Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Torrent Project/Torrent posters and trackers

Introduction
Project seeders rely on trackers to coordinate distribution of Wikipedia content. In the experience of the project, trackers going offline, temporarily or permanently, are a recurring problem with the distribution system. Several innovations serve to counter tracker degradation:

Multi-tracker torrents
Multi-tracker torrents feature multiple trackers in one torrent. This way, should one tracker go offline, the remaining trackers can continue supporting file transfer. Nominaladversary provides links to multi-tracker torrents for project seeders. Tracker sites often discourage or prohibit certain trackers from multi-tracker torrents. Individual seeders don't need to similarly restrict themselves. Any torrent posted to the project by Nominaladversary will be a more comprehensive multi-tracker torrent than the versions we post to individual tracker and indexer sites.

The best multi-tracker torrent
The best multi-tracker torrent may be the one you design for yourself. Motivated seeders can take their participation to this next level. You can edit the tracker index list of announce URLs maintained by the individual seeder for the file being seeded. There are two ways to do this. Some BitTorrent clients, like μTorrent, add trackers when you open a tracker site's torrent for a torrent already in the index. Manual editing is the other option. If you add a tracker's announce URL in your BitTorrent client, it will only work as intended if the torrent has been uploaded to that tracker.

Screenshots from two programs known to support manual editing, Azureus and μTorrent, are posted here. An example of a comprehensive tracker list supporting multi-tracker efforts is the one prepared for 2005 Wikipedia CD Selection.iso.

Trackerless torrents
There are two incompatible 'trackerless' BitTorrent transfer (aka. decentralized tracking) methods: DHT-based implementations, and Azureus's 'Distributed Database'. Project seeders use both approaches. The term 'trackerless' is something of a misnomer, as decentralized or distributed tracking essentially treats every peer in the swarm as a tracker. Port forwarding is often needed to make this work properly. See http://www.portforward.com/ for technical assistance in implementing this.

Torrent indexers and trackers
These BitTorrent tracker and index sites link to Wikipedia torrents. They all do it a little differently. A private tracker is a tracker which requires registration before you can use this service. Such trackers can have a high amount of seeds, because users can get banned if their upload ratio is too low.

Trackers - public
No registration required for upload. This list is currently empty, although BiteNova (see below) comes close.

Trackers - semi-private
Although registration is required to upload a torrent to these trackers, no registration is required to search for and download torrents. These sites also encourage uploading their torrents to additional trackers.


 * The Pirate Bay upload
 * Announce urls:
 * http://tpb.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce Url to include in torrent. 01:40, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
 * http://tpb.tracker.prq.to/announce Url per The Pirate Bay here -- Do not use as of 21:24, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
 * http://tracker.prq.to/announce Url per mininova here -- Do not use as of 21:24, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
 * http://vip.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce Url per The Pirate Bay -- Although the upload site says to use http://tracker.prq.to/announce, you should not. After trying a torrent using http://tracker.prq.to/announce , The Pirate Bay will not upload the torrent and ask you to use http://vip.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce . -- Working as of 20:00, 7 April 2007.
 * Other information
 * Registration is open.
 * Uploader can delete torrent.


 * Demonoid Upload
 * Announce urls:
 * http://inferno.demonoid.com:3409/announce (For Current uploads - our project's older torrents use 3390 through 3395 or higher?) -- Offline as of November 9, 2007.
 * Demonoid rules relevant to WP torrents include:
 * Include this info file inside the torrent (applies for torrents tracked by Demonoid only)
 * No torrents from private trackers.
 * Other information
 * Registration is closed
 * Uploader can request torrent deletion.
 * Tracker nonfunctional and sharing site offline.
 * As of 2010-06-03 the problem is under control and the site is online.


 * TorrentBox.com upload Tracker site affiliated with IsoHunt.
 * Announce url: http://tracker.torrentbox.com:2710/announce -- Working as of 21:38, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Says here that "this is a semi-private tracker. Meaning if you use http://tracker.torrentbox.com:2710/announce as the announce URL in your torrent, it will only work after it's uploaded to www.torrentbox.com. After you have uploaded your torrent here, it's encouraged that you also submit it to other torrent listing sites as well to help share it to a wider number of people.  Help the BitTorrent community grow!"
 * Other Information:
 * Uploaded .torrent's will automatically have "announce" and "announce-list" addresses replaced with the torrentbox tracker. What you put as the announce URL in your .torrent doesn't matter.
 * Can edit, add NFO file after upload.
 * Tracks download count.


 * Seedleech Upload
 * Announce url (Status): http://seedleech.com/announce.php
 * Seedleech rules relevant to WP torrents include:
 * Include this info file inside the torrent (applies for torrents tracked by Seedleech only).
 * No torrents from private trackers.
 * Note: The Beehive is reporting here that Seedleech is not active. Judging by the score it has been inactive since late September 2006. -- Paleorthid 01:46, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Trackers - private
Only users registered with a private tracker will be able to use the torrent posted to that tracker. The following private trackers prohibit uploading their torrents to other trackers and/or posting external torrents: Being closed doesn't mean they should not have WP torrents posted to them. They definitely should. Project seeders should register with these folks and should add their announce url into their list of trackers. This can be accomplished by opening the torrent from each site with your torrent program or manual editing of the tracker list, as discussed above.
 * BitThailand Says here Do not upload our torrents to other trackers!
 * Cyberstorm Says here We are a closed, limited-membership community. Only registered users can use the TB tracker. Posting our torrents on other trackers is useless, since most people who attempt to download them will be unable to connect with us. This generates a lot of frustration and bad-will against us at Cyberstorm, and will therefore not be tolerated. Complaints from other sites' administrative staff about our torrents being posted on their sites will result in the banning of the users responsible.
 * HolyPlanets Says in forum rules: Do not post external torrents i.e torrents hosted on other sites.
 * ILoveTorrents Says here Do not upload our torrents to other trackers!

Keeping Wikipedia out of hot water
"Do not upload our torrents to other trackers!" and "this generates a lot of frustration and bad-will" means we should prepare unique, single-tracker torrents to upload to each closed private tracker site.

Other trackers - private

 * BoxTorrent As in Xbox gaming. Not sure why this is in wpcd.zip.torrent, but it is. Every bit helps.
 * mytorrent.biz German? Not sure where to categorize it since I can't read ze deutsch. no longer exists.
 * blogLoads.de Uploads restricted to authorized users Tracks the German WP iso files.

Searchable databases
The following index sites do not announce trackers. They serve up searchable databases of torrent files.

Index sites which accept torrent uploads

 * IsoHunt Torrent Post
 * mininova Torrent Upload -- note: nice feature for us: keeps track of download count.
 * TorrentMatrix Torrent Upload -- note: requires registration.
 * Torrent Portal Torrent Upload -- note: nice feature for us: keeps track of download count.
 * TorrentReactor.Net Torrent Upload-- note: requires registration.
 * Torrentspy.com Torrent Upload permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.

Torrent upload that supports tracker

 * Bitenova upload
 * Announce url:
 * http://tracker.bitebbs.com:6969/announce -- Working as of 20:26, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Notes:
 * Only letters and digits in comments
 * Announce url available but not necessary.
 * Not Associated with UseNeXT (is only sponsor).

Index site which does not accept torrent uploads

 * myBittorent.com