Getting a tracker error, what does this mean?

[Starfire]

When downloading, I get an error from the tracker at www.purpleyoda.com saying:

"Error: Tracker Response Error: Torrent is not authorized for use on this tracker. in tracker http://www.purpleyoda.com/tracker/announce.php"

I didn't change anything and I could have sworn that this was working fine before. Also, DHT is returning peers that are downloading fine. Is there a way to change a tracker so that I can download from the other peers? What are trackers anyways?

[kluelos]

Trackers are the main method that Bittorrent uses to find interested peers and to join the swarm. When you start a tracked torrent, it attempts to contact the tracker and asks it to 1) send you a list of swarm members and 2) add you to that list. It also sends you a timing interval, at the end of which you ask the tracker for an updated list while reporting your progress to it.

This tracker's saying that it is not tracking that particular torrent. It may have been deleted for a variety of reasons. Check the tracker site forum or the torrent comments at that forum for details. Some sites simply expire torrents regularly.

That doesn't mean you're out of luck though. DHT is a trackerless alternative for finding swarm members. If you are finding enough peers through DHT, you don't need to worry about the tracker. You should still check the site though, because sometimes an error is discovered in the torrent, so it's dropped and replaced with a corrected torrent.

[Starfire]

I checked the site and it looks as if the site listed in the tracker does not exist. I finished the torrent so it doesn't really matter now, but I wanted to know for future reference.