BitTorrent EXPERIMENTAL download client

Introduction

This is an unsupported, unofficial, and, most importantly, experimental build of the BitTorrent GUI for Windows from CVS with sliders for changing the maximum upload rate and maximum upload slots added, amongst various other patches and gimmicks.

Since you are still reading, this might be useful for you :) The main advantage of being able to cap the upload rate is that people with capped DSL or cable connections can set their limit just below their actual limit, therefore avoiding saturating the upstream completely, which could make it impossible to surf the net or download at decent speeds. Remember that setting your upload cap too low will lower your download performance.

Downloads

Type	Version	Link	Size	Notes
Windows Installer	3.2.1b-2 05/13/03	Primary Site	2811 KiB	Hosted on f.scarywater.net (TX, USA)
Windows Installer	3.2.1b-2 05/13/03	Primary Mirror	2811 KiB	Graciously hosted by [reptile] (CA, USA)
Windows Installer	3.2.1b-1 04/12/03	Primary Mirror	2643 KiB	Graciously hosted by derF
Windows Installer	3.2.1b-1 04/12/03	Primary Mirror	2643 KiB	Graciously hosted by [reptile] (CA, USA)
Windows Installer	3.2-1 03/29/03	Primary Mirror	2801 KiB	Graciously hosted by derF
Windows Installer	3.2-1 03/29/03	Primary Mirror	2801 KiB	Graciously hosted by [reptile] (CT, USA)
Windows Installer	3.2-1 03/29/03	Primary Mirror	2801 KiB	Graciously hosted by [reptile] (CA, USA)
Windows Installer	3.2-1 03/29/03	Secondary Site	2801 KiB	Hosted on scarywater
Sourcecode	3.2.1b-2 05/13/03	Primary Site	60 KiB	Hosted by yours truely
Sourcecode	3.2.1b-1 04/12/03	Primary Site	150 KiB	Hosted by yours truely
Sourcecode	3.2-1 03/29/03	Primary Site	150 KiB	Hosted by yours truely
Sourcecode	3.1-cvs-4 02/25/03	Primary Site	150 KiB	Hosted by yours truely

Source

The Sourcecode is now avaiable above. A few words to the wise :

The 3.1 package is based on CVS BitTorrent from 22/02/03. The 3.2 package is based on stock 3.2. The 3.2.1b packages are based on 3.2.1b + some minor additions from CVS.
The only part that has been verified to work well is btdownloadgui.py; There will be problems with the other frontends; fixes should be trivial, though. The problems have lessened in newer releases :)
The changes have not seen much testing outside of win32. Sorry, that´s what I primarily made the changes for, since you could just use command line parameters on the other systems (this is no longer a valid reason, but that´s how it started ;). I have gotten reports of it working fine on *ix as well, though.
These modifications are under the same license BitTorrent itself is (MIT-Style).
If you find bugs, you can keep them :->
Well actually I´d like to hear about them, best with a patch to fix the problem :)

Changelog

Changes in recent versions :

3.2.1b - 2
- Included changes from John Hoffman; now, when seeding, a secondary gauge will show how much the seed is needed (if it's full, there are full distributed copies or even seeds around. This helps gauging how well your seeding works or how badly it is needed). The bar will appear in full steel blue if the torrent is completely seeded.
- window now resizes when filename is long
- added "advanced" screen with output of whom the client is connected to and what their respective state is. This should give you some idea of what´s going on.
- Added manual reannounce capability (silent minimum 60 second intervals)
- color- and smiley-indicators for share-rating; Chances are, if it´s red, you should give back more ...
- added support for comment- and creation date-fields
- errors now disappear after 5 minutes
- --saveas, --responsefile, single-parameter should now work; also, if you start withouth giving a .torrent file, the client will ask which one to use from the local hdd
- font bugfix for *ix (thanks to DocWilco)
- bugfixes with display in tray
- speed and size indicators now more consistent; also, there is now a total downloaded indicator in the topic
- Various code cleanups (not that it helps any, I introduce as much cruft as I remove :-P), "new" config handling in some parts of the code that'll pave the way for enhancements later
3.2.1b - 1
- Updated to BitTorrent 3.2.1b/cvs codebase. Changes include
- included ChocoEd´s statistics patches. This will tell you how "healthy" the torrent is, and how much you have shared (a share rating of > 1 means you have given back more than you have taken)
- Minimize to System Tray, courtesy of Andrew Todd
- Included btshowmetainfo functionality; the client will now be able to display some data about the .torrent (like its info_hash ;)
- Changed About a little; Credits in there as well.
- the command-line interfaces should work as well, now.
- minor fixes, code cleanups, additions
3.2 - 1
- Updated to BitTorrent 3.2 codebase. Changes include
  - Bugfixes
  - Better Network Utilization
  - Read-Only Files are supported for seeding
  - etc.
- indicators of how much has been up- and downloaded
- an a little more verbose about-screen
- internal changes of settings; thanks to tostman.
cvs4
- Updated to CVS version of february 22, 2003. Changes include
  - greater portrange (>9 download windows possible)
  - accepting of command line options in this client
  - tweaks & fixes in many parts of the code.
  - etc.
- Added gzip-encoding in tracker/client communication. This will help reduce the traffic used by trackers, if they have been patched. Courtesy of otaku & #bittorrent (please note that this channel is for development purposes ONLY; no files, no trading. ever.).
- Changed generated peer_ids to be zero-padded 6-byte IDs. These will compress better with aforementioned patch and still have enough entropy. From the same people ;)
cvs-2, cvs-3
- drefsab pointed out that one could set max_uploads to 0. This was clearly not intended. Safeguards have failed. I´m sorry. This has been set to sensitive limits now. Please upgrade, and delete any and all prior versions, should you have them. Thank you.
cvs-1>
- in the unlimited-selection, minimum rate increases are 50kb/s now
- in the dialup-selection, fewer connections are allowed (max_initiate is set to 8)

Please do NOT ask the creator of BitTorrent (Bram Cohen) about this build, as he has not packaged it and can thus not support it. If you have questions, direct them to me instead. Bram has enough to do as it is :)

Note that this is NOT an official release and therefore likely to contain Bugs. Please be aware of that before you install it.

On the off chance that you appreciate my work and would like to support me as well, please consider sending me a buck or two ... It doesn´t have to be much; I´m happy with anything that helps offset my online-costs even a little; of course you will be mentioned here, if so desired. also avaiable is an Amazon.de wishlist ;-)

Please take note of Bram´s donation page, since he is the principal developer & creator of BitTorrent, he deserves the support ;)