Reply With Quotethis has been mentioned before in conjunction with changeovers - searching for BitTorrent throws up a few threads about it - this has a good discussion about it...
This is obviously too late for this phase, but may be an idea for the next phase.
When we do a protein changeover, there's always a huge load on the server while everyone d/loads the update files.
Why not release the new updates (and complete client packages) as bittorrents as well.
That way those of us who use bittorrent can download the files from each other, which will in turn reduce the load on the servers, and enable the keenest of us to get the client as soon as possible.
Anyone else think this would be a good idea.
I'd happily seed the file for 24/48 hours after the changeover.
this has been mentioned before in conjunction with changeovers - searching for BitTorrent throws up a few threads about it - this has a good discussion about it...
jonnyw
This is what the download proxy is for.
A lot of people use it to get the updates.
Bittorennt is to slow and unreliable as well as a security risk.
I have a lot of PC's at home and the update proxy is ideal.
The updates arrive before changeover time and when the clients get the signal to update they get it from my proxy.
Yah, what they said. Also, I run a mirror with a really phat pipe to help with the downloads. Actually, the downloads are a very minor part of the load. The problem is everyone dumping their WU's more or less simultaneously. Therefore, the kinks occur upstream, not down.
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Makes me wonder about the whole post-update dumps really. They don't help the project except to include some people who might otherwise chafe at losing crunching time.
The project needs to be able to use the late uploads not just throw them away.
Cheers for the feedback, I ws just thinking out loud, and thought I'd document it before I went to bed and forgot about it.
@pfb - interesting discussion, although I was thinking more about say having a bittorrent link on the downloads page, so we could manually d/load the full client amongst ourselves (i.e. the active members who browse the forums regularly), rather than integrating it into the client itself
@pcz - I had thought of the update proxy, but it can be a pain for noobs to setup (it took me long enough), and is more aimed at those with farms.
The bittorrent solution would help those single client users, who can't be bothered configuring a proxy, and simply want a download of the latest client asap.
I also don't understand how it will be a security risk though, as howard would create the torrent file, which would be an exact hash of the latest file he was releasing.
That way people could only download and share versions of the file that is exactly the same as the file howard released.
And as for being slow, if enough people kept there torrents open, it would fly down for everyone.
@Paratima - surely a decrese in the bandwidth is better than none at all (although I don't know much about that side of df).
Just thinking out loud really.
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So dont fix it if it ain't broke.
All pretty academic anyway since there wont be any more updates
I've never used BitTorrent, but if its hash is MD5, then that's not the greatest hash. It's not easily breakable, but it is breakable by people that have enough horsepower and time (it's something like a month or so with a roomful of PCs, I think -- see the MD5CRK project for details).Originally posted by jonnyw
I also don't understand how it will be a security risk though, as howard would create the torrent file, which would be an exact hash of the latest file he was releasing.
And by "breakable" I mean you can construct another file that will hash to the same value -- it probably won't do anything, especially not anything bad, but the fact that the possibility is there makes it a problem anyway.
SHA-1 is a little better, and SHA-256 or SHA-512 are much better.
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-- Originally posted by Paratima
BitTorrent and DF are not really a good match... First, DF downloads are in the 6-8 MB range which is probably too small for BT. 8 MB is a quick download in a high speed connection, and the last few months, DF downloads were always quick, even during changeover. Second, how would you combine BitTorrent and DF's autoupdate which is DF's ideal protein changeover?
BitTorrent is ideal for distributing CD images of new releases of operating systems when demand is high. It minimizes the originating server load and maximizes software distribution. There is a certain amount of overhead to accomplish this and I'm not sure its worth it for an 8 MB download.
Ned
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