EC2 Micro Instance as a Remote Bittorrent Client (opens in new tab)

(mwmanning.com)

51 pointsnirmal15y ago30 comments

30 comments

The only thing I would ever use this for would be legal files shared with friends - I'm not sure how often Amazon ripples their IP addresses, but I'm sure the RIAA/MPAA would have a field day with an IP address linked to a billing account in the US.

jarpadat15y ago

Use a prepaid credit card; use a payphone for the phone call confirmation.

honopu15y ago

sounds like a lot of work to just get around buying content :)

2 more replies

wccrawford15y ago

Ouch. What would that cost for the bandwidth?

I looked into using cloud instances for file sharing (legal files, of course) and decided it would cost too much for what it was worth to me.

rmc15y ago

If you want to share files, an EC2 instance is overkill. Instead you should use S3. It even comes with built in automatic free bittorrent to spread your load.

jeremyjarvis15y ago

Yeah, with the free usage tier you get 30GB data transfer (15GB in + 15GB out) included but that would soon run out.

Retric15y ago

From what I see Data Transfer is $0.10 per GB in $0.15 out http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Assume you seed 50% more than you use 1GB (10c in) + (15c * 1.5 seeding) + (15c download) = ~47.5 cents per GB ouch.

However, a blue ray rip is something like 8.5GB * 47.5 cents = 4.04$ which is not that bad. Assuming you get the actual content that you want, don't end up in jail etc, it’s still cheaper than HD PPV let alone buying the Disk.

Edit: I chose a BR rip as the lowest value content per GB, for most other uses it seems fairly reasonable.

2 more replies

mooism215y ago

I'm surprised home routers don't have bittorrent clients built in. I expect most people leave them on 24/7 as it is.

jmcnevin15y ago

There's a number that do... and apparently you can install transmission as an add-on to dd-wrt:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Optware#Installing_torr...

spindritf15y ago

OpenWRT http://openwrt.org/ also has a number of clients (and even a tracker) ready to be installed in the repository:

  # opkg list | grep -i torrent
  btpd - 0.15-1 - BTPD is a bittorrent client consisting of a daemon and client commands,
   The daemon is capable of running several torrents simultaneously and only uses one tcp port. 
  cbtt - 20060727-1 - Bittorrent tracker
  cbtt-mysql - 20060727-1 - Bittorrent tracker (with mysql support)
  ctorrent - dnh3.3.2-5 - CTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in the C programming language,
  ctorrent-nossl - dnh3.3.2-5 - CTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in the C programming language,
  libtorrent - 0.12.6_r1130-3 - LibTorrent is a BitTorrent library written in C++ for *nix, with a focus
  rtorrent - 0.8.6_r1130-1 - rTorrent is a BitTorrent client for ncurses, using the libtorrent library.
  transmission-daemon - 1.92-1 - Transmission is a simple BitTorrent client.

jcsalterego15y ago

That's cool.

I did the same thing for Minecraft SMP (passing 512M instead of 1024M for memory usage).

zmitri15y ago

This is cool, you could also use S3 to help you seed if you don't want to keep your computer on all the time. S3 allows you to use torrents by adding ?torrent to the end of your urls. The data transfer is treated the same as regular S3 data access.

rmc15y ago

Using S3 torrents wouldn't help you seed, since you'd have to use the same tracker (original) as everyone else.

zmitri15y ago

Couldn't you just add the tracker url from the s3 torrent to the torrent file you generate?

1 more reply

getsat15y ago

Your safest and cheapest bet is to get a seedbox in France. http://dediseedbox.com

listic15y ago

Interesting. I wonder how they make it so cheap, especially considering the traffic.

martey15y ago

But making all of their payments non-refundable and reserving the right to terminate your account for any reason (including posting "defamatory" comments online about them!).

See their Terms of Service at http://dediseedbox.com/clients/knowledgebase.php?action=disp...

wladimir15y ago

Another pretty well-known seedbox hoster is Xirvik ( http://www.xirvik.com/ ). I'm pretty sure such services are cheap compared to the crazy bandwidth costs you'd pay with Amazon.

icco15y ago

This is a cool idea, but if I used it with the amount of data I use at home, I would be spending upwards of $500 a month.

pibefision15y ago

recently discovered aria2c, it's an excellent client for bittorrents files, would be run great on any EC2 instance.

hippich15y ago

IMHO, Exactly this kind of abuse is something will lead to closing evaluation period provider by amazon.

mwmanning15y ago

How does this constitute abuse?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

30 comments

javanix15y ago

jarpadat15y ago

Use a prepaid credit card; use a payphone for the phone call confirmation.

honopu15y ago

sounds like a lot of work to just get around buying content :)

2 more replies

wccrawford15y ago

Ouch. What would that cost for the bandwidth?

I looked into using cloud instances for file sharing (legal files, of course) and decided it would cost too much for what it was worth to me.

rmc15y ago

If you want to share files, an EC2 instance is overkill. Instead you should use S3. It even comes with built in automatic free bittorrent to spread your load.

jeremyjarvis15y ago

Yeah, with the free usage tier you get 30GB data transfer (15GB in + 15GB out) included but that would soon run out.

Retric15y ago

From what I see Data Transfer is $0.10 per GB in $0.15 out http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Assume you seed 50% more than you use 1GB (10c in) + (15c * 1.5 seeding) + (15c download) = ~47.5 cents per GB ouch.

Edit: I chose a BR rip as the lowest value content per GB, for most other uses it seems fairly reasonable.

2 more replies

mooism215y ago

I'm surprised home routers don't have bittorrent clients built in. I expect most people leave them on 24/7 as it is.

jmcnevin15y ago

There's a number that do... and apparently you can install transmission as an add-on to dd-wrt:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Optware#Installing_torr...

spindritf15y ago

OpenWRT http://openwrt.org/ also has a number of clients (and even a tracker) ready to be installed in the repository:

  # opkg list | grep -i torrent
  btpd - 0.15-1 - BTPD is a bittorrent client consisting of a daemon and client commands,
   The daemon is capable of running several torrents simultaneously and only uses one tcp port. 
  cbtt - 20060727-1 - Bittorrent tracker
  cbtt-mysql - 20060727-1 - Bittorrent tracker (with mysql support)
  ctorrent - dnh3.3.2-5 - CTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in the C programming language,
  ctorrent-nossl - dnh3.3.2-5 - CTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in the C programming language,
  libtorrent - 0.12.6_r1130-3 - LibTorrent is a BitTorrent library written in C++ for *nix, with a focus
  rtorrent - 0.8.6_r1130-1 - rTorrent is a BitTorrent client for ncurses, using the libtorrent library.
  transmission-daemon - 1.92-1 - Transmission is a simple BitTorrent client.

jcsalterego15y ago

That's cool.

I did the same thing for Minecraft SMP (passing 512M instead of 1024M for memory usage).

zmitri15y ago

rmc15y ago

Using S3 torrents wouldn't help you seed, since you'd have to use the same tracker (original) as everyone else.

zmitri15y ago

Couldn't you just add the tracker url from the s3 torrent to the torrent file you generate?

1 more reply

getsat15y ago

Your safest and cheapest bet is to get a seedbox in France. http://dediseedbox.com

listic15y ago

Interesting. I wonder how they make it so cheap, especially considering the traffic.

martey15y ago

But making all of their payments non-refundable and reserving the right to terminate your account for any reason (including posting "defamatory" comments online about them!).

See their Terms of Service at http://dediseedbox.com/clients/knowledgebase.php?action=disp...

wladimir15y ago

Another pretty well-known seedbox hoster is Xirvik ( http://www.xirvik.com/ ). I'm pretty sure such services are cheap compared to the crazy bandwidth costs you'd pay with Amazon.

icco15y ago

This is a cool idea, but if I used it with the amount of data I use at home, I would be spending upwards of $500 a month.

pibefision15y ago

recently discovered aria2c, it's an excellent client for bittorrents files, would be run great on any EC2 instance.

hippich15y ago

IMHO, Exactly this kind of abuse is something will lead to closing evaluation period provider by amazon.

mwmanning15y ago

How does this constitute abuse?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse