Hosting a torrent file on a webserver

[maliszewski]

I know how to make a torrent that is hosted from a home computer, in which I am using Pirate Bay as a public tracker, but I was wondering if I could use my webserver to host the file instead. Can this be done and if so how do I do it?

Let me clarify a little bit so that you know exactly what I mean. I have a 66 MB music file on my shared webserver that I have from a web hosting company. For my website I have access to cpanel, but I don't really have access to the server's file system per say because I don't own the server, but rather I have a shared hosting account. Can you create a torrent when all you have is the URL of the file? Or does my webserver have to actually be running Bit Comet? Feel free to explain a little more about how torrents work because I am sure I am missing something, also I am interested in learning how the actually process works (i.e. tracker, hosting ect.)

The reason why I would rather use my webserver is because I have much bigger pipe (100mbit) and I wouldn't have to leave my home computer on all the time.

Thanks for any help,

-Mark

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Mark,

First the easy part, explaining alittle about bit comet.

Check out this link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bittorrent

this page and its links can tell you much more then I could put into my reply.

As for your other question, I believe what you are wanting to do is "seed" your torrent from your web server.

In order to join in on the torrent, the server will need some kind of bit torrent client installed.

Bit Comet is a windows platform client, so might not be the best choice, but there are a lot of clients that are used for this.

I recommend you talk with the servers admin. about using bit torrent.

Suspect

[kluelos]

For what you want, no, I'm afraid it won't work. Bittorrent doesn't use a web server for torrent transfers. These are done individually, from client to client with no server involved at all.

The tracker, now, the tracker uses a web server as an interface, but that has nothing to do with the actual uploads or downloads.

What you'd need is basically shell access to some machine (whether it's running a web server is irrelevant) in the hosting center, to install a bittorrent client onto. They're unlikely to give you that. If it's not a fully legal torrent of material you own, then they're extremely unlikely to give you that and probably forbid it in their TOS.

[maliszewski]

Thanks both of you. Yes it makes sense I would need some kind of Bit torrent client running on my webserver in order to do what I want. I don't have a dedicated server, so it is really up to my hosting company whether or not they want to install a Bit Torrent client.

I get it now, thanks very much for your help.

-Mark