Opera’s BitTorrent “client” - Review

Opera’s BitTorrent “client”

Opera does not provide or create torrent files (except its own Web browser), but provides support for the BitTorrent protocol for downloading files, in the same way that Opera supports FTP and HTTP. So this cant be actually be called as a client full featured torrent like Azureus , BitComet or BitTornado.

This is an inovative feature and I like it, even though I dont like opera as an browser.

First of all I got this working on Opera 8.10 preview 2.

How it works in Opera:

There are a few minor differences from normal downloading but they are so seamless that it wouldn’t ever bother you. This is what happens when you click a torrent file from any website…

1. Once the torrent has been downloaded after you click on it (or File->Open it), Opera will warn you that you may be uploading the data to other users while you download - you can tell Opera to never warn you again so you’ll likely only see this step one time.

2. Opera switches to the “Transfers” tab (or puts the transfers tab in the background, depending on how you have Opera configured) and shows a single progress bar for all of the files included in the torrent.

3. It shows inside of the progress bar “Checking File: [0-100]%” and when that reaches 100% it begins downloading the file like it were any other file.

4. Now we can see the time in which the file can get over.. this was very good in the torrent client that I used (BitTornado), it actually calculates the gross or assumed time in which the file amy get over. Now this calculates as and when the transfer speed varies.This is shown in more than one place (highlighted in blue).

After the download is complete we get a small info box indicating that the download is over (the same one when we download any other normal file)

Opera shows the properties dialog box, where we can change the options in associating any torrent file.

The torrent file is also indicated:

Speeds:

Speed at which our torrent Client downloads the file is a important factor of most of us. We all choose the clients based on this , even though the speeds are dependent on a hell lot of factors.

The speed at which we download is also shown. Left hand side is the download speed and the right hand side is the upload speed.

It took almost 7-9 minutes to attain my full BW ( I have a 256kbps line and the Upload is limited to a max of 7-8kBps only). This is ok, as in any client it will take some time (depending on the health of the torrent) to attain the full BW.

All in all the speed factor need not be worried as opera takes care of this very well and downloaded the file as my torrent client would do.

Advantages over other clients:

• Just adds very little to the CPU usage (about 500kb or so only). We can compare to other clients which use high CPU usage and take about 40mb RAM ( I have only 128mb RAM only).



Azureus (which uses JAVA) takes a high amount of RAM and is resource hungry. This one is a boon of users who have a old and slow PC.

• It is very light-weight, simple, and straight forward.
• Definetely easy to use than any other client. In fact, it’s possible that after you disable the warning dialog that you won’t even know you’re downloading from torrent files anymore!!
• Opera with BitTorrent makes downloading easier; we can browse and download torrent files in the same application (no need for a separate client/application) and thereby resulting in less CPU usage.
• We can download more than one torrent file at a time. This feature is absent in some clients like BitTornado.



• It seems you can change the port number through the opera6.ini file. But I dint try this thing.

Disadvantages/Limitations:

• Definetely has less features than other torrent clients. Like banning any IP, limiting the BW, etc. Just see the options/Property menu of the regular clients and this one…
• The most important feature, Limiting the BW (Upload mostly) is absent, leechers will find it difficult.
• Dont shows the logs of stats of the torrent like the sparm speed, total seeders and leechers, etc.
• One more limitation is that; till now I have not figured as to how to open a .torrent file and associate with opera and make it work/resume again.
• It dont identify itself as Opera’s “client” when we see in other’s client. I just check the same. This is like Opera identifing as IE, when we visit any webpages. But this is not a limitation, but still a minor “bug” which they can fix in the next version.

Screenshot:

Final word:

Opera’s BitTorrent client is very good on the whole and efficient as well. It does what it need to do with any hassles or effort.

First time torrent users will find this very easy as it’s similar as downlaod any other file off the web. However there are some important feature that we might miss and also shows errors with certain trackers. Also there is some issues with Trackers which is private and want user’s IP to be registered and verified before going ahead to download.

Other than that, it’s light and uses less CPU and RAM which is ideal for people who have a old and a slow PC. Also it’s nil-hassles , not need for any patch or any extra plugin to get going. In a way it’s good as first time users will find easier and wont have a “Complex” interface like Azureus/BitComet.

Well the bottomline is that we cant compare this with other torrent clients but in case you just want to complete the download without any hitches ,then this is the browser to use.

I would rate 7.5 out of 10

Go ahead download this program (in case you dont use Opera) and check this out.

Download:
Opera 9 Preview 2

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• Confesssions of a P2P torrents user
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