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I have a video file I've created. I'd like to share it to the kind/size of audience that makes me think bittorrent would be a great distribution mechanism. A sort of semi-private "those who have the link have access" model would work well for me.

So I've got this one file on disk. I'd like to create the torrent and start seeding it, share just the short magnet link, and then let the swarm start based on that. Adding open/public trackers is OK if that makes the process faster/better/etc.

I'd greatly prefer this to be linux and/or open source software based. One-time set up on e.g. Windows or with closed source software might be OK, but I'd prefer to avoid it if at all possible.

(I took one brief shot at this by using mktorrent and then passing that through a python script based on a stack overflow question. My local client said it was seeding, and I used my own remote torrent client to test, but it never started downloading.)

arantius
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2 Answers2

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To create a Bittorrent magnet link, use rhash :

rhash --magnet --bt-private --btih --bt-announce http://tracker.example.com:6969/announce yourfile.mkv

The --bt-private option is like the ctorrent's '-p' ("private") option which disables the use of DHT, PEX or other trackerless peer-exchange methods by other clients when sharing this torrent - if you use your own tracker, the swarm will be circumscribed there.

Then copy yourfile.mkv to rtorrent's 'incoming' directory (typically ~/bittorrent/incoming) and start seeding using the magnet link handler found here. Using a rtorrent setup dedicated to seeding, you might also consider making ~/bittorrent/incoming a symlink to your file repository - I'm thinking about that for sharing a whole collection (but that will require a bit more scripting to avoid recalculating all hashes each time the shares are updated).

This recipe is untested... I had a similar question and took this opportunity to research answers - tell us if it works !

Jean-Marc Liotier
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It could be the port that is blocked. check your port forward options in your router.

if that's not it, maybe try with uTorrent?

How to create a torrent and share with others?

Community
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Colin Pickard
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