Frequently Asked Questions

What's so great about the BitTorrent protocol? Why not just ftp?

     There are a couple of things. One, it allows a site to distribute a file while using very little bandwidth itself, because the downloaders are also sending various bits of the file to each other. So, it's great for the server. Because the file is coming from many different machines instead of just one, its download speed is nearly unlimited. Because the file is sent in pieces, an interrupted download does not really loose any progress. So, it's really great for the clients, too.

What client software should I use for downloading files via BitTorrent?

     There are very many choices out there and they should all work. I prefer rtorrent when I'm in BSD. It's a small, console-based (ncurses) client. When I want to seed a file, I often use rtorrent with GNU screen. On Mac, I use Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/, also available on FreeBSD). On Windows, I like µtorrent (utorrent.com).

What's a "seeder"?

     A seeder is a client who already has the file and leaves his torrent client running for the sole purpose of sharing the file with other people who are or will be downloading it. Oftentimes, when a person finishes receiving a file via BitTorrent, they will stay connected and seed for a while so as to "give back" a little. That is always good manners. However, if you're able and you wish to support some of these projects, being a long term seeder is a great, easy way to do so.

What's a "leecher"?

     A leecher is someone who's still receiving the file. It's not an insult, that's just what it's called!

What's a "tracker"?

     The tracker tells the different clients who else is downloading or seeding a torrent.

What about firewalls?

     BitTorrent can work with firewalls, but it can work much better if there is a hole in the firewall for its listening port. The reason for this is that if two peers are both denying the incoming connections, then neither can connect to the other and they cannot exchange chunks of the file. This, then, may limit the number of peers that you have and reduce your download speed. It's well worth the trouble to get the port opened and/or forwarded.This is important! If you're behind an external firewall/NAT, you may need to have the port forwarded for the best performance. Even if your firewall is on the same machine as the torrent client you may need to open the port (depending on the firewall). Some clients have tests and notifications of port status. Use them.

     I give this subject special attention, because I often check a torrent and can see that many people are firewalled. Also, having an open port helps greatly with effective seeding as well as downloading. In spite of all this, I don't recommend turning off your firewall to increase torrent speed, especially if you're running Windows!

Why don't you offer collections? That is, why don't you have *CD1 and *CD2 together in one torrent?

     Two related reasons: First, in many of these OS's (FreeBSD in particular) the second disk is not necessary, but only carries other packages that wouldn't fit on the first disk. Second, it's preferable to have everyone that's downloading the same image on one torrent rather than divided amongst two torrents.

I clicked one of the download links and nothing happened (or I got a page of binary garbage, or I got an error)?

     BitTorrent is its own protocol. For the links to work normally, your browser must "know" about the protocol and what application to call on to handle it. While there are too many browsers for me to try to describe all the ways to fix that here, there is a simple work-around of simply copying the link itself and giving that directly to your client. Copying the link can usually be done by right-clicking on it and choosing "Copy Link Location" (for example) in the pop-up menu.

What does '* = off-site' on the stats refer to?

     This is a long story and you might want to read "About". The short version is we originally had statistics when the site was on a dedicated server with its own tracker. That's no longer the case. I'm working on getting statistics back, but with our new home and arrangements it's quite a bit more difficult.

Which one should I get?

     Briefly, if you're new to unix, PC-BSD is considered the easier, "user friendly" version of FreeBSD. FreeSBIE is a live CD version, that is, boot up and play with a working FreeBSD system without touching your hard drive. Finally, with the FreeBSD images, make sure you choose the right architecture (i386, sparc64, etc.) for your computer. (If you don't know the architecture, it's usually "i386".)

Where are the other BSD's?

     Our focus is FreeBSD, but we may add more files in the future. If there's a particular BSD that you'd like to see here, please use the address below and let me know. In the meanwhile, NetBSD has torrents here.

If you have any questions not answered here, let me know.
See actual user emailed questions (and answers) here.

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Frequently Asked Questions