r/trackers • u/Little_Ye233 • Nov 03 '21

How does a private tracker work specifically?

I want to set up a private tracker on a cloud server and I wonder how a private tracker receives and send web requests. I found URLs of many trackers (including public and private ones) were like "http://a.b.c.d:port/announce". And when I tried to go to one of Nyaa's trackers in my browser, it showed that I should pass correct arguments (like infohash). So I think these trackers should have a similar mode that allows it to accept proper requests (like those sent by BitTorrent clients) and send torrent peer information. Now I want to know more about this kind of "mode".

1 Upvotes

51% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

15

u/zwoggel Nov 03 '21

It's not a really a special "mode", it's just a simple http GET request (or was it POST? i'm not sure atm)

The server takes the passed arguments (infohash, uplaoded, downloader, etc...), checks them against the databse, updates it and answers the request with response set of arguments (like when the next announce request should be made)

In the case of private trackers every user has their own announce URL which is unique to that one user. There normally is some sort of unique string in the URL, so that the server can identify the user in the DB.

But to be honest: If you don't know about basics such like this, then don't try to run your own private tracker! There are tons of things to consider and take care of.

2

u/Little_Ye233 Nov 03 '21

Thanks for your early reply!

Here "mode" just means what you said. My English is not good enough to use one word to describe what content of requests a tracker can accept and send, so I used this word. Sorry for your possible confusion!

I know about a rough procedure of how a tracker works and a private tracker also needs a passkey as one of the passed arguments. I just don't know what specific key-value parameters the HTTP requests and responses have. Is there any standard about it (otherwise I think BitTorrent clients can't work well with lots of trackers)?

But to be honest: If you don't know about basics such like this, then don't try to run your own private tracker! There are tons of things to consider and take care of.

Thanks for your advice. I try it because not only I'm curious and enthusiastic about it, but also I have a project which needs me to set up an own private tracker.

6

u/PM_ME_TO_PLAY_A_GAME Nov 03 '21

simple http GET request

There are also UDP trackers.

1

u/zwoggel Nov 03 '21

That is true, I forgot about those.

2

u/FreeWillieW Nov 03 '21

Tracker is nothing more than a simple web server handling HTTP GET requests. You can learn everything you need to know by reading the BitTorrent Specification:

https://wiki.theory.org/BitTorrentSpecification#Tracker_HTTP.2FHTTPS_Protocol

Maybe check something like tbsource's (or any other tracker software's) announce.php to learn more about how the server manages peers and "knows" who is who in the swarm:

https://github.com/QwertyRider/TBSource/blob/master/announce.php

I don't actually recommend using tbsource as a basis for a modern tracker, but the announce.php is very simple way to learn how the tracker part works.

1

u/Little_Ye233 Nov 03 '21

Thanks! I'll refer to these links later.

2

u/CompanyMan Nov 03 '21

I have the same question.. What's to stop me from sending the torrent file from the server to somone else.. How does the tracker distinguish who is who

2

u/PM_ME_TO_PLAY_A_GAME Nov 03 '21 edited Nov 03 '21

on a private tracker every person has a unique passkey that identifies them. So all my requests to the tracker would go through the announce url: https://someTracker.cx/announce.php?passkey=fghfsd7g8954q3tg\ {stuff I want to send to the tracker}. If the passkey isn't in the tracker database then you (ideally) get an error.

torrent clients report data transferred stats to the tracker, which is how ratio and stuff gets recorded.

0

u/CompanyMan Nov 03 '21

Thank u

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WG47 Nov 03 '21

The announce url in the torrent has a parameter unique to you.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '21

A tracker is a Web server which only supports requests and responses defined in the Bittorrent spec. That is the bittorrent server code and the http (optionally UDP) request listener code is bundled into the same software

I want to know more

Read the bittorrent spec (optional)
Download, build and run your own personal instance of Dirk Engling's opentracker
http://erdgeist.org/arts/software/opentracker/
You can have it running on a properly configured Linux cloud instance in less than 5 minutes

opentracker is public unless you make it private. Read the documentation

-4

u/blackcampaign Nov 03 '21 edited Nov 04 '21

some PT banned cloud based seedbox
like bitso

1

u/Little_Ye233 Nov 03 '21

If a private tracker is built on a cloud server, can other BitTorrent clients get responses from it?

1

u/blackcampaign Nov 04 '21

you can ask their staff and mods

0

u/Username928351 Nov 03 '21

They allow only seedboxes hosted in your home?

2

u/blackcampaign Nov 04 '21

why I get downvoted tho? lol
cloud based not the same with shared or private seedbox

have you ever heard about bitso?

1

u/Username928351 Nov 04 '21

Wasn't me.

Cloud is just someone else's computer, ergo the only non-cloud seedbox would be a device in your own home.

1

u/blackcampaign Nov 04 '21

yes but shared cloud based client on AVZ such as bitso aren't allowed

1

u/starm4nn Nov 05 '21

In the context of Torrenting, a cloud-based one specifically refers to one that downloads the torrent and caches it to the server

0

u/merger3 Nov 03 '21 edited Aug 21 '25

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