Aerospace Software Ltd.

Azureus Bit Torrent Download Howto

Herman Oosthuysen

for Mandrake 10.2, Limited Edition 2005, April 2005.

Scope

Getting a torrent download started isn't quite as obvious as it should be. This guide gives a brief explanation and troubleshooting tips. You can get more general information here: http://userpages.umbc.edu/%7Ehamilton/btclientconfig.html

Install

If you haven't gotten it, get the Java Runtime Environment at http://java.sun.com. You must have Java working first, else fuhgedaboudit. To make things really easy, there is actually a link on the Azureus web site to the Java download package. You need at least the JRE, you do not need the full SDK, since you are probably not going to develop Java applications.

Get Azureus here:

http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php

Most people should download the Linux GTK file, which is a .bz2 file type, to somewhere, eg: ~/azureus

Open a console and untar it:

$ tar -jxvf azu[tab]

Configuration

Run it:

$ cd azu[tab]
$ ./azureus

Run the configuration wizard. Usually it starts by itself, if it won't, click Tools, Configuration Wizard. TEST the system - click the TEST button!!! I can't stress this enough.

If the test fails, then you may have to log into your firewall appliance and forward ports 6881 to 6889 to your PC. For a Linksys blue box:

http://192.168.1.1
Username: [blank]
Password: admin
Click Advanced, Forwarding
Type 6881 to 6889 into the port columns, type your machine IP address into the IP Address column.

If you have a Linux firewall, forward the port with iptables. Something like this should work:

IPTABLES=/sbin/iptables
EXTIF=eth0		# External port
INTIF=eth1		# Internal port
ADDRESS=192.168.1.11	# IP to forward to
PORT=6881:6889		# Ports to forward to IP

$IPTABLES -A FORWARD -s 0/0 -i $EXTIF -d $ADDRESS \
    -o $INTIF -p tcp --dport $PORT -j ACCEPT
$IPTABLES -A FORWARD -d 0/0 -o $EXTIF -s $ADDRESS \
    -i $INTIF -p tcp -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

Get your machine IP address with:

C:> ipconfig
$ /sbin/ifconfig eth0

For Windows and Linux respectively.

You may also need to go into the "Tools, options, Connection" menu and enter your IP address in the "Bind to local IP address" box, eg. 192.168.1.11.

Test the connection again.

Start a Torrent

Once the test passes (don't bother continuing if the test fails!), find a torrent on the Mandrake site with a browser and save the torrent link to your hard disk. Then use Azureus to 'Open' the torrent: Click File, Open, .torrent file and browse to where you saved the torrent link.

Saving the torrent link, also saves your IP address (actually the address of your firewall), to allow the system to get going. Therefore, if your IP address changes, then you have to get a new torrent link. This is not much of a problem with DSL service, but if you are on a dial-up service, then you cannot use the torrent link twice.

Now life should be good - the torrent download should start slowly, then gradually pick up speed as more contributors are discovered.

Most problems are caused by blocked ports in your firewall. Again, if the test doesn't work in the wizard, then don't bother trying to download a torrent, as it ain't gonna do diddly squat... ;-).