Hosting Help

[696]

I figure since AonE hosts BTs, they could tell me/link me to how to do it myself. And with that I ask for someone to tell me how to host a BT, thanks!

[complich8]

Two "beginner" ways to go...

Method 1:
install a recent version of python on your computer ( http://www.python.org ).
download the bittorrent source release from your favorite sourceforge mirror.
unzip the bittorrent source release, read the readme file, particularly the section "to start hosting".
follow the instructions there. Mainline bittorrent source includes the server. You'll need to be comfortable with a command prompt to make use of it. (run bttrack.py to start a tracker, use btmaketorrent.py to make the torrent, use whatever client you want to seed).
Distribute the .torrent to whoever you want to share the file with, however you want, and watch your bandwidth disappear for a while.

Method 2:
grab Azureus from your favorite sourceforge mirror, and install.
In the "Options" tab, look for a "Tracker" menu. Configure and enable the "server" part of the tracker there, forwarding ports through your router as necessary.
Use file->new torrent to make a new torrent. Distribute the torrent to the people you want to share the file with, and watch your bandwidth disappear.


Please note that neither of these methods is recommended for torrents that will get popular. If you're going to be hosting something popular, it's highly recommended that you host it on a dedicated server with plenty of memory and upload bandwidth, and running a more efficient tracker (like bnbt). Or, more likely, make friends with the owner of a tracker who'll let you use it to track whatever you want to distribute, or find a public tracker to point at.

Also be aware that it is generally a bad idea to both seed a reasonably active torrent and track it from the same machine (unless it's a nice machine on an excellent connection), because more popular torrents will substantial amounts of bandwidth and system resources just to track. So, team up with your friends, have several of them seed it if you track it, or recruit a distro team, whatever.