amazon S3.
| BT Software | Description |
|---|---|
| OpenBitTorrent | OpenBitTorrent is a BitTorrent tracker. There is no need to register, upload or index a torrent anywhere |
| Mininova | Mininova’s Content Distribution (CD) service places your content on the front page as featured content and seeds your torrents |
| LegalTorrents | LegalTorrents hosts your content, and provides dedicated seeds. In order to upload content to the site you need to be assigned a Content Creator profile. You can do so by contacting its staff |
| Amazon S3 | Amazon S3 hosts your files through either HTTP or the BitTorrent protocol. You can calculate the price to transfer your data by using the Amazon Monthly Calculator |
References
1. —. “Proponents Try to Rehabilitate Peer-to-Peer Technology.” Computer 41.4, pp. 16-19 (2008): April.
2. Helton, M. “Secondary Liability for Copyright Infringement: BitTorrent as a Vehicle for Establishing a New Copyright Definition for Staple Articles of Commerce.” (2006).