A complete guide to BitTorrent!

The kind folks over at Eltima Software, developers of Folx BitTorrent client for Mac, have been in touch to offer me the opportunity to review the Pro version of their software and potentially create a great discount for a lucky few BitTorrent Guide readers too!

Having looked at the features and benefits of the free version it certainly looks like it is a fully featured client so I look forward to testing the effectiveness of the additional features within the Pro version over the coming days. I’ll post a review up and if it’s a worthy upgrade, we’ll see what we can do about organising a discount for a select few!

I’ve also created an additional listing within the clients section for those wanting a quick review of the main features.

According to a recent post over at TorrentFreak, TalkTalk’s Homesafe has the ability to filter BitTorrent websites accessed through the browser. This sort of news is typical of an organisation such as TalkTalk, part of The Carphone Warehouse group.

BitTorrent offers many benefits over traditional server based downloading methods and it has a perfectly legitimate use for many organisations, especially software developers. Posting an update or driver onto a well maintained public tracker can drastically bandwidth usage, something of great appeal to the smaller freeware developer, especially if popular.  Having thousands of hits on your website is one thing, having thousands of people download a small file on a continual basis is another!

I also hope this is not the sign of things to come, although such restrictions are perhaps inevitable in the long-run due to the intense media pressure on BitTorrent as a technology and its use for piracy and copyright violations.

I saw this update on ACS:LAW today and thought I’d mention it here!

Now a judge has ruled that the company may be responsible for wasted costs in the case and ordered a full hearing. Mr Crossley’s lawyers declined to comment.

Let’s see how he likes being on the receiving end for a change.

I decided to add some content relating to other file sharing methods. I hope this means I don’t have to change the name of the site!

Today’s news focuses on the new measures put in place by search engine giant Google, whereby searches relating to torrent files (and other file-sharing related terms) will not be included within the new Instant Search feature.

What does this mean for the end user?  Well, at the moment, not a lot!  You’ll still be able to use Google to search for content potentially related to ‘questionable’ content, you’ll just have to hit the search button instead of waiting for the results to magically appear as you type.

Does this signal the beginning of further restrictions down the line?  I don’t think anyone knows right now.  I would suggest Google is pretending to care about piracy, it makes good headlines after all.  I doubt they would go too far for fear of alienating their customers.

None-the-less, I’ll be watching the situation closely from here on.

Don’t be evil Google.

On the way into work this morning, I was delighted to read that Andrew Crossley of ACS:LAW has thrown in the towel and wont be trying to hussle money from innocent people any longer.

For those unaware of the history, Crossley’s firm targeted alleged file sharers and demanded hundreds, sometimes thousands, in exchange for not taking them to court.  His “evidence” was nothing more than an IP address collected from a torrent swarm by a third party company, something which his own counsel expressed concerns over.  None-the-less, Crossley continued his venture until he came to the attention of Anonymous.

The ACS:LAW website was soon experiencing a DDoS attack and they made the situation much worse when they restored the site, inadvertently exposing a backup of the firm’s mailserver at the same time.  All emails soon became public and their contents made headlines, primarily focused on the underhanded extortion racket effectively in operation.

Fast-forward a few months and we get to today’s news

“A patent court in London had been hearing the cases of 26 of the alleged file sharers but Mr Crossley has now ended his involvement.
In a statement read to the court, he said:‘I have ceased my work… I have been subject to criminal attack.”

Goodbye, Crossley.  You wont be missed by many.

I’ve been busy adding some useful plugins and the site now features the above and more.  If you think there are some others I should be using please let me know!

Yes, yes, life got in the way.  Again. I’m back on the case now though and we’ll start by celebrating the birth of the new website now!  More to come.

Just in case you’ve stumbled across the new WordPress driven site, it’s a work in progress!  The last update was back in 2006 and I decided it was time to move across to a new content managed platform so I can keep the site current and make a few improvements. Updating static HTML wasn’t very fun and I’ve neglected the site for long enough… not for much longer!

Just got to sort out a few server issues with my host and the rest will flow shortly….