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Torrents stopped working on my mac!

Discussion in 'Mac - General discussion' started by neonjoe14, Nov 25, 2009.

  1. neonjoe14

    neonjoe14 Member

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    ah this stinks! the other week my i tried downloading a torrent from mininova but when i tried downloading it to my mac it said "problem Problem connecting to tracker - <urlopen error (60, 'Operation timed out')>" Can someone please help me out? this isnt the first time ive used a torrent. the last successful torrent i downloaded was this past summer 09
     
  2. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    Though I used bittorrent only once, years ago, the Wikipedia might have an answer.

    Though error messages usually require delicate interpretations, this one may be straight-forward. Bittorrent appears to wait too long, but no .bittorent file is sent you; or that which is sent contains a 'tracker' that doesn't 'track'.

    The Wikipedia states that the Dutch copy enforcement agency sued Mininova for distributing copyrighted materials. The court gave them 3 months to remove torrent files (.bittorrent files) pointing to copyrighted files. That was on August 26. Three months would be ... today or tomorrow. (I'm bad with timezones.)

    Just a suggestion.

     
  3. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    Noticed that Mininova has many music files. Once I tried a (guaranteed legal) method of collecting music, by internet radio.

    There was, at that time, one Mac program that monitored up to three internet radio stations broadcasting Shoutcast and GPL (Icecast?) tagged music, removing commercials and looking up meta-information about the song on internet databases.

    Worked well. Ran it overnight and got some nice Handel oratorios (some nicer than others). The shareware & commercial versions monitored more than 100 stations; and some websites themselves monitor thousands. One commercial site requests from you a genre or singer, and the site collected music for you (each compressed into a digital file of your favorite format).

    Not the finest of quality (at the time), but that was a search parameter as well. AfterDawn should be the site to find information on such things. (My Linux internet radio has a 'last.fm' plug-in, to automatically collect search parameters for me.)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last.fm

    Hope this wasn't off-topic, but not everyone may be aware of this method of collecting music.
     
  4. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    Sorry I got off topic.

    The standard thing to do, of course, is to try a different, reliable bittorrent site. (You could start a bittorrent download of a Linux .iso file, which is guaranteed legal.)

    If that also doesn't work, time to read the documentation closer or download another bittorent client. Look for a free one, compiled on Sourceforge for the Mac.

    If there's still a problem, people who use it regularly will have you check your firewall, system log, console, &c and report back.

     
  5. neonjoe14

    neonjoe14 Member

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    well it has to do with my computer (at least im sure it does). i have tried different computers and downloading the same torrent and it works on those. but on my ibook it does not
     
  6. neonjoe14

    neonjoe14 Member

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    and its not my internet firewall because i have tried downloading it at 3 other internet places
     
  7. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    You're a consultant's delight, thank you. Many ISPs limit uploads. However, you said you've not used bittorent since summer.

    Have you a phone modem, DSL modem, or cable modem? Do your friends use the same ISP as you? Have your recently used bittorrent much or more than usual? [No.]

    Bittorent comprises much ISP traffic. Compressed bittorrent, I should think, would be welcomed by ISPs. The internet user is going out of the way to help prevent traffic jams. (Fidonet, the first e-mail service was P2P.)

    However, even though GPL software and internet telephony uses compressed & encrypted P2P 'torrents', many ISPs have been assuming it illicit and throttling or blocking it for almost a decade. In the USA, the legal system is founded upon innocent unless proven otherwise. So, I thought this was only in China and other repressive regimes. Nope. Comcast was notorious for a while. I don't keep track; but bittorrent.com probably does.

    Oh, Happy Thanksgiving if you're American ... but not Native American.

    ISP's Bottle against Encrypted BitTorrent Downloading
    http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/7896.cfm

    You can check your ISP's treatment of torrents with this tool.

    New Google Tools Determine if Your ISP Is Blocking BitTorrent
    http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/01/new-google-tool/

    And, if bad, report your results to this organization. Here's a thread with some old links.

    Test Your ISP For BitTorrent Shenanigans
    http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Test-Your-ISP-For-BitTorrent-Shenanigans-94205

    My ISP gives me no problems, and I sometimes correspond with its CEO. If you think your ISP is giving you problems, you can 'review' you ISP at dslreports, an influential organization.

    If not, write back.
     
  8. neonjoe14

    neonjoe14 Member

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    i checked if it was my internet provider that limited my isp's or whatever and it said "There's no indication that your ISP rate limits all downloads" on everything.

    i just dont know what to do, blah.

    and i am using a cable modem, i just think its wierd that all of a sudden i cant use them anymore even tho i tried on a different computer and it worked fine at the same internet source.

    i have tried downloading both bit torrent and tomato torrent and both give me the same message as i said before. neither work...

    do you think it could be something with the computer itself? this is the only possibility i can think of, even tho i dont know a whole lot about P2P stuff... any ideas?

    And yes happy thanks giving to you too
     
  9. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    My apology. I must have misread 'internet places' to be widely separated 'internet cafés (or the equivalent). You must have meant web sites.

    You successfully used bittorent last summer. What model computer and what application? Was it from your current cable modem? Did your torrent come from Mininova?

    What changed. (Your ISP's attitude toward Mininova? Your release of OS? The BitTorrent protocol?) What didn't change. (Your software version & release? )

    If only one thing is has changed, that's likely the problem. If two or more are different, change each, separately, until you're isolated the problem. The following is easier.

    a. If you can download the same file type from different websites, it's likely Mininova, or your ISP has specifically blocked torrents from it. Try another file type. Is your software the latest release?

    b. If your ISP or contract has changed, examine your any speed settings and ask a friends with the same ISP whether they download from Mininova.

    c. If your application has changed, it may be 'buggy'. You can update it (as you always should internet software). There are many free ones. If your computer has changed, your logs will tell of any problems with the operating system of the hardware during the attempted download.

    I was hoping someone else would assist, for it's been months since I've had access to a Mac, and I used bittorrent only once. However, my step daughter has a PowerBook with Acquisition. (I installed, some years ago, a different client with compressions & encryption, but she prefers sending things readable by everyone in between.) So, I could try and reproduce the error, but only in several days (if lucky). (I've always BitTorrent on the GNU/Linux command line.)

    If you could provide some more verbose information, such as Mac type, OS version, application, & version & release of it, it might be easier. Software not upgraded recently might not support the latest changes in protocol.

    Also, MacOSX produces quite a few logs in /var/log, accessible from the 'console'. At the moment of attempted transfer, some tell of the applications problems, some the network's problems, some the OS's problems, and some hardware problems. The date & time are the key. Make a successful transfer, then unsuccessful one, then browse the logs.

    Here's a shopper's guide to bittorrent applications:

    Comparison of BitTorrent Clients
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients

    It's easy to fix a problem like this. You need only narrow it down a bit. You can eliminate many problems by installing a newly written, well-reviewed, application devoted to BitTorrent transfers. Protocols change, but MacOSX changes dramatically, release by release.

    Some ISPs block specific web sites. Ask if yours now blocks 'Mininova'. I'm told one's ISP will often lie. In that case,

    http://www.macupgrade.com/

    Send some more information if you can't find the problem yourself. Best of luck. Just send as much info as you can, if you're stumped.

    PS.

    Some years ago it was revealed that bureaucrats at the White House were bypassing security by taking their laptops home and exchanging classified documents to one another using LimeWire or Acquisition, which allowed them to be read in the clear by the spy between, and everyone else. :)
     
  10. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    Here are some dedicated applications. First, I clicked only the boxes 'free' 'network' & 'utilities', then searched for 'bittorrent', then clicked 'Rating', to sort by it:

    http://search.macupdate.com/search.php?q=BitTorrent&sort=rating&pp=25&os=mac

    Other people will be having your problem. By looking at the comments on the very bottom of the pages, I see, for example, for 'Transmission 1.7.6', DOPPELBOCK writing:

    'I've gone back to to 1.75 as well. Since upgrading to 1.76 I noticed that active torrents were not showing up on my account on the tracker and were appearing/disappearing seemingly randomly.' (That, for example, agrees with your one error message.)

    Check yours out.
     
  11. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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  12. neonjoe14

    neonjoe14 Member

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    maybe it is just the torrent sites, i have tried both the pirate bay.org and mininova and neither worked but till now i didnt know that they disposed of the illeagel torrents.

    but it doesnt explain how on one computer (PC) the torrents work and on the other it doesnt (MAC), the os has remained the same, there are no new upgrades since i downloaded the client the first time so the protocol's are the same.

    i just dont know whats wrong.
     
  13. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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    As you know, this isn't my subject. However, if you had no success with the Mac software at the same time as having success with Windows software, I should examine the software & machine & program settings in its detailed documentation.

    Unless Mac software was developed on Sourgeforge, it often doesn't work well. Being based upon a portable OS, Unix, it's amazing how each release of MacOSX changes and kills a bevy of 3d-party applications.

    On Macupdate.com, I see the latest versions of your software are BitTorrent 4.27.2 (beta test) and Tomato Torrent 1.5.1. BitTorrent hasn't been updated since the fall of 2006 (dead), and Tomato Torrent since fall of 2007. From some user's comments, which only you can evaluate:

    BitTorrent 4.27.2
    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11869/bittorrent

    Summary: 'Simply doesn't work.'

    'THE GOOD NEWS: if you go to the website you can still download the OLDER version, which has a nice simple brushed metal interface and actually downloads!'

    Tomato Torrent 1.5.1
    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14258/tomato-torrent?rord=date

    Summary: 'VASTLY overrated junk.'

    'Problem connecting to tracker is all I get whenever I try to download using tomato torrent. How do I fix this? ' 'The tracker is probably configured to reject Tomato Torrent. A lot of trackers only let approved clients access them.' 'I think the bigger issue with TT is that a lot of trackers don't work with it and that development seems to have ceased.'

    So, I suppose the cause doesn't matter if you don't have a problem. I sort through the free software, sort by popularity & date, read the comments. When experimenting with video on DVD, I downloaded to a /Utilties/Video every free video application ever released for the Mac (one big advantage over Windows), and tried them all. Of a dozen applications, only two or three combinations of, well, two or three applications accomplished my tasks simply and reliably. Then I stick with these. I do this with every 'task' (making SVCDs, editing photos, &c).
     
  14. Gneiss1

    Gneiss1 Regular member

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