Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Open Source
Transmisison 0.71 Fixes Announce Issue
One of the things I love about OS X is the fact that for pretty much any conceivable task, there are multiple applications to choose from with which to do it. Unfortunately, this hasn't really been the case when it comes to BitTorrent clients. Yes, there may have been multiple native clients out there, but only two of them were really any good– BitRocket and Transmission– and for the longest time, Transmission was banned on many private torrent trackers. This left only BitRocket, a client lacking some key features such as the ability to view and set upload/download ratios. Until Today. Transmission 0.71 fixes the much hated multiple-announce bug which caused it's banning by many trackers. The new version also includes some other small bug fixes and interface updates. Transmission is Open Source and available as a free download.
Goodbye BitRocket!
[via CrunchGear]

![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
nowhere said 3:30PM on 4-24-2007
I don't know where you've been but Azureus has always been an option, if not the best option, for Macs. http://azureus.sourceforge.net/howto_osx.php
Now that Transmission has fixed that bug though I would definitely say it's in the running.
Reply
Chris Greeley said 3:30PM on 4-24-2007
I like Azureus a 100 time better then these chek it out.
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
Reply
ObeytheFist said 3:45PM on 4-24-2007
By accident I discovered that Acquisition is also a BitTorrent client. I'm not really experienced with other clients except to say that I've tried a few and been left with a lot of confusion as to what exactly I'm supposed to do. Acquisition just downloads the torrent. I don't have to know anything about how.
Just wanted to add a little info about a somewhat hidden BT client that doesn't seem to advertise itself much.
http://www.acquisitionx.com/
Reply
stainboy said 3:45PM on 4-24-2007
i've been using Bits on Wheels for a long time, and it works like a champ. i love the 3D-esque connection view!
Reply
Chris H said 3:46PM on 4-24-2007
Azureus certainly has more features and options than Transmission, but for some people that isn't a benefit. Different strokes for different folks.
Reply
Donald Burr said 3:47PM on 4-24-2007
#1 - he said "native clients." Since Azureus is written in Java, this does not count as "native."
Reply
Alex said 3:48PM on 4-24-2007
Azureus is a bloated piece of shit on the Mac. No offense.
Reply
Donald Burr said 3:50PM on 4-24-2007
Azureus is a real pig. Big, bloated, and slow. It's not necessarily Azureus' fault tho, as most of that baggage comes with the Java environment (since Azureus is written in Java).
BitsOnWheels and Acquisition are still banned from many tracker sites, mostly because they play fast and loose with the bittorrent protocol. In the case of BitsOnWheels, a primary complaint is that it announces to the tracker far too frequently, which causes a lot of extra CPU and network load on the tracker machine.
Acquisition also costs money, and, as forum admins on one bittorrent site point out, "why would you buy a bittorrent client?"
Reply
ObeytheFist said 4:14PM on 4-24-2007
#8 why would you buy a bittorrent client?
I know it's not possible for everyone, but when I find a well designed piece of software that asks for a registration fee, I gladly pay up. I also donate to good open source projects when it's possible.
Reply
Jeremy T said 4:14PM on 4-24-2007
I'm still going to stick with Azereus until this (Or another one) finally adds the feature where I can tell the client which files I want it to download. I do not like it downloading multiple files all at once.
I just hope they get it out soon. That is the only feature holding me back from switching to Transmition.
Reply
Andrew said 4:15PM on 4-24-2007
Selective downloading is the only thing that is keeping me from using the beauty that is Transmission. :(
Reply
Donald Burr said 5:00PM on 4-24-2007
#10: Transmission developer stated that selective downloading is at the top of their feature list for the next version.
Reply
popo man said 4:38PM on 4-24-2007
@ObeytheFist (#9): Hope you're not expecting your money to go anywhere except to line the pockets of a Grade A asshole, because Dave Watanabe is not the kind of person to lift a finger to help you when your registration code mysteriously stops working. See here: http://squidnews.com/2007/04/17/david-watanabe-the-complaints/
Reply
Matt said 4:52PM on 4-24-2007
Can someone explain what exactly the "multiple announce" bug was in Transmission that was getting it blocked on the tracker sites?
Reply
Bob S. said 5:00PM on 4-24-2007
The funny thing is, in this post:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/04/19/transmission-0-7-bittorrent-client-released/
we had Sean and Maddles indignantly proclaiming that this bug had been fixed long ago. Want to clear that up, Sean and Maddles?
(I'm a BitRocket user. I use only one tracker and the two of them play nice together.)
Reply
sebastian said 5:01PM on 4-24-2007
Last time I used transmission, I got banned from a private tracker for cheating! Transmission mysteriously reported huuuuge amount of upload to the tracker for some reason, has this been fixed? I'm not too keen on being banned again, but I would love to use it, cause it runs so much smoother than azureus, so is it safe to runt i by now?
Reply
niknak said 5:13PM on 4-24-2007
I've been using Tranmission for quite a while now because i like the simplicity of it. I tried all the others and they just gave me a sore head. Since this update the increase in my download speed has been bloody marvelous. I was content to wait 6-8 hrs for a movie before, and now it's usually only 2 or 3. To the Transmission team: selective downloading of files, yes that would be a good feature. But that's it about all you need to do. Please just be content that you have developed the most mac-like client available. Keep it simple.
Reply
Jason said 5:15PM on 4-24-2007
just wanted to say with bitrocket
*you can view shar ratio by clicking the torrent and checking the tab progress
*you can set the global share ratio and speed by going to properties - transfers
*and finally you can set your speed to share for each individual torrent by selecting the torrent and hitting the tab options.
i don't know why dan said it couldn't do these things
Reply
sam said 5:44PM on 4-24-2007
Bit rocket crashes far too often for it to be usable to me. Hopefully transmission is much better. Another native and free bit torrent client is opera - which has a built in torrent client.
I rarely use torrents though, as usenet is waaaay faster, more secure, and I don't have to rely on any peers who decide to shut off their computers when I'm at 99%.
Reply
Dan Woods said 7:07PM on 4-24-2007
I've used Acquisition for years, and was contemplating Crossgrading to Xtorrent, but David's continued reliance on Java is really starting to bother me.
I've used Bits on Wheels, but while the Swarm view is useful, it doesn't feel right.
Maybe it's time to abandon Acquisition for Transmission, even if I'll end up with two Car-Part icons on my Dock (Handbrake and Transmission)
Reply