Red Swoosh (acquired by Akamai for $15 million earlier this month) released v1.0 of FoxTorrent today. This is a fully functional BitTorrent client for Firefox that works cross platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) and has a very cool additional feature – the ability to stream files as they are downloading.
This is no Azureus (my BitTorrent client of choice), but it does the job and saves time by allowing you to manage torrents directly from the browser. I tested it on a few (non-copyright infringing, of course) files and it worked great on the standard BitTorrent functionality. Streaming just didn’t work, although with the way the BitTorrent protocol breaks files into pieces and reconstructs them in a non linear way means you may have to wait until the file is mostly complete to even begin streaming. I’ll try it again once the files are nearly complete.
A good early review is here.
check what I found
http://libyanmentaltv.com
Michael why don’t you have a look at the web 2.0 applications described on businesshackers.com… it may inspire you to write new posts… anyway I think you are doing a good job…
I don’t think streaming will ever be possible with BT, which is a shame. As you say it just doesn’t work because the data downloads in a random order.
The only other P2P protocol that streams properly is peercast ( http://www.peercast.org ), no firefox client for that yet though.
Kontiki lets you pull random chunks from the whole file or focus on the head of the file and do playback while the rest of the file is downloading from both peers and head-end servers … Kontiki also has a security model that lets you benefit from peer delivery and maintain centralized control over how it is distributed (and which peers you can use). I joined Verisign to work in the Kontiki group because I think that their technology is great. Verisign now combines this with a traditional CDN to provide a hybrid approach. I would be happy to talk with folks about it. I think it is time for an technical bake-off of various peer-delivery technologies.
Eh
Fox torrent streams video when the torrent gives you bandwidth above 200kpbs from my experience .
Peer Impact can stream movies with its progressive download algorithm and they prioritise the first chucks Peer Impact also needs about a 200kbps to stream the movies that start within 30 seconds after the download is initiated in most cases .
http://www.peerimpact.com/mediaCenter/index.html
Also Neocast is also streaming movies and doing live p2p in closed beta .
http://neokastblog.com/
There is also some interesting research going on in the streaming space at this current time .
https://www.tribler.org/test_streaming/index.php?n=Site.Introduction
I wonder if the streaming ability actually slows the download since FoxTorrent needs to aim for the ‘earlier’ bits of the file as opposed to the usual torrent download that tries to grab any bits it can in reconstituting the file on your computer asap.
using foxTorrent really isnt the best idea, as soon as the torrent has downloaded it stops seeding the torrent. and the upload / seeding speed is limited just like BitComet …
now in the torrent community on most trackers bitComet is a banned client like a few others, because of leechers and people not seeding!!
the torrent community is powered by seeders, using foxTorrent means you are just leeching off the community and making it harder to share our favourite files!!
your better off using something like utorrent which has a tiny memory footprint, simple to use and wont turn you into a leecher!!
I caught Michael Arrington use FOXTORRENT, playing with himself and download animal pics.
I wonder why he likes firefox, fox pics, foxes, foxy, foxtorrent. What is wrong with not having cat at home. FOX is mixed dog/cat look like
- Sounds good / except it doesn’t continue to seed ….
– IT shoudl be banned by most BitTorrent sites. Its not good for the community.
That module is going to be practical.
How does it compare to microtorrent?
eMule has allowed you to watch a video before it has finished downloading but it doesn’t work well for the same reasons you stated here.
File Sharing just isn’t made for streaming – bit of a useless feature from FoxTorrent really.
It did something nasty to my firefox session upon installation and messed up all the previous tabs I have opened, so beware.
While I think it’s great to see Bittorrent supported by Firefox directly (even if only by extension), the lack of seeding is a dealbreaker (for those of use who believe in Karma) and I hope that they fix that soon.
this leeching biz doesn’t add up —- i installed and used on my fav sites —- the client is seeding while downloading, that’s standard bittorrent protocol,
and i’m not an expert but if the client doesn’t seed it won’t be able to pull content down. am i missing something?
My security admin told me there’s tiny ad spyware installed in every P2P technology.
I never download FoxTorrent or use P2P technology. They only good for searching movies, mp3, and full verison software.
is this written in JS? i dont think rtorrent is shivering in its boots..
… and people complain about Azureus’ memory usage.
Hi Adam, Pallet Jack and others concerned about FoxTorrent seeding.
Just wanted to clarify a couple of points. FoxTorrent does upload when it downloads, using the standard tit-for-tat BitTorrent protocol logic.
As for uploading after the download is complete (seeding), FoxTorrent uses a slightly different policy than other torrent clients- its strategy is that it does seed torrents after they’re complete, but is a lot nicer to your upload bandwidth and computer resources while doing so; backing off when your connection and/or computer is in use. So it’ll seed, without you having to worry about it seeding. Pretty neat huh?
So in short, and to address your main concerns, FoxTorrent clients do upload as much as they download. We’re not a selfish bittorrent client.
Tom.
I use this and i like, but you have to see this http://www.splygle.com/torrentsearch.htm searcher torrents in the web, its realy cool
Technically, this isn’t really a bittorrent client. It breaks with the main bittorrent protocol by downloading file chunks sequentially – this is in order to allow the streaming function (which as many people have reported, doesn’t actually work too well atm). The bittorrent protocol as followed by every proper torrent client out there follows a rarest first policy: grab the chunks in random order but make sure that if any piece of the file is less common, that piece is requested first.
Sure, it makes bittorrent requests and can download and (apparently) upload file bits it’s already got but the chunk selection policy employed means that (i) this isn’t bittorrent and (ii) it’s going to get banned by all kinds of trackers.
According to Bram, BitTorrent, Inc. will have a streaming version out this summer. FoxTorrent just beat them to the punch. It’s hard to argue that it’s anti-BitTorrent if Bram is doing the same thing.
http://torrentfreak.com/interview-with-bram-cohen-the-inventor-of-bittorrent
You want to see a good BitTorrent-based cleint doing progressive download in P2P:: go to http://www.p2push.com/rolandgarros/
This is a new project launched by 1-Click Media http://www.1-click.com
1-Click Media is based in Paris, France and provides peer-to-peer plug-in to top TV channel portal. 1-Click Media guarante Speed, Bandwidth savings and Browser experience.
1-Click Media is an hybrid mixing BitTorrent tracker and HTTP webseed.
More info on the website http://www.1-click.com
well I wouldn’t say its flawless but I wouldn’t trust RedSwoosh since they’re known for some very shifty if not shady practices.
“known for some shifty if not shady practices”
. . .you mean like your mom last night. . . .
Red Swoosh guys are good peeps yo
I could not deinstall it. Needed to manually delete the entry “always installed= true”. Until then it popped the install-red-swoosh-message.. wtf?
Hm, you should be able to simply:
1) Uninstall the extension using the extension manager
2) Close the extension manager and all other non-browser windows (download manager, cookie manager, etc)
3) Close all Firefox browser windows (extensions aren’t uninstalled until the last Firefox browser window is closed)
4) When it prompts you to uninstall Red Swoosh, click OK
Is this not working? If so, send your problem to techsupport@redswoosh.net
FoxTorrent isn’t working on Firefox 2.0.0.3 on my MacBook Pro and it repeatedly asks/attempts to reinstall Red Swoosh. Ultimately all the extension does is screw up window/tab spawning from certain sites.
this is a kewl idea …
it’d be nice if we could play the file before its completely downloaded …
great post …
thanks for sharing …