bittorrent

Correction: This story misstated a quote from Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs and policy for Verizon. Tauke said that it was in the best interest for the FCC to make a decision on the Comcast/BitTorrent case. He did not say that it was in the best interest for the FCC to make a decision against Comcast.

LAS VEGAS--Executives from AT&T and Verizon Communications said Tuesday that it's important for the Federal Communications Commission to take action in the Comcast debate over slowing down certain forms of peer-to-peer traffic in order to prove that … Read more

The torrent client Azureus changed its name and added some nifty social-networking features with the release of its latest upgrade. Now called Vuze, after the name of desktop video player it launched last year, the new client bundles the two together and throws in some new features.

The two most notable things about Vuze 3.1 are the search engine and the social networking. It's rejiggered but still open source; users can spider across multiple torrent-tracking Web sites such as MiniNova while looking for content. The social-networking features let you share your favorite torrents directly with friends and create … Read more

BitTorrent, one of the more useful file-sharing mediums out there is not without its complications. Software applications have come a long way, but there are still times when you want one less application running on your machine or simply want to grab a file without having to install anything.

Torrent Relay's got the same thing on its mind, with a browser-based BitTorrent downloader. Like Bitlet, which I checked out last year, Torrent Relay lets you plug in a download URL from any tracker site or a link from a friend, and it will convert it into a link you can simply click on to begin downloading it using your browser's download manager. This means the tool works on nonsoftware-friendly platforms too, such as game consoles (Wii and PS3) and mobile devices like the iPhone.

If a torrent file has multiple files in it, the tool will split them up. You can then click on the ones you want and download them one at a time. This works especially well for music albums where you might only want to grab a track or two (note: You could also just stream the music using this tool). One thing to note however, is that any single file is capped at 400MB, meaning you're going to have to rely on a software-based tool for those giant files.

[via TorrentFreak and Lifehacker]… Read more

Comcast will start testing a new method for managing traffic on its network this week that targets heavy Internet users.

Starting Thursday, Comcast will test a new system that will throttle back or slow down traffic during times of congestion for heavy bandwidth users. The initial tests will be conducted in Chambersburg, Pa. and Warrenton, Va. Later this summer the company plans to expand testing to Colorado Springs, Colo.

Comcast, the largest cable provider in the U.S., has been under fire for months after it was discovered the company had been slowing down peer-to-peer traffic on its network. The … Read more

Updated 3:20 p.m. PDT with comment from MediaDefender and to clarify that individual movie and recording studios, and not RIAA and MPAA, are clients of MediaDefender, and that Dmitri Villard is CEO of MediaDefender parent ArtistDirect and not MediaDefender.

Revision3 has investigated the denial of service attack that kept it offline over the Memorial Day weekend and has concluded that antipiracy group MediaDefender is to blame.

In a blog post on Thursday morning, Revision3 Chief Executive Jim Louderback writes that much of the traffic that bombarded the Web TV network was traced back to MediaDefender. The group has … Read more

Hard to pronounce but easy to use, ?Torrent is a renowned torrent client. Factor in its robust feature set and that it can run on an old USB key, and you've got yourself a must-have program. And now, with Morrent, ?Torrent can be monitored from within Facebook.

Still not convinced? Watch this First Look video to learn more.

So much for Scrabulous being an end-all diversion on Facebook. Try Morrent instead, a simple tie-in to the popular BitTorrent software uTorrent that runs right in Facebook (read: sans software) and lets you monitor your torrent downloads and uploads from wherever.

Aimed mainly at folks who want to check up on their downloads at work or away from their primary machines, Morrent is more than just a convenient status window--it doubles as a remote control. You can pause and re-prioritize downloads. You can also start downloading new torrents by uploading them back to your home machine.

While the same results … Read more

Comcast is befriending another peer-to-peer software company in the hopes of finding a way to harness the power of P2P without choking its network.

On Monday, Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., said it was entering a strategic relationship with the start-up GridNetworks, a company that makes software to manage peer-to-peer video traffic.

Comcast also said it has invested in the company's $9.5 million first round of funding, which was led by Panorama Capital. Cisco Systems also invested in this round of funding. Specific financial details of the funding have not been disclosed.

Comcast has … Read more