Hi, I was wondering how they do this and if there is a way to “cheat” the amount of data you are downloading or seeding.
You have a unique “passkey” in the torrent that you download, and the tracker won’t let you connect without it. I wouldn’t try to cheat it, or you’ll likely end up banned. Trackers have scripts to detect tampering.
The passkey is also why you shouldn’t share torrent files.
Wait, you mean the *.torrent file, right?
Yes! Private sites’ .torrent and magnet links know who you are so they can track your ratio.
Alright, for a moment I thought you meant the actual files I download
That wouldn’t make sense tho
My fault. Sorry for the panic!
Additionally magnet links. The torrent files and magnet links (which are equivalent) need to have your user key in them not only to track your ratio but just to make sure you’re a member of the tracker.
In other contexts this kind of user tracking is called a session key and using someone else’s torrent file is called a replay attack or a session hijack.
Your tracker url in your downloaded torrent files has a unique passkey in it that allows access and associates activity with your account.
This is why you cannot share .torrent files. The contents of the .torrent files are usually fair game to make another torrent of though!
Admins despise ratio cheaters and it’s a great way to get banned across multiple trackers. I recommend just getting a seedbox.
If you don’t want to go to the effort to maintain a ratio, just use Usenet and never worry about seeding or leeching again.
This is the first time I ever hear of Usenet… read a little… but honestly sounds freakishly scary… torrents are anyway filled with malware… and now we have to trust a centralized source for files?
Do clients that use Usenet verify public torrent file hashes? How is security handled such that I know the files aren’t infected compared to whatever the same torrent offers?
The files on Usenet aren’t centralized, they are shared among all Usenet servers, each of which chooses how long to keep that file, usually on the order of 3000-5000 days. Think of it as a torrent uploaded to every single tracker in existence. No matter which Usenet provider you use, you get access to the same files as everyone else, just like your ISP gives you access to the same internet as everyone else. I don’t know if it’s possible for your Usenet provider to infect files, but I don’t think that it is likely they would do that. Running a Usenet service isn’t cheap, and something like that would ruin their business, even if it is possible, which I don’t believe that it is.
There is definitely a chance you’ll download something that an uploader infected with malware, same as torrents. In that regard, use common sense, just as you would with any torrent, and check the comments on the indexer you use.
I think what they were getting at is that you need to get the NZB files and archive passwords from a private community these days, many of which are closed/charge money for access. If you download group headers like you could back in the day, 95% of posts are encrypted - or else they get DMCA’d. also, most Usenet providers are under the same 2-3 companies, last time I checked - so DMCAs are a lot easier to serve. It’s definitely a lot less open than it was 10-15 years ago.
There’s no point in cheating. Any good private tracker will let maintain a sizeable buffer assuming you seed with things like bonus points/free leech.
If it’s difficult to maintain a buffer, plan to move to a different tracker that will.
Plus, the big private trackers communicate with one another. Get caught in one, you’ll be found out in others.
And a lot of private trackers have some type of points system to fix your ratio if it gets out of whack. They award points for seeding.