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WhatAUTO - A word of warning for noobies on What.CD

As use of WhatAUTO increases, I feel the need to put out a warning about some issues I believe are starting to occur.

As with anything in life, when a new idea comes to be, those who take advantage early stand to benefit the most from it. There was a time, when whatauto had a dozen or less users, where you could simply download every new FLAC/V0/V2/320 torrent on a 100mbit shared box and expect a net buffer gain. This is no longer the case.

Why won't this work any more?

A. More WhatBotters - In the past, when a new torrent was uploaded, only a few whatbotters would jump on the torrent immediately. Since our system was by nature, faster than RSS, we would already be on the torrent well before RSS feeds and regular users would catch up, allowing us to seed to them and nearly guaranteeing a good ratio. As more RSSers and regular users move to WHATauto, there are less users hopping on late for whatbotters to seed to.

B. Gbit Boxes. Bittorrent, by nature, prefers faster connections to slower ones. As gbit pipes have become cheaper and more accessible, this has put users of 100mbit connections at a disadvantage. As I said earlier, those who take advantage of new technologies first, stand to benefit the most.

C. Shared IP Seedbox Providers. This is the single biggest issue. The major seedbox providers sell "slices" of a server to individual users. All of the slices on a single server share the same fixed IP. Why is this a problem? Bittorrent doesn't differentiate between users on shared IPs. When a new leecher hops on a torrent, they will not make simultaneous connections to the same IP. Example situation: There are 4 whatbots on the same server which are seeding the same torrent. I come along with a fast connection and leech that torrent. My client requests a list of peers from the tracker. It will make ONE connection to that IP address. So whichever user of the 4 gets my connection first, is the only user who is able to upload to me. Whereas if all 4 users had their own IP address, I would download equal amounts from all 4. The only away around this is having your own dedicated box with <=4 users each bound to a different IP address.

So what does this mean?

A. No plug-and-play buffer building. Sorry that's just how it is going forward.

B. If you want to use WhatAUTO to build buffer, you need to do some work/research. Your goal should be to download a lot torrents that will get a lot of non-bot peers while reducing the number you download that will only get whatbot peers. There is no easy plug and play solution to this. With the latest version of whatAUTO we have the ability to set multiple filters. If you want to benefit from whatAUTO on a shared box, it is your best interest to put a lot of time into your filters. Do research on big upcoming releases. Set up specific filters for albums/artists that will get a lot of snatches. Avoid downloading formats that won't get many snatches.

C. If you insist on an basic filter set, plan on seeding a LONG time. Most whatbots are off of torrents within 24-72 hours. If you are not on a dedicated IP, you will most likely need to seed a lot longer than this to reap the benefits.

Final Note

This may seem like I'm crushing your dreams a bit, and I guess in a way I am. However, you have to understand there has never been an easy get buffer quick scheme. Most of us who have been doing this a while put in a ton of work and research to get what we got. You can complain all you want about this situation, it isn't going to change. If you choose to ignore this warning, do not expect any sympathy from the rest of us. Your account is your account and your buffer/ratio is your responsibility.

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