Filed under: Software, Freeware
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,
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
herman82 said 1:42PM on 1-05-2008
"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!
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Karl said 3:45PM on 1-05-2008
Good, without this it was basically useless to me.
Chris said 2:06PM on 1-05-2008
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?
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Gimp said 9:39PM on 1-05-2008
Could you please make a post on the transmission forums under the "Clutch" heading? http://transmissionbt.com/forum/
Post a screenshot of your settings (block the ip though)
and a screenshot of the firefox page thats showing up.
Fernando said 2:39PM on 1-05-2008
Same here, even the Intel Mini part :P
Fernando said 2:42PM on 1-05-2008
Oops, sorry, you said the error was in firefox, here the error is on the page that loads: http://www.fwrnando.com/uploads/clutch.png
Chris Brummel said 3:26PM on 1-05-2008
I have it working on my Intel mini. Are you using Transmission 1.0 and Clutch 0.2? I didn't have to configure anything; if they were both running, they just worked.
Chris said 3:31PM on 1-05-2008
Yep, I tried it at first even with out configuring anything but that didn't work either. And I haven't even gotten as far as Fernando, I've got nothing.
Waldorf said 3:36PM on 1-05-2008
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.
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Karl said 3:50PM on 1-05-2008
That explains the size, 6.1Mb would have been huge for something that merely includes web pages.
Michael Rose said 4:40PM on 1-05-2008
There was some confusion between the Linux version of Clutch (which does require a separate httpd) and the Mac version, which bundles web serving. I'll ask Cory to update the post.
Michael Rose said 4:41PM on 1-05-2008
"compatible with Transmission 1.0" on the front page of the Clutch site, however the inside pages specifically say that you won't see GUI app results in Clutch = natural mistake, now corrected.
Anthony Sigalas said 5:23PM on 1-05-2008
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...
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Josh said 6:33PM on 1-05-2008
I have the same problem.
rogersmj said 7:34PM on 1-05-2008
I have the same problem as well when I try to add a torrent through Clutch. "An unexpected error occurred." What's worse is that their web site is incredibly sparse, with no place to post questions. So much for this.
Gimp said 9:41PM on 1-05-2008
http://transmissionbt.com/forums/ has a clutch sub forum, which is where we ask bug reports to be sent in.
Please note this is not a final version, and there are still bugs that we need to iron out.
Gimp said 9:39PM on 1-05-2008
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!)
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Mark P said 3:09AM on 1-06-2008
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!
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Lcs said 7:57AM on 1-06-2008
Hmm, looks like clutchbt.com is down :(
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Ross said 3:00PM on 1-07-2008
Oh, this is so perfect. Azureus was the only one that supported this, and it runs too slow on my old G4 server.
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