DHT: Should it be enabled or not?

[krokodyle]

So I searched a little and it seems like DHT should be disabled, as it can screw up your ratio, as well as risking losing your passkey(?)...is this correct?

I use uTorrent, and there is both 'Enable DHT network' and 'Enable DHT for new torrents'. Should I keep these unchecked?

And if so, would this also limit seeing peers/seeds when trying to grab a hard-to-find torrent?

Thanks very much in advance, and sorry if this is explained somewhere and I missed it. Cheers!

[U2Lynne]

If you have DHT enabled, you run the risk of connecting to users and bypassing the tracker. If you bypass the tracker, you will NOT get you stats updated on that site.

I would suggest turning off any option that has DHT enabled.

[krokodyle]

Thanks for the information.

I got freaked because I read that DHT made your 'passkey' not secure, in addition to allowing people to get the torrent from you that weren't part of the tracker you got it from.

I disabled it as soon as I posted the question, but do I have to do anything further? Are the torrents I'm seeding now have to be removed & restarted (or something similar)?

[direwolf-pgh]

just restart the utorrent client

[xequence]

I believe DHT is useful if a tracker goes down or something, or if a tracker is really slow.

So, maybe those would be two times DHT might be turned on, im not sure. But I don't remember TTD ever being down or even slow. Just never turn it on with a torrent from some ultra private exclusive site or something.

[saltman]

Originally Posted by xequence

I believe DHT is useful if a tracker goes down or something, or if a tracker is really slow.

So, maybe those would be two times DHT might be turned on, im not sure. But I don't remember TTD ever being down or even slow. Just never turn it on with a torrent from some ultra private exclusive site or something.

I don't think it can be turned on and off.... the torrent file was created allowing it or not. If it was allowed in creation it makes little difference if you turn it off on your client.... if the rest of the peers have it on.

[xequence]

Oh, maybe you're right. I thought in uTorrent you could turn it off by right clicking a button in the bottom, but I havn't used torrents in months, so I don't remember much.

[krokodyle]

At least in uTorrent, it does say at the bottom if DHT is enabled or not.

don't think it can be turned on and off.... the torrent file was created allowing it or not. If it was allowed in creation it makes little difference if you turn it off on your client.... if the rest of the peers have it on.

So are you talking about the original torrent (created by the seeder) or the torrent created locally (by the recipients)?

[saltman]

Originally Posted by krokodyle

At least in uTorrent, it does say at the bottom if DHT is enabled or not.

So are you talking about the original torrent (created by the seeder) or the torrent created locally (by the recipients)?

torrents aren't created locally. They are only created once. The creation of the .torrent file establishes the tracker, files, etc. At that point you can enable or disable DHT. If it is enabled, a peer can choose to turn it on or off. This is of little use if their are other peers that have it enabled.... since at this point essentially each peer becomes a tracker.

Some trackers use personalized torrents which are like passwords to use the their tracker. I think this may be what you are calling local torrents?

That is my understanding. I could be wrong.

[possessed]

I have DHT enabled. When a torrent from DAD gets banned (happens often), I still get it as long as everyone else stays on. I'm 85% into a banned torrent now.

[krokodyle]

Originally Posted by saltman

torrents aren't created locally. They are only created once. The creation of the .torrent file establishes the tracker, files, etc. At that point you can enable or disable DHT.

O.K., that answers my question. I have created & seeded a torrent here at TTD while back, but don't recall fiddling with DHT options at all while doing so. I was primarily worried that specific torrents that I had downloaded with DHT enabled would continue to keep the DHT enabled, even though the torrent program now has it turned off--and continue to make my ratio crap even when it seemed I was seeding to other TTD members.

I have a feeling a may have borked my ratio here, and other sites, since I've had DHT enabled since switching over to uTorrent from BT--and even though I've done some serious seeding, my ratio didn't improve.

Anyhow, I think this answers all my questions about it. I am concerned that installation/setup FAQs may not make this issue clear to the newbie, but perhaps if they do searches they'll find this thread.

Originally Posted by possessed

I have DHT enabled. When a torrent from DAD gets banned (happens often), I still get it as long as everyone else stays on. I'm 85% into a banned torrent now.

Yeah, used properly it can have some perks.

[krokodyle]

I looked closer at the uTorrent program, and it appears that each individual torrent can have DHT enabled or disabled. But because I have the program settings set to disable DHT, these individual boxes are greyed out and unchangeable. So it appears that you could enable DHT for the program, then selectively disable DHT per each torrent as you see fit. That way you could enable it for a 'banned' torrent, or one that you don't care if other (non-tracker members) people can access.

Cheers for all the info, everyone.