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Best bittorrent client for OS X?

3nigma

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3nigma
3nigma
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Anyone know which is the best, or have any experience with bittorrent clients on OS X?

 

I have used Azureus on Windows, but that doesn't mean there's not a better native Mac alternative, such as Transmission.

 

Any ideas?

-3nigma

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Zulu.Walker
Zulu.Walker
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Been asked countless times. Azureus is the widely used client, Transmission 0.71 the underdog. Things may change soon as Transmission 0.71 is now accepted by most private trackers that was prohibiting its use on their trackers. Anything else is either buggy, banned from private trackers, or just plain sucks.

 

IMHO, the best would be uTorrent, but sadly there's no Mac port. uTorrent > Azureus. We need a port!

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3nigma
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Apparently "Transmission is the uTorrent of Mac," as one review I read put it. Lightweight without feature-bloat, etc.

 

Does Demonoid still ban Transmission, or is this a ban that was lifted, as you mentioned at?

 

Thanks again,

-3nigma

 

Everyone check out Azureus' website, they just released a new version that is a super Hi-Def multimedia hub, just like two days ago.

 

With that new development, I'm kind of swayed in that direction, but if it were strictly for torrenting, I would get Transmission.

 

What do you guys think?

-3nigma

 

EDIT: I browsed Azureus' new HD website and offerings, and it seems just bloatware to me. I wouldn't get much use out of it, so no use installing all those extra features, etc. Chalk one up on the board for Transmission, here's hoping they get to fulfill becoming the "uTorrent of OS X."

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Zulu.Walker
Zulu.Walker
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I can't sort any of my torrents under Transmission, so it still can't compare to uTorrent IMHO. I just can't tolerate handling over a hundred torrents without categorizing them.

 

I do agree that Azureus 3.0.1.2 is bloatware. They just love adding more features.

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3nigma
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there are very good and promissiong client under beta:

http://www.bitrocket.org/

really nice interface

since the last version it crashes alot here, them i don't use it anymore

 

offcourse i'm sse2 semthex 10.4.8 user without gfx support

but take a try.

Dang, that's right. I saw that one in my research and I forgot to read more about it before downloading Transmission. I am sure Bitrocket would work fine on an actual, native Mac. I'm running a MacBook, rather than a HackBook, so that may take care of bugs. I'll check it out.

 

PS- XanthraX, your avatar is hideous, LOL. I mean no offense whatsoever, it just briefly shocked me, hehe. I love the "Aliens" films.

 

-3nigma

 

EDIT:

I can't sort any of my torrents under Transmission, so it still can't compare to uTorrent IMHO. I just can't tolerate handling over a hundred torrents without categorizing them.

 

I do agree that Azureus 3.0.1.2 is bloatware. They just love adding more features.

Holy {censored}, check out this sweet-looking torrent client I just found.

http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/

Does this do what you were looking at? I have a little bit more homework to do.

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Zulu.Walker
Zulu.Walker
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Xtorrent is based on libtransmission. So its pretty much transmission with a pretty gui.

 

Also it is shareware (why would you pay for a p2p client?)

 

Torrenting is free! Xtorrent is {censored}, you even need to pay for updates for code that was only based on old transmission code.

 

It looks pretty, but underneath, it's the ugliest piece of :( . And it's banned on some of the best private trackers! Lame.

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3nigma
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Torrenting is free! Xtorrent is {censored}, you even need to pay for updates for code that was only based on old transmission code.

 

It looks pretty, but underneath, it's the ugliest piece of :( . And it's banned on some of the best private trackers! Lame.

Good to know, thanks guys. Saves me from having to read up on it, hehe.

 

I'll check out BitRocket and see what I come up with.

 

-3nigma

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3nigma
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I thought I was going to hold on BitRocket, because it is pretty sparse on documentation and the website. But I downloaded it to test it before installing, and it is really good lookin'. I may actually end up using this over Transmission. You guys should check it out, let me know what ya think. You can test the program before installing it, just by downloading the DMG file, and opening the program before installing it.

 

Is Xtorrent's free version really that miserable? It's sad to see such a good-looking piece of software and such incredible marketing go down the drain of being proprietary BS. Why don't people understand that you want to at least make it freeware/shareware, not to mention open source? It makes me sad for them, more than frustrated.

 

I'll try downloading and testing Azureus and Xtorrent as well, just to play.

 

-3nigma

 

EDIT: Yes, Xtorrent's free version is really that miserable. I ran it and it crippled the torrent "search" function, and started a one-hour countdown until it would limit the download speeds. What a piece of junk. I hope their project/company falls apart and they wonder why they're not as successful as opensource free projects.

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3nigma
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For the record-

 

I'm going with BitRocket. I tested all of them, including one we didn't chat about, Tomato Torrent. We'll see how it goes.

 

-3nigma

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Sabr
Sabr
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For the record-

 

I'm going with BitRocket. I tested all of them, including one we didn't chat about, Tomato Torrent. We'll see how it goes.

 

-3nigma

 

Good choice. I use that one too. :)

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3nigma
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Also for the record, here is what I tested, and what my results were:

 

Transmission - Nice and lightweight client, small footprint. Appeared to have less features to a novice, but I don't know if that is necessarily true or not. That was just looking at the interface. This was my second choice.

 

BitRocket - Clean interface, lots of information without feature-bloat. Very nice middle-ground. This ended up being my top pick.

 

Xtorrent - Proprietary trash. After I downloaded it, it explicitly gave me a popup message telling me that they have disabled a couple features, and even started a one-hour countdown, after which it would limit your download speeds. Do not support these kinds of companies.

 

Azureus 3.0 - This is interesting. It is a new product that goes way beyond a BitTorrent client. It is a similar application to iTunes, but it is for Hi-Def video. They have partnered with big companies to bring a lot of content. If you're interested in this type of thing, it looked pretty slick and cool. Very iTunes-esque, which is obviously a smash hit. If you are only interested in a torrent client, however, this is extreme bloatware. I couldn't even find the torrent functionality amidst the Hi-Def store.

 

Azureus 2.5 - Just the BitTorrent client without the HD store. I opted out of this because it felt like it wasn't the "latest and greatest" version of the torrent technology. This isn't a good reason, because maybe Az 3.0 uses the same torrent as 2.5 and just adds the store, but I wasn't sure. As a personal preference, I also didn't like the interface/icons, it was very Windows/Linux and not Mac. I don't think any of these are actual good reasons though, hehe.

 

Tomato Torrent - The startup begins with a wizard. I thought this was great, very user-friendly. However, I was trying to get through the wizard, to get to the actual application, and I couldn't. When I went to the Preferences, my options were extremely sparse, so I opted out of playing any further with it.

 

This isn't a good review, or thorough or anything. Just my experience taking 2 minutes to look at each one, and judge them from a short-term and superficial level. There may be more merit to these with further exploration.

 

-3nigma

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Dr. Hurt
Dr. Hurt
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I just tried bit rocket today, and found out that it's great. It feels kinda like bit comet. It's also very fast in download speeds and loading speed. I never liked azureus for os x because it was a system hog.

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Mebster
Mebster
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I've only used Transmission and noticed two issues with it.

 

1. A file which has completed downloading and has then been removed could not be downloaded again on that system. Transmission it appeared would remember what I downloaded. Only noticed this when I accidentally deleted a small show which just finished downloading. Tried to add the torrent again but said it was already downloaded. Deleted the download from list and added torrent but still remembered. No way to clear it's memory it seemed. Had to use a different system to download the show eventually.

 

2. This may be due to the fact that the mac is downloading wirelessly using a usb dongle but around 1 in 5 downloads would complete but would not do so correctly (or were corrupted) and would just after completing display a ! sign. Seriously annoying as it just means having to start all over again.

 

I'm not sure if these problems have been resolved but they really did put me off Transmission a lot but overall I did like the fact that it was small and light.

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RobNyc
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Azureus = ram hog

XTorrent = was good now paid {censored}

 

Transmission still surviving to be the best and light

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Sabr
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I'm not sure if these problems have been resolved but they really did put me off Transmission a lot but overall I did like the fact that it was small and light.

 

They've most probably been resolved. I haven't had any of the issues you just mentioned with Transmission. However, I've moved over to BitRocket now. Looks, feels, and works really good. Plus it's pretty lightweight.

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Schwinn555
Schwinn555
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I'd not hear of BitRocket before so giving it a try now. Looks good and has lots of features but seems a bit buggy. Everything disappeared after just a few min . I had to re-add the torrent and start over. It seems ok now we'll see. I thought I was going to like Transmission .71 until trouble showed up ;-( It totaly hogs my bandwidth. After running for a few min I can no longer access my DSL modem at all . So no Internet except for it. Settings in Transmission are what I've used for other apps and the older Transmission. The only way to get my bandwidth back is to quit Transmission and recycle my DSL modem. Not even a re-boot gets it back. Very odd not even Flash app hog Azureus isn' that bad. So no more Transmission for me till that's fixed.

I'm back to my favorite as mentioned in the other Torrent post "Bits On Wheels". Lots of features and works great.

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Mebster
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They've most probably been resolved. I haven't had any of the issues you just mentioned with Transmission. However, I've moved over to BitRocket now. Looks, feels, and works really good. Plus it's pretty lightweight.
Not really heard of it either. But i'll give it a go.

 

Looks good and has lots of features but seems a bit buggy. Everything disappeared after just a few min . I had to re-add the torrent and start over. It seems ok now we'll see. I thought I was going to like Transmission .71 until trouble showed up ;-( It totaly hogs my bandwidth. After running for a few min I can no longer access my DSL modem at all .

Well firstly you can control how much bandwidth you allow it to use so that may help resolve the issue but with me I normally prefer to give it all it can get and have noticed it over heats the wireless usb stick that it's using and knocks it out. So I then need to take it out and cool it down and reinsert with the risk of a kernal panic (had a few when I took it out and put it back in). But I'm not sure if the overheating is more transmissions fault or the wireless usb sticks. Wither way a change may be good to try out.

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Schwinn555
Schwinn555
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Transmission .7.1 Yes, I know the bandwidth can be limited. As I mentioned I was using it with the same settings as used with the Transmission .6x & 7.0 . Settings are unlimited downloads and uploads limited to 35Kb. as like many users my uploads are much less then downloads. I did wonder if my DSL modem was over heating. Why would it it doesn't with any other app?

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