Monday 3rd July 2006
Something funny happened to me on the Interweb today. Funny strange, not funny ha ha. To understand what it was, you’ll need a cursory understanding of P2P – but let’s face it, you’re here reading this site, so it’s more than likely that you do.
After a largely unsuccessful evening scouring the Internet for fast torrents – of Linux ISOs, cake recipes and other non-illegal things, natch – I thought I’d struck gold. I’d happened across one that sped off at ridiculous speeds immediately, just the sort of torrent I’d been hoping to meet all my life.
But wait! It turned out that my torrent had some horrible skeletons in the closet. I was about to click µTorrent’s “peers” tab to peek inside, and cover myself in human remains.
This is what fell out all over me:
You’ll notice that the IPs listed are all very similar – in the 38.100.xxx.xxx range, mostly, with three outliers which are also very similar. The vital statistics of each peer are different, but the client is the same in each case.
What’s that all about? Is someone, as Ryan suggests, trying to “law me up”? Or feed me with a horrifically corrupted file which I will spit out in disgust, eventually leading to lifelong Bittorrent bulimia? Or something else?
Answers on a postcard, please.
Comment By: bgbennyboy
Monday 3rd July 2006 | 15:23
Assuming it was a dodgy torrent, er linux iso, I reckon you were being sent fakes. Or perhaps the internet gods were smiling on you and it was your one chance to experience download nirvana.