Private tracker

[PauloASilva]

Hi All,

I was waitting for an opportunity to make use of btSync and now I had it on an empresarial context.

I did a test on the company's local network and it was great, but I'm concerned about how btSync deals with peers when they are all over the world.

Based on what I read, there's a central public tracker and my question is if it is possible to setup a private tracker (using, for example, the opentracker software) accessible through the internet to "facilitate" the peers discovery and connection?

Thanks in advance,

[GreatMarko]

It's not currently possible to setup/use your own "private" tracker with BitTorrent Sync (short of creating a pseudo-tracker using the "predefined hosts" options), so if you have devices that reside outside of your local network on unknown/changing IPs, you're currently restricted to using the relay/tracker servers offered by BitTorrent Sync.

There are, however, future plans for a "Sync for business" edition of Sync that will "have features that are required by enterprises and SMB"... I would hazard a guess that the ability to setup your own "private" tracker would likely be part of this offering.

[PauloASilva]

Hi GreatMarko,

Thanks for you quick reply.

I was thinking whether btSync tool was open source and it could be modified to use other tracker but I also assume that the tracker's address was not hardcoded on the source. Probably it uses some configuration file.

What do you think?

[GreatMarko]

I was thinking whether btSync tool was open source and it could be modified to use other tracker but I also assume that the tracker's address was not hardcoded on the source. Probably it uses some configuration file.

What do you think?

BitTorrent Sync isn't open source, and there are, to my knowledge, no plans to make it open source.

The tracker URL is hardcoded into the software, so can't easily be changed. Also, even if you could change it, I don't think it's just a regular standard .torrent tracker, it's a tracker specifically designed/adapted for Sync, and like the Sync application itself, the Sync tracker code also isn't open source... so even if you could change the tracker url (which could potentially be done through modifying the "hosts" file on Windows for example), it's not going to do you much good!

As I say, my hunch is that as and when "Sync for business" emerges, this may well allow you to run your own "private" Sync tracker on your own infrastructure... in the meantime, your best option would be to use the "predefined hosts" options if you wish to avoid the relay/tracker servers provided by BitTorrent! ...and/or use a VPN service to make your various peers "all over the world" appear to Sync as being on the same local network, thus negating the need for a relay/tracker server altogether!

[PauloASilva]

How could I take advantage of "predefined hosts" when dealing with non static peers (IP) addresses?

The VPN may be an interesting option but I'm worried about users' behavior: they will not remember to often connect to the VPN to get their documents synced :s

Thanks,

[GreatMarko]

The VPN may be an interesting option but I'm worried about users' behavior: they will not remember to often connect to the VPN to get their documents synced :s

Well, with a VPN service - something like Hamachi, as an example - you wouldn't need to worry about IP addresses - the VPN service would assigned IP addresses to devices in the VPN to make them all appear on the same network, and therefore you could disable the relay/tracker options completely in Sync (and you wouldn't need to use predefined hosts either!) and your devices will see each other and be able to establish connections between then!

Also, a VPN service like Hamachi can run transparently in the background, and automatically run at system startup/login, so user's wouldn't need to "connect to the VPN" as such, as it would connect automatically with no user intervention!

Of course, all this said, going back to your original point of trying to avoid hitting BitTorrent's servers, with this solution, you'd then instead be hitting the servers of a VPN service!!

[PauloASilva]

Cool!

I will try this approach.

Thanks

[coewar]

The folder options such as Search LAN, relay, tracker, etc.. all have to be set each time for every folder. There is missing a Default Folder options (Windows version) so that you can set it and just have all folders use that.

Problem is that after you add a folder, it actually starts running with the current default settings before you can get to change them.

And it's a pain to go and edit every one. Also, maybe a grid showing the folders with their options might help.. an editable grid too even.. to make it quick to change.

[btusername]

BitTorrent Sync isn't open source, and there are, to my knowledge, no plans to make it open source.

The tracker URL is hardcoded into the software, so can't easily be changed. Also, even if you could change it, I don't think it's just a regular standard .torrent tracker, it's a tracker specifically designed/adapted for Sync, and like the Sync application itself, the Sync tracker code also isn't open source... so even if you could change the tracker url (which could potentially be done through modifying the "hosts" file on Windows for example), it's not going to do you much good!

As I say, my hunch is that as and when "Sync for business" emerges, this may well allow you to run your own "private" Sync tracker on your own infrastructure... in the meantime, your best option would be to use the "predefined hosts" options if you wish to avoid the relay/tracker servers provided by BitTorrent! ...and/or use a VPN service to make your various peers "all over the world" appear to Sync as being on the same local network, thus negating the need for a relay/tracker server altogether!

since the source insn't open, we cant trust what the application claims to due and is therefor insecure.

if, however, the sync protocol is opened up for the public (not just internal developers), than an open source alternative could be created and modified to preform other functions as desired.