server side unrar is stupid.

Heres why.

first of all, downloading with FTP is faster with many rar files because we offer multiple connections per account so you can download more than one piece at a time.

second, rar is a compressed format.

It's absolutely ignorant for a user to want to make a file BIGGER, WAIT for that file to BECOME bigger and then spend MORE time downloading it.

ALSO remember, unrar takes up CPU cycles, so when you add that into the mix it's an absolutely retarded thing to turn on. The only reason to support unrar is if you have the machine locally and you are using it as your media server (ie you run torrentflux at home)

The people who really understand torrents understand that rar is a better format. You can unrar files on your local machine.

Also keep in mind if your download stops for some reason it's MUCH easier to resume downloading because you don't have to redownload the same pieces.

Look, i understand many people have many different reasons for asking for rar but at the end of the day it's all based on a false assumption.

I wasn't trying to offend you, i was just explaining that rar is a bad idea. When you have more than a few people on the same server the load adds up quick

at the end of the day finding a better ftp client would be the best solution, not offering rar. Many people don't understand that they can get better speed if they use different download manager.

I wasn't saying YOU were stupid
i was saying that if we used rar that would be stupid.

wanting rar isn't stupid, ESPECIALLY if you don't know that there are BETTER ways to download stuff. My point is this. Having unrar server side causes a massive amount of load. If you unrar 3-4 things at one time the load shoots up by 200-400% that is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE when all unraring does is make a file LARGER which takes up MORE space and ends up taking LONGER to download. I'm sorry if you felt like i was calling YOU stupid. Honestly though, if you tried to use something other than Xunlei you'd see we can BOTH get what we want.

again, i'm sorry if i offended you, obviously i am not the person who deals with the customers =) i'm the Tech guy.

also, understand, ignorant doesn't mean the same thing as stupid. ignorant means lacking knowledge or training. It's not the insult people think it is. Like...i'd be ignorant of how to play the piano.



This post has been edited by wonslung: May 21 2009, 05:26 PM

I wish it was that simple....but hey, that's the difference...when you use utorrent at home its not going to be any faster but with a bunch of small rar files over ftp you can get greater speed than just a single large file over ftp.

So. let's say you have a 700 mb file broken into 10 70 mb pieces, with FTP

let's also say you you get 20 kb/s max with a single ftp download but now you have 5 total ftp slots in the basic package (9 with the delux)

so instead of getting 20kb/s now you're downloading the same file at 140kb/s



THAT is the point i was trying to make....well, one of them...it's a VERY real situation.

Thanks for the kind words of support,

I've tried to make the ftp as fast as possible for people on slow internet connections. Running on a BSD system helps because it has a superior network stack compared to Linux or (gag) Windows but the road to making chinese characters work properly has been bumpy. I am happy to say that our system now FULLY supports unicode characters, so if anyone has a problem in that regard be sure to check out our forums.

There is still a few things i can do to tweak the system some so you can expect it to get even better. We're already the fastest, and soon we're going to be faster.

no matter how you cut it downloading the rar files is faster unless you're doing it wrong.


People get used to things and once they are used to them they resist changing no matter how much better the alternative.

This is why there are so many people STILL using Microsoft Windows instead of FreeBSD or Linux. People are creatures of habit and they do what is familar to them.


They would rather download a single rar file because they thing it's faster/better but if you look at it logically it fails every single time.

PERFECT example

I got a movie today that was 8 GB, but when it was in 85 rar files, it was only 6GB

so if you are downloading at 200 kb/s that's going to take you 11 hours after you unrar it, that's not counting the TIME it takes to unrar a 8gb file, which is about 10 minutes or so, which will cause about 1-2 server load for a SINGLE unrar of that size

now, downloading the SAME file in rar pieces is going to be 8ish hours and that's not counting any speed bump you get from downloading multiple parts at onces, which is a very real increase, normally on the level of 10-25% speed



Do the math.

Rar files = better for EVERYONE on the server because it keeps load down it makes you download the file FASTER

another very REAL issue is data corruption
it DOES happen, however rare.

if you have an entire torrent in 1 single file and you get some corrupted data, you're SOL

with multi rar files you can use sfv to check and find out which pieces are bad, delete them and download only those parts

i've had it happen a few times where rar saved me from corrupt data. This is why the GOOD private trackers only allow rar format with an nfo file and an SFV file.


and on that note, i've said everything that's important on this subject, due to the load it causes and the utter waste of time/resources i will NEVER turn on server side unrar. I can't help but feel that it's a selfish wasted option once people have the facts. If it's something you can't live without i suggest you get your own server or go to one of the competitors who have MUCH slower speed and higher load (we're rocking 0.2-0.5 load at all times right now)

Unrar and http downloads is why you see flux servers with 700 connections and 5-10 load ALL the time. That's why we use FTP and don't support rar, it's about providing the BEST service possible.

Extra features aren't always in everyone's best interest.

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Added on May 24, 2009, 6:23 pmanother thing i wanted to say, about your issue.

You should look into a good traffic shaping router.

If you have an old pentium 3 or pentium 4 class pc collecting dust somewhere you should look into pfsense.

It will allow you to really get a FAIR share of your line.

I use it to traffic shape my network and i guarantee it's much bigger and heavier loaded than yours, even WITH my high speed connection.

Most people use cheap routers with 200 mhz processors and 32 mb of ram or LESS (like the linksys wrt-54gs, a super popular router)

They are fine for a small network running mostly web aps but when you get into filesharing you need a stateful firewall/router that has more muscle


you'd be AMAZED what you can do with a throw away pc that you can get for next to nothing, even if you never subscribe to our service you should look into it.

even doing simple ACK priority traffic shaping can help, but pfsense allows much much more, even multiwan configurations (2 isp's that share the load)

http://www.pfsense.com/



This post has been edited by wonslung: May 24 2009, 06:23 PM

About the queue manager....that's an annoying bug...i've been working on some fixes for it but i have it working more or less how i like it...
Added new feature today to show how much space is left PER user so you dont' go over, tell me what you think




Some people will say "but that's always been there?!?!

but really, it hasn't. The old version shows the total space left on the server, this shows the total space left on your drive (remember, we give everyone a 1gb grace so don't go over!)
This will be very helpful for people so they don't lock themselves out of the system.

yes, you can have a total of 9 ftp transfers at once (which is why you should PREFER rar files)
dude, yer avitar cracks me up


You should REALLY look into using pfsense

you can do some highly advanced shaping and it's a much better router than anything tomato runs on

open-wrt is a nice system but at the end of the day it's 200 mhz cpu with 32 mb of ram...not going to come close to a 1gb p3 with 256mb or even a 2-3ghz p4 with 1+gb

and they are cheap to pick up
just need 2 nic's (intel nics are best, dual port gigabit aren't hard to find) a network switch and a wifi card if you want wireless
or a 3rd nic if you wanna use yer old router for a wifi access point.

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Added on May 29, 2009, 5:25 pmi got MAD SKITTILZ
don't be hating on the smilez yo


don't make me kill you and plead i did it 4 da lulz


4 da lulz is a valid defense on the internetz


This post has been edited by wonslung: May 29 2009, 05:25 PM

That's incorrect.
The page refresh is the entire page BUT there are ajax refreshes for stats every 10 seconds.

I could turn it up but it's really a waste considering 90% of the time you will be offline and whne you are you will just want to check it real quick...turning ajax refresh up to like 1 second or 2 seconds adds an amazing amount of load for what little benefit it brings and on our server, my number 1 priority is low load and stability.

I felt like 10 seconds was a decent amount of time to have refreshes...it's not TOO long, not too short..

You can see the ajax count down right in the middle above upload speed


This post has been edited by wonslung: May 29 2009, 05:45 PM