Query about "Torrent"

*Robin*

Good Morning, I'm hoping for some help with the following problem:-

I have a bed-bound house-guest at the moment. He is using a programme called Torrent to download episodes of Dr Who (his pc is on wifi). But while he's doing it my pc is constantly losing internet connection, even when I plug it in directly to the router.
It's driving me bonkers as I keep losing my work.. (yesterday that cost me, rather a lot, so that's the MSE aspect of my query - I need a reasonably reliable internet connection to earn the daily crust).

I've never heard of Torrent before now; please can anyone tell me a) is it legal? b) why it seems to claim all the download bandwidth? c) IF it's legal, how to stop my pc losing the connection while Torrent merrily stacks up old episodes of my guest's favourite TV show?

If - as I'm beginning to suspect - there's a problem with this particular programme, I'm also hoping for suggestions of an alternative that will allow my guest to entertain himself while I'm working (he will be incapacitated for several months, so "just tell him to switch off his pc" is not the answer I'm looking for!).

macman

No, torrenting is not illegal, although much of the material it is used to download may be copyrighted and being distributed in breach of that.

david81_2

a) As most people have said already a torrent program is not illegal. Its just a program that allows you to share files across the internet. However a lot of people choose to share copyrighted material which sadly is illegal.

b) It can be a bandwidth killer yeah, its just the way it works

c) Ask the person who is torrenting to change the upload limit. Since its file sharing people are uploading the file from his PC too. Uploading is much more of a bandwidth killer than downloading. So ask him to set a limit to say 10kbs or something. Hopefully that may help things.

Naf

ItsJuicy wrote: »

Torrenting is legal, it's what you download that makes it's illegal and I would expect downloading Dr.Who from Torrents falls into this category.

As long as he has a TV license it is just the same as recording it for a later date. There are legalities over how long you're allowed to keep it, however. And, obviously, you can't be redistributing it for profit; not that I'm suggesting he is. As long as you're using it as a sort of 'catch up' service, you're fine.

macman

You don't need a TV licence to download a torrent or play it back, since it's not live. But if the distributor does not have copyright, then it's illegal.

Mista_C

*Robin* wrote: »

a) is it legal?

BitTorrent (the protocol) is legal and is a peer-to-peer protocl especially use for the transfer of large file. The idea is you connect to multiple sources (swarms) to limit server and network loads while transferring these large files.

Downloading whatever if you feel like downloading isn't legal though and copyright material, such as Doctor Who, is still subject to copyright.

b) why it seems to claim all the download bandwidth?

As you can pull "parts" from various other peers during download this potentially maximises the download rate. The download rate can usually be controlled through the software in way of limiting bandwidth throughput. Most Torrent clients have a "seed" ability to allow you to be part of the swarm so you will upload segments as you've downloaded them.

c) IF it's legal, how to stop my pc losing the connection while Torrent merrily stacks up old episodes of my guest's favourite TV show?

You could possibly block ports on the router cutting him off completely. Different clients use different ports and they can be random. You lock down all ports except for the common ports, 80 (http), 21, 20 (ftp), 25 (smtp) 110 (pop) and so on.

Another way would be to set up some kind of proxy such as IPCop and use traffic shapping to limit his available bandwidth while maximising yours.

macman

He's a guest in your home. Incapacitated or not; your house, your rules. So ask him to desist.

*Robin*

Thanks for the quick responses. Well I've got a TV licence so that aspect would not appear to be a problem. How do I find out if Dr Who is copyrighted? Obviously my guest is not intending to profit financially from watching old Dr Who episodes, he's just bored waiting for his broken bones to heal.

david81 wrote: »

c) Ask the person who is torrenting to change the upload limit. Since its file sharing people are uploading the file from his PC too. Uploading is much more of a bandwidth killer than downloading. So ask him to set a limit to say 10kbs or something. Hopefully that may help things.

..I'm pretty sure he won't know how to set an upload limit on his pc. I certainly don't. Please could you explain in steps a non-pc-literate person can follow?


Mista_C - thanks for your comment; I wish I understood what you're trying to tell me!

Naf

macman wrote: »

You don't need a TV licence to download a torrent or play it back, since it's not live. But if the distributor does not have copyright, then it's illegal.

Good point, I had forgotten that you can watch iPlayer catch-up even without a license...

*Robin* wrote: »

..I'm pretty sure he won't know how to set an upload limit on his pc. I certainly don't. Please could you explain in steps a non-pc-literate person can follow?

Its an option in the torrent program itself; would need to know which torrent program he is using to help further...

macman

Of course Dr Who is copyrighted! It's one of the BBC's cash cows.

david81_2

..I'm pretty sure he won't know how to set an upload limit on his pc. I certainly don't. Please could you explain in steps a non-pc-literate person can follow?

Well each program is a bit different but usually its in the options/preferences in one of the menus. There should be a option called something on the lines of 'download', there you can set your upload and download limit.
I'm sure one of these guys can explain it in more technical terms than me!