VIP Bandwidth question

[sharayde]

Hi,

I activated my free 10GB trial and then purchased an extra 10GB because the torrent I wanted to test this on was 17GB. Unfortunately the torrent does not have any seeders so in the end I had to cancel it and successfully got back the 17GB bandwidth and I am back to 20GB again. All well and good so far :-)

I now have found another torrent I wish to download but this is 25GB. Obviously I could purchase another 10GB but I only need part of the torrent amounting to about 18GB of data.

I have deselected the files I don't need but the VIP Download only looks at the entire size of the torrent not at the amount of data you are actually trying to download.

Can this be changed so that the available VIP Bandwidth is altered according to the amount of data to be downloaded rather than just assume you always want the whole thing?

Thanks.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

We have considered some solutions along these lines. One I like is to allow it to begin the task with a warning that the entire task may not complete with current plan if you continue, then if you did select more then your current plan, you'd be given the option to purchase more or complete the download without vip when it expires.

These, and other issues will be considered as the service evolves. Currently the VIP system is still in beta testing and the anonymous download option is brand new and continues to be developed, so new issues are being uncovered daily.

Thanks for your suggestion and your opinion.

[sharayde]

Further to the above I had another question about VIP Bandwidth.

If someone sets up a VIP download but does not set it up as anonymous then the client will also download data from peers as normal. In this case will the whole size of the torrent still be deducted from the VIP bandwidth allowance or just the amount that actually comes down via VIP?

[The UnUsual Suspect]

VIP bandwidth is rationed on a "flat-rate" basis, so only the actual usable data you receive is deducted from your account. This means if it's necessary to send you the same piece 4 times until you receive it intact, your account only is deducted for the piece once. Also, when using VIP without anonymous option, all sources are used to get the data as fast as possible, be it LTseed, bittorrent, emule or http/ftp. The VIP service is to enhance the tasks performance, and the account is deducted for the full size of the task, regardless of the percentage that actually comes from VIP servers.

Of course this may change if there was an easy way to account for the bandwidth, but at current, the method used is the total task size.

[sharayde]

My understanding of this is that if I use VIP Anonymous to download a torrent then 100% of the data I receive will have come through the VIP servers and that they use all available sources to get the data to pass to me. In that instance it is fine to deduct 100% of the torrent size from my bandwidth.

But what if I use VIP without the Anonymous option and only 10% of the data is downloaded via VIP and the rest is downloaded from normal peers that my client connects to? It wouldn't seem fair to deduct 100% of the torrent size from my bandwidth when your servers only supplied 10% of the data. If I am paying for 10GB of data then surely it is unreasonable if in the end I only get 1GB for my money.

I appreciate that this is in Beta but you are charging money for the service so I expect to get full value for what I pay for.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I'd say if VIP only provided 10% of the data, then there is something wrong. VIP should be providing more like 70-100% of data when used properly and functioning properly.

I do see your point though, but the original VIP design wasn't intended to provide 100% of the data, it was designed to add an additional data source, one that didn't require the user to have substantial upload speed in order to qualify for a good download speed.

Also consider that behind the scenes, the vip servers are uploading a lot of data to the swarm on your behalf, so even if it only sends you 7GB of the 10GB in your package, it could very well have uploaded 10-20GB or more on your behalf, and since it would be overly complicated to calculate the actual bandwidth used by the server, the solution was to meter the service by task size alone.

ps. if there was a case where the vip servers contributed very little to a task, you could ask to have the account reviewed by sending your Comet ID and your task details to administrator zerojinn. She could make any account adjustments that are warranted.

[sharayde]

In order to find out how much VIP download contributes to each task we would need to have the data downloaded via VIP tracked by the client and displayed on the Summary tab otherwise how could we put a case for having an account reviewed? Is there somewhere in the client that VIP data download can be tracked?

I am not sure what data is displayed as I am currently trying to set up VIP anonymous download but I have not got one to start yet.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Firstly, thanks for your patience and your help, and I hope we can get it working well for you.

As for knowing what data comes from VIP, I agree this needs to be addressed better. Currently all VIP data is classified in the LTseed protocol stats, so on a traditional VIP task, I believe this will include both VIP and direct connections to LTseed peers, but I'd have to confirm this with development to be sure, but it does separate that from traditional bittorrent sources, so if you hover over the download stats in the "summery" tab and saw a task where most of your VIP task download came from bittorrent sources, then that would be a strong case to have the task reviewed.

If most of it came from LTseed protocol, then I'd say it was mostly, if not all VIP, but this needs clarification.

[sharayde]

Where LT seeds exist for a torrent I find that most of the download comes via that route rather than other bittorrent sources so, in my case, VIP download would have to be listed separately from LT seeding.

I did a recent 16GB download and below you can see that more than 11GB came via LT seeding. This was before I signed up for VIP.

[WisconsinBadger]

I'd say if VIP only provided 10% of the data, then there is something wrong. VIP should be providing more like 70-100% of data when used properly and functioning properly.

Does this mean that VIP service isnt 100% anonymous? I thought thats the point of the service isnt it? You pay and then your servers do the downloading and seeding and then allow me to download the package at faster speed anonymously. I dont want to connect to any peers. Just to your anon vip servers so it will be faster.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

This is addressed in the FAQs.

Will I be able to share the files I downloaded with other users through the LTseed network, and if so, will that be done anonymously?

Yes, anonymous tasks can be shared via LTseed and BitComet will hide your IP address on any connections you make with other peers. During these connections it could be possible for someone monitoring network traffic to discover IP addresses using 3rd party tools, but considering that the LTseed network is completely separate from the bittorrent network and that no peer can connect to more then 40-102 LTseed peers at any time, it would be extremely unlikely that sharing via LTseed could ever be a security threat to any user, but those who are overly concerned about privacy may wish to disable LTseed on anonymous downloads just to be sure they are 100% anonymous.

We are looking at ways to put this information into the GUI and hope to include at least some info about this before anonymous download officially releases, but if you choose to use LTseed network, you are still isolated from the bittorrent trackers and peers and you'r IP will be hidden, and of course LTseed connections can be easily disabled on any task from the "advanced" tab.

Edit: Wisconsin Badger, after rereading your post I see there is another issue to your question. VIP was not designed to be anonymous, but there is an "anonymous download" option that was added (currently in beta testing phase).

VIP is for acceleration only and will use all available sources, bitorrent, LTseed, http/ftp, emule and VIP servers in order to get you the files as fast as possible.

VIP/A (anonymous) will not allow connections to any networks that share your IP address with peers, this means only VIP servers and (optionally) LTseed peers.