Using DHT tracker

From BitComet Wiki

Trackerless

Trackerless in BitTorrent means you do not need to connect to a tracker in order to download, but instead you can connect to a distributed DHT Network to find other peers. The DHT Networks do not have any central server, every client is a small server.

What is DHT Network?

DHT (Distributed Hash Table) is a method of distributed storage for <key,value> pairs. There is no central server in the DHT Network; every client takes charge of a small range of routing and a small set of data storage, so that in the whole DHT network, all data can be found, read and written. The new version of BitComet can connect to both Trackers and the DHT Network; that means that files can be downloaded even if none of the trackers can be connected. The protocol of DHT Network in BitComet is compatible with BitTorrent Beta 4.1.2, so that they can share the same network. Please note that the DHT implementation in Azureus is not compatible with BitTorrent Beta and thus also not compatible with BitComet. (Read more on Wikipedia about DHT.)

The DHT algorithm we use is Kademlia (called KAD in eMule, but the network protocol is different from BitTorrent. )

How to use DHT Network in BitComet?

Nothing needs to be done to use the DHT Network in BitComet. It is enabled by default and can be disabled in: Options -> Advanced -> Connection -> Enable DHT Network. Or see Options->BT Task.

Those who create .torrent files can read the Torrent Making topic for more information. BitComet uses an UDP port with the same number as your TCP listening port, for the DHT Network.

I am behind a firewall/NAT, can I use DHT Network?

Yes, you can. And also, the whole performance of the DHT Network will become better if you enable the port forwarding of the UDP port in your firewall/NAT.

How to connect to DHT Network technically?

Users do not need to worry about it. Here is a brief concept: the user in DHT Network is called node, every node knows some of the other nodes. Thus, if a client connect to one of the nodes in DHT Network, it can connect to more nodes, so it is connected to the whole DHT Network.

DHT Connection Status

• A Green Circle at the bottom right hand corner of the client followed by a statement "DHT Connected: XXX" means that you're successfully tapped into the DHT Network.
• A Grey Circle at the bottom right hand corner of the client followed by a statement "DHT not Connected" means that you're not tapped into the DHT Network.
• Even if you have NO torrents running (i.e. active), BitComet should automatically connect to it's nearest DHT Node.

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