Finding a tracker when DHT is disabled

[GJ6643KM]

A week ago I posted reseed requests for three old torrents. One request was filled, and many thanks to the seeder. There are two others, which are

Annie Besant - Her Writings and Debates to Expose Christianity
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4945376/

Christianity and Ethics of War
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5050187/

With so many sites being blocked the address may not be correct for you, but the name and the seven digit number will be the same. For both torrents DHT is disabled, so downloading will depend on finding the right tracker. According to utorrent there are both seeds and peers, but the peers are all on 0%. I have seen the same issue with other torrents without DHT, with peers not able to get data from me, and it has taken me many months to seed back.

What I have tried so far is to add trackers - both http and utp - but while they say they are working they don't enable me to connect. Can anyone offer suggestions please?

[Spud17]

For both torrents DHT is disabled, so downloading will depend on finding the right tracker.

Says who? What a load of cobblers. Forget trackers, it's 2017, just have DHT enabled.

According to utorrent there are both seeds and peers, but the peers are all on 0%

Read this thread in our Site Issues forum:

https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-what-is...-the-seeds

I would suggest you, and other TPB users, stop placing so much importance on the seed stats, and instead go off the numbers shown in your torrent client. Torrents showing 0 seeders are NOT going to stop people from downloading them. When someone wants a particular torrent, they'll click the magnet link and download it, regardless of the stats.

[Moe]

The only way DHT can be disabled is when a torrent's private flag is set. Those torrents are not allowed on TPB.

Any problems you are having with DHT or trackers are going to be at your end.

[GJ6643KM]

The only way DHT can be disabled is when a torrent's private flag is set.  Those torrents are not allowed on TPB.

Any problems you are having with DHT or trackers are going to be at your end.

The torrents came from TPB, which you can see by following the links. DHT is disabled on them, which was quite a common feature some years ago.

Yes, I am having problems with trackers, which is why I posted. Another one is

https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4832833...eology.rar

I hope I've got the name right; I had to reconstruct it as Virgin bars me from looking at the official site. I donwloaded this one about ten days ago. According to utorrent there there are seven seeds, nine peers, all on 0% - but I can't upload to any of them.

[Moe]

Make sure you can accept incoming TCP and UDP connections on whatever port you are listening on.

Beyond that, there is nothing you can do.

[Aaron.Walkhouse]

I checked your dead torrents and confirm it's an old problem caused by trying to download a private torrent by magnet.
You can't get the files that way because the metadata won't download for you.  ‌  What you must do is delete each of the
bad downloads you have now and get torrents from somewhere else, like skytorrents.in or btmon.com.

Christianity and Ethics of War
Annie Besant - Her Writings and Debates to Expose Christianity
AD White History of Warfare of Science with Theology rar

Once you get the private-marked torrents (and probably refresh their tracker lists) the downloads will proceed quickly.

As for peers who can't download from you while you're seeding, you can't help them. ‌‌
They have to start over with torrents as described here.‌‌ ‌‌ There's no other way.

If you're feeling generous, go ahead and post alternate links to torrents in the comments on TPB, with the following explanation:

---

Symptom: ‌‌ The file list never appears, even though seeds (and/or peers) are connected for a long time.
Fix:
1. ‌‌ Copy the name of that download.
2. ‌‌ Delete that download completely. ‌‌ It must be gone when you…
3. ‌‌ …find and download the actual torrent from elsewhere and load it into your Bittorrent app.
4. ‌‌ Add trackers if needed. ‌‌ Here's a few:

udp://tracker.files.fm:6969

http://87.248.186.252:6969/announce
http://87.248.186.252:8080/announce

udp://public.popcorn-tracker.org:6969

udp://109.201.133.019:2710

udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337

udp://151.080.120.114:2710

udp://182.176.139.129:6969

udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969

udp://p4p.arenabg.com:1337

udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969

udp://tracker.zer0day.to:1337
udp://zer0day.to:1337

udp://peerfect.org:6969

udp://182.190.3.68:6969
udp://182.190.3.99:6969
udp://182.190.4.38:6969
udp://182.190.4.52:6969

udp://tracker.kamigami.org:2710

udp://zephir.monocul.us:6969

udp://tracker.grepler.com:6969

udp://tracker.vanitycore.co:6969

http://share.camoe.cn:8080/announce

---

If nobody has put this in a FAQ yet, would you admins please add this to that list? ‌‌ ‌‌ ;]

[Moe]

I checked your dead torrents and confirm it's an old problem caused by trying to download a private torrent by magnet.
You can't get the files that way because the metadata won't download for you.  ‌  What you must do is delete the two
bad downloads you have now and get the actual torrents from somewhere else, like skytorrents.in.

Once you get the private-marked torrents the downloads will proceed quickly.

---

If nobody has put this in a FAQ yet, would you admins please add this to that list? ‌‌ ‌‌ ;]

The private flag doesn't disable the ability to use the magnet protocol for the transfer of metadata, but it does prevent the usage of DHT to find peers if a working tracker is not included as part of the magnet link.

Consider also that the private flag is part of the info dictionary. There is no way to know if it is private until after you have received the metadata.

[Aaron.Walkhouse]

Actually, even with working trackers the transfer of metadata is also blocked as a security measure.
That's why you need to completely flush out the bad download and start over with a fresh torrent.

It's not a bug. ‌‌ It's a feature. ‌‌‌‌ This is why we block private torrents after switching to magnets only. ‌‌ ‌‌

Try it yourself with one of the magnets above. ‌‌ It has always worked that way so private trackers could
maintain control of unauthorized leeching and can completely kill bad/fake/malware torrents if needed.

[Moe]

That doesn't make any sense, but operators of private trackers usually lack that to begin with.

TPB didn't block private torrents after switching to magnets. TPB blocked private torrents to encourage DHT and torrents without trackers. The magnet protocol has nothing to do with that. In fact, this was done before they started hosting magnet links for torrents. The only thing that happened after switching to magnets was that TPB stopped serving the torrent file when the swarm size was greater than 10. And then eventually stopped serving torrent files entirely.

Unauthorized leeching is usually enforced by access keys in announce URLs. You can't find peers on a private torrent without a working tracker, so you can't request the metadata to begin with.

On the other hand, torrent files are quite easy to share. One would think magnet links would be preferred over torrent files given the ease of blocking an access key. It is silly to think that a private site can somehow kill a torrent by blocking the magnet protocol. Kill sharing of the hash in the tracker if you want to do that.

Obviously, if a client developer chooses to disable the magnet protocol for private torrents that is their choice. I'd consider that a bug. It offers no security or control.

[plhbg.sprby]

According to utorrent there there are seven seeds, nine peers, all on 0% - but I can't upload to any of them.

You still need the metadata in order for the client to know the number of pieces the torrent has to make that % column in peers tab working.

Find the torrent file somewhere else since the peers are not giving you the metadata.

You don't have the metadata also means you don't have downloaded any piece so you definitely can't upload anything to them.