merging bitcomet downloads

[davidesharpe]

Hi,

Hope some one help me with this.

The situation is that a perticular torrent is downloading on 2 (or more) separate clients. Obviously at any point in time, due to random qualities different parts of the file will have been downloaded on the different clients(machines).

Is there

a) A utility that would allow you to merge these files together (so getting the most downloaded info) and then doing a manual hash check or similar to allow further downloading.

B) I am quity capable of writing a simple program that can merge the files based on the fact that anything else but a 0 is a succesful byte. but will the manual hash check work with such a merged file ? or is it using other information that needs to be taken into account ?

[kluelos]

I don't see a compelling reason to do this. Bittorrent clients will grab all the bandwidth they can, so there's not a lot of point trying to download the same torrent with two clients. Except in rare circumstances, it's better to give all the bandwidth to one (assuming it hasn't already taken it and they're interfering with each other already) and let that one get on with it.

(Keeping in mind that the major constraint, most of the time, for most people, is on their upstream bandwidth.)

If you did do this, it would have to be two copies of the same torrent, not just the same material, but the same torrent. Otherwise you'd have piece mismatches throughout. (Somewhere, a tracker is crying.)

You'd need to check the pieces from either client against the hash in the torrent file. That's doable. Would the assembly work? Ehhh, maybe. But what isn't doable, by and large, is to split the task efficiently between the two clients. (You download this half, I'll download that half.) They'll each be downloading on their own, without any coordination, and you'll certainly get an enormous percentage of overlap which is, for this purpose, wastage. They just don't download the pieces in any predictable order, it depends entirely on network dynamics at the moment.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

In my opinion, you are creating way to much work in trying to merge two halfway downloaded files into one.

The result could be one halfway downloaded file, or on complete file, or anything inbetween.

I'm also certain you will come out with many attempts ending in completely unusable files, and as many headaches...

If these two machines are on your l.a.n. (sharing router), the clients could run directly over the lan, and seed/leech from each other, so you would have (in effect) merged the contents of both on to both machines, without the bandwidth restrictions of your internet connection.

This method would be a h*** of a lot easier.

Suspect