How to host/use a private tracker

How do I use or host a private tracker in u torrent. I need to link my friends torrents and mine. I don't exactly know how these work so I would like some detailed infomation.

Solution 1:

uTorrent has a complete guide on their website:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110315205640/http://www.utorrent.com/help/guides/make-a-torrent

Here's the section where it talks about setting up an embedded tracker:

µTorrent supports HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) trackers. UDP trackers are not supported. µTorrent also supports torrents with multiple trackers; trackers from the same server (with similar URLs) must be grouped together and those from different servers separated by a blank line.

µTorrent contains an "embedded tracker" intended for people wishing to share with a small group for a short period of time. This should not be used for sharing torrent over public or private sites, but only for private stuff and over short periods of time (along the lines of family movies shared with friends and such).

The embedded tracker URL is: http://your_ip_address:port/announce (where your ip is your computer's ip address and port is µTorrent's listening port) The embedded tracker must be enabled in: µTorrent menu

options > preferences > Advanced > bt.enable_tracker: set to "true". Warning: Using the embedded tracker requires you to have the same IP address and the same port as long as the torrent is active. This means if you use a dynamic IP and randomized port and get disconnected from the internet, your IP and port will get reset, and the torrent will die.

As you see, uTorrent contains everything you need. You don't need your own domain or your own website.

Your IP address does need to stay the same while the tracker is running. This is not normally an issue, but some home ISPs will change your IP if you are disconnected from the internet for a period.

Solution 2:

A private tracker requires you to set up your own tracker server, which requires you to have a domain and website.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_tracker#Private_trackers