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Clutch provides browser control of torrents

Just yesterday, we told you about the new GUI version of Transmission. For those who prefer remote control, there's also a web UI for the Transmission daemon, called (cleverly enough) Clutch, just updated to version 0.2. Clutch is an easy way to manage your BitTorrent downloads from anywhere you can access the internet.

Clutch is a front-end for the Transmission torrent engine; it doesn't require the GUI version of Transmission, and the two tools don't show each others' download results. but if you use both you may see download results from one tool in the other's list, say our commenters. Clutch uses the web server that's built into Mac OS X, along with AJAX and PHP for the web interface. The app is a self-contained package that has all of the software needed to run the web interface; just open, set a few preferences, and then -- boom -- you're done!

If you do not have a static IP address, or use a dynamic DNS service (such as DynDNS), then Clutch will give you a link to your current external IP address, so you can find and connect to your computer over the internet. You might ask "Why would I want to do that?" The answer is time management: BitTorrent downloads can take a while, much too long for you to wait around, and with this tool you can manage your downloads from work, school, or at the local Starbucks. Using this software means that you will have to open a port in your firewall (the default port is 9091, however, you may set it to use any inactive port above 1024 that you wish). Clutch 0.2 is open source and is available as a free download from the Clutch website.

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Just yesterday, we told you about the new GUI version of Transmission. For those who prefer remote control, there's also a web UI for the...
 

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Lcs

Hmm, looks like clutchbt.com is down :(

January 06 2008 at 7:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mark

I'm so happy with this! I've been looking to do this for a while on my apple tv, as libtorrent doesn't have a webui. I will definitely donate to both projects when I have this running! Thanks for this post and thanks to the devs!

January 06 2008 at 2:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
?nthony Sigalas

Installed it today in conjuction with Transmission 1.0 on my Intel macmini. I can view and control my torrents of Transmission.app through Clutch, however I cannot upload a torrent (put on a new torrent) through Clutch. It says that the file is probably already downloading, which it doesn't. That sucks as I was hoping to replace Azureus + WebUI plugin with Transmission + Clutch...

January 05 2008 at 5:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to ?nthony Sigalas's comment
Waldorf

You may want to do your homework better before you post: indeed the Clutch v0.2 is compatible with Transmission v1.0.
Also, it does NOT use the systems web sharing, but a purpose build lighttpd packaged inside of Clutch.
If there are more questions, I, and others, are more than happy to answer your questions in the forum or IRC.

January 05 2008 at 3:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Waldorf's comment
Gimp

Actually, Clutch 0.2 does use the Transmission Cocoa Torrents.

Also, it bundles its own lighttpd and php, it doesn't use the built-in webserver.

(FYI, I'm The project leader for clutch, and thank you very much for the post!)

January 05 2008 at 2:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

I can't get the web server to work. I'm on an Intel Mac Mini, running Leopard, Transmission is open and Clutch is open. I set the preferences, the default port is open, and I have it on HTTP with no authentication. I click Open URL and it gives me a "could not establish connection" page in Firefox. Anybody have an ideas?

January 05 2008 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to Chris's comment
herman82

"Clutch is a front-end for the Transmission torrent engine; it doesn't require the GUI version of Transmission, and the two tools don't show each others' download results." now i does! my transmission torrents shows up in the webgui and vice-versa, sweet!

January 05 2008 at 1:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to herman82's comment
Karl

Good, without this it was basically useless to me.

January 05 2008 at 2:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ross Hettel

Oh, this is so perfect. Azureus was the only one that supported this, and it runs too slow on my old G4 server.

January 05 2008 at 1:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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