Skyward Fire

There’s been a huge amount of unrest in the torrent community lately. With sites like Demonoid and Torrentspy being goners, there’s been a gigantic pressure of other trackers like ThePirateBay and many other private trackers. Clearly, TPB did gain a lot from the issue of Demonoid going down, there’s been a number of users looking for invites into invite-only torrent sites.

I was actually going to put up a list of the best private trackers available on the internet, but my friends at Digg and these trackers were convincing enough to make me understand the fact that such lists only bring in a lot of leeches to the site, and bring the names into anti-piracy associations’ black lists. So, for now, I’m not going to do that. Instead, down below, I’ve put up some names you could go ahead and Google.

I am going to go ahead and discuss a few issues that might just help in ensuring a peaceful torrent life for you. I’ll keep it brief, and you should not expect too much details, I’m considering my readers aren’t noobs.

#1. The Client - There are many of the kind available around. The biggest names amongst those include uTorrent and Azureus. I’ll personally recommend uTorrent, because it’s lightweight, and simple. Always make sure you’re using the most recent version. Various private trackers, from time to time, block previous versions of clients, so it’s better to keep your machines updated.

For other OSs, we have clients like Acquisition (MAC), BitTornado (Linux, OS X, BSD), BitTyrant (Linux, OS X), Bits On Wheels (MAC), Deluge (Linux), Enhanced cTorrent (unix-like systems), WizBit (S60 phones) etc.

#2. The Antivirus, the Spyware and the Firewall - Go ahead and check Filehippo for the best names. On a sidenote, try choosing something that’s really light, and eats less RAM. The antivirus is pretty important because at times, when you’re downloading your torrents from public trackers, you’ll come across numerous fakes, and RARs that have potentially dangerous files inside them, or files uploaded by anti-piracy agencies. To avoid such incidents, use private trackers if that’s an option. Otherwise, go though the comments of that particular torrent. If that still doesn’t help you give a clear cut idea, chuck it. It’s not worth the risk.

#3. Go XP - Vi$ta’s an epic fail. Use the good old XP if you’re no Apple fanboy. There’ are a lot of compatibility issues with Vi$ta concerning various software. Give it time, for now, stick to XP.

#4. Proxies and PG - Use proxies, the one’s that aren’t public. HideIP is not recommended. Configure proxies inside your client. Although this technique isn’t foolproof, there’s a equal chance it might just work. Also, use PeerGuardian. And update your lists. Keep a check on the forums of your private tracker website for blockable IPs and update your PG lists accordingly.

#5. Firefox - If you’re not using Firefox to read this post, there’s an urgent need for you to upgrade. IE users, help yourselves. Firefox users, get Greasemonkey, NoScript, FoxyProxy, FlashBlock and AdBlock.

#6. Looking for Invites - Patience is the key here. You probably go around putting up your email addresses and other info hoping any place you feel like you might score an invite. Don’t do that. Check the credibility of the page you’re posting your details. Many trackers have their personal forums, where they have threads for invites. You might actually think they don’t care, but apparently, this is one place where you have a huge chance of getting an invite, directly from those who run the tracker. I am one big example, I’m a part of many exclusive private trackers and this is how I got in. InviteShare was good when it started, but it’ll just take your soul away if you aren’t patient enough.

You can also use Torrent Checker available free for download.

#7. Jason Bourne - Try not to put up your original personal details (excluding the email address of course) while you’re registering at a private tracker for your own good.

#8. Play by the rules - Read the FAQs, the help page and the rules page of the tracker you just joined. These FAQs might just explain a whole lot of stuff to you that you don’t understand. And make sure you stick to what they ask and expect from you. Private trackers have a limited user capacity. They wouldn’t hesitate in kicking you out if you try to mess things up even a little, ’cause they know, if they kick you out, they’ll probably have another better user.

#9. Be Nice - I could have left this in the previous point, but I decided to make another. I hope I’m being clear when I ask you to be nice to the other members. The torrent community doesn’t needs you if you’re rude. Make positive comments on torrents, report errors or missing info/files decently, and hit the thanks button and encourage the uploader.

#10. Maintaining a Good Ratio - This is one amongst the most important issues private tracker users come across. It’s always healthy to keep your ration 1:1. If it’s greater than that, that’s even better. I’m going to elaborate a little on this one.

a. Seed - Seed for as long as you can. Your HDD space constraints are understandable, but without seeding, the torrent community would just die out. Get yourself a space upgrade, and seed for as long as you can.

b. Multiple Accounts - And by that, in no way I mean creating many accounts on just one tracker. Join in as many private trackers as you can, and use them all simultaneously for various kinds of files that you download. For example, stick to Private Tracker A for your TV. Use Private Tracker B for your movies. Use Private Tracker C for music. But remember to seed what you download. This simultaneous use of private trackers would give your torrents time, a lot of it, to notch you up some high ratio.

c. Donate - This is probably the most convenient and quickest way of building up a good ratio. You might think I’m being a little cocky for mentioning this, but these sites need money to sustain themselves. Private trackers don’t really have ads, so donations are the only source. It wouldn’t hurt to give up a couple of dollars or euros or so every now and then. These trackers would reward you with a VIP status and add up gigs to your ratio once you’ve donated. Use the PayPal button, it’s a 110% safe.

d. Patience, again - Give it time, it always works. On another side, don’t jump on to torrents as soon as they’re uploaded, especially if you are paying for capped bandwidth and limited speeds. For example, TV show scene releases, at times are nuked because of some errors in the files. A 350 MB file might be of no use to you if you’ve just finished downloading 56% in 140 minutes with another 140 minutes to go, and it’s already marked ‘nuked’ for having a bad audio sync or broken video by the users who already finished downloading. That 56% is now nothing more than a waste of your precious bandwidth.

e. Upload - If you have a connection good enough that meets the requirements of a tracker to upload new torrents, don’t miss the oppurtunity. Go ahead, start a war.

f. IRC - Join in the irc channels of these private trackers. Most of the trackers offer free gigs to build up your ratio just because you’re staying idle on their irc channels.

For those of you who think torrents are illegal, you’re wrong. If you’re not a hippy who thinks that the first moon landing was shot on a film set, you’d probably believe what NASA has to say about torrents. You can also check this page for more information of torrents.

Here are a few private trackers (upto the best of my information) you could try to get into; Swep2p, ArT, Lyjak, Deviloid, SweT, SweTV, Rockbox Psychocydd, Musicplace, Takeabyte, Starbits, Shadowtorrents, Nordic, Bytelist, Ace, DH, ZineBytes, Torrent Damage, Torrent Leech, SportBit, Subtracker ATH, Themusik, MiniB, HDB etc.

If you have suggestions, corrections or invite requests to make, go ahead and shoot me up an email or comment down below, and keep a watch on this blog for updates. Courtsey my friend Demous (not Demios), there’s a uTorrent setup guide coming up in some time.