4 Reason I Avoid Using BitTorrent and Other Peer to Peer Protocols

Misleading, Fake Trackers and Torrents

The recent uproar of fake torrents and trackers was the determining factor for me. After reading all the reports, I immediately searched for alternatives. Continuous drama and controversy over the peer to peer technology was taking its toll on thepiratebay, demonoid, and eventually the prestigious Oink. Several sites explaining how to identify fake torrents and/or trackers popped up, but why deal with the hassle when faster, more resourceful sources exist?

Exposure to a Wide Array of IP Addresses

uTorrent, probably like most BitTorrent clients, clearly displayed where data was coming from, and where data was going. Efforts to take advantage of common Windows’s exploits were continuously dropped by my network’s intrusion detection system, not to mention all the thousands, if not millions of dropped packets that didn’t contain information relevant to the queued request. BitTorrent, if used without proper precaution, is a sure fire way to expose yourself to thousands of infected zombies waiting to infect the next victim. Not only is a substantial portion of the traffic malicious, it’s useless and increases the chances of your service provider singling you out for excessive bandwidth consumption.

Speed and Torrents Don’t go Hand and Hand

Comcast currently offers an 8 megabit package in my area, and that’s what I intend to use. With speeds maxing out at 200, maybe 300 kilobytes a second, please, use all you want. From now on, I’m peaking out at 790-850 kilobytes. Take that, torrents…

Good Sites Require “Ratios”

Colleagues and friends often spoke of these secret, underground, invite only sites, but after a little research, upload to download rations are tracked to make sure everyone is sharing equally. What a joke. I understand the concept is peer to peer, but there’s no way I’m distributing illegal content just so some schmuck in Romania can watch the latest episode of Weeds. I suppose seeding a distribution of Linux would suffice as a work around, but then upstream usage is a concern. Despite Comcast’s claims of 1 megabit up, capping out at 50 kilobytes is a once in year occurrence. Ok, so that’s sarcasm, but seriously, there’s no way Comcast is providing a full 1 megabit up at my disposal, and what little bit is allocated damn sure isn’t getting wasted on some 12 year old wanting to expand his porn collection.

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