Frequently Asked Questions
From BitGAMER
Welcome to bitGAMER!
This is a private tracker, and you have to register before you can get full access to the site.
Before you do anything here, be sure to read the rules, as well as the http://www.bitgamer.com user agreement. If you have any problems with this site please contact us.
Site information
What is bitGAMER?
bitGAMER is a torrent site dedicated to modern gaming and related media. We're purely focused on games that were produced for the 6th Generation of consoles onwards. Here you will find high quality, well-tested material. Although people are most likely to come here to find backups of games they legally own, we are also interested in game related PDF guides, media or paraphernalia. You can also use the forums to discuss games, trade tactics or organize on-line competitions using Kai or a similar service.
What is this "BitTorrent" all about anyway? How do I get the files?
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol. This means you'll need to download a special client to make use of the .torrent files on the site. For more information, check out Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide.
Where does the donated money go?
bitGAMER is situated on a dedicated server at a cost of $265/month. All funds donated through PayPal go directly toward this hosting cost, as well as potential upgrades to our server system.
Where can I get a copy of the source code?
This site is a running off a modified version of the torrentbits.org code. Check out TB DEV for more information. bitGAMER does not provide any kind of support on any source code.
User information
I'm having trouble with my account!
- If you registered for an account, but something went wrong during the confirmation process, you can use the Delete Account form to delete the account so you can re-register. However, you may want to consider using an alternative e-mail address for the registration process.
- If you cannot log in to the site, try clearing your browser's cache (including all cookies).
- If your account seems to no longer exist, it may have been auto-pruned by the system. You might try to register for a new account using the same e-mail address.
- Note: Do not attempt to recreate an account which was purposefully disabled or deleted by a moderator. If you've lost your user name or password, please use the Account Recovery form to have the login details e-mailed back to you.
- If you want your account renamed -- you're out of luck. We do not rename accounts. You are welcome to create a new account if you want a new account name badly enough (You should first use the Delete Account form to delete your present account, as multiple accounts with the same e-mail address are not permitted).
- If you wish to permanently remove your account for whatever reason, you can do so using the Delete Account form. Please be aware that deleted accounts (and all of their associated statistics) are irretrievably lost.
Why am I listed as not connectable? (And why should I care?)
Being 'connectable' is not strictly required, but it will help you connect to more peers, and is highly recommended. For more information, consult the Connectivity Guide.
What are the User Classes?
| Class | Description |
|---|---|
| Leecher | Probationary class. Users who have downloaded more than 5GB, and maintained a ratio below .30 will automatically be demoted to 'Leecher' status without warning. At this point your current download amount will be logged. If you download an additional 10GB whilst still a Leecher then your account will automatically be deleted! To be promoted to 'User' again you will need to raise your ratio above 0.3. If you fail to do this within 28 days of being demoted to Leecher then your account will automatically be deleted! |
| User | The default class of new members. This class is by default able to leech three torrents, but if the user has downloaded 10GB this will be increased to five torrents. |
| Power User | Power Users are able to leech 25 torrents at a time, have access to special forums, and extended data mining capabilities. Power Users can store a maximum of 2 invites. To become a Power User you must must have been a member for at least 4 weeks, uploaded at least 50GB, and have a ratio at or above 1.05. The promotion is automatic when these conditions are met. However, keep in mind that you will be automatically demoted from this status if your ratio drops below 0.95 at any time. Note that a ratio of "Inf." does not count towards class promotion. |
| Elite User | Elite Users have all of the privileges of Power User, the ability to leech 50 torrents at a time, and a customised title. Elite Users can store up to 4 invites. To become an Elite User, you must have been be a member for at least 16 weeks, upload at least 250GB and have a ratio at or above 1.25. Additionally, you are required to have made 10 forum posts and 10 torrent comments. Posts in the Spam section of the forum do not count towards the 10 post requirement. The promotion is automatic when these conditions are met. However, keep in mind that you will be automatically demoted from this status if your ratio drops below 1.0 at any time. Note that a ratio of "Inf." does not count towards class promotion. |
| VIP | Members who contribute something special to the site. VIP status is assigned by mods at their discretion. Anyone begging for VIP status will be automatically disqualified. VIP status is also assigned to all users who donate $20 or more to bitGAMER. VIPs are able to leech 100 torrents at a time and are immune to automatic demotion. VIPs can store up to 10 invites. |
| Elite VIP | Elite VIPs are VIPs that have also met the requirements for the Elite User class. Once a VIP has met the requirements for Elite User, the promotion to Elite VIP will occur automatically. Elite VIPs are able to leech 100 torrents at a time and are immune to automatic demotion. Elite VIPs can store up to 15 invites. The Elite VIP class is still new and as such, there may be more benefits introduced in the future. |
| Honored Member | Honored Members could be considered the crème de la crème. Honored Member status is assigned by mods at their discretion; anyone begging for it will be automatically disqualified. Honored Members get all of the perks of Elite VIP, access to an additional special forum, and unlimited invites. As with the Elite VIP class, this class is still new and there may be more benefits introduced in the future. |
| Staff Class | Description |
|---|---|
| Forum Moderator | Can edit, move and lock any forum topic. Can edit and delete individual posts. Can edit and delete any uploaded torrents. Can also moderate user comments. |
| Torrent Moderator | Watches over the high quality of the torrents, checking if the uploads are safe, contain proper descriptions, and that files contained within are in proper formats. |
| Global Moderator | All rights of Forum and Torrent Moderators. Can also warn users and disable user accounts. |
| Administrator | Can do just about anything. |
| Icon | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donated | Given automatically to those that donate. If you don't receive it within 5 minutes of making your donation, send KrazyA1pha - and only KrazyA1pha - the details. A star to let other users know you've contributed to the upkeep costs of bitGAMER. |
| Warning | Automatically given when a user ratio drops below 0.3, or by the Moderators at their discretion to users that bend or break the Rules. |
| Folding@home: 10,000 Points | For more information, please consult the Folding FAQ. |
| Folding@home: 50,000 Points | |
| Folding@home: 100,000 Points | |
| Folding@home 500,000 Points | |
| Folding@home 1,000,000 Points!! |
How does the invite system work?
BG is a closed, invite-only torrent community. You can use your Invites to allow friends to sign up!
Every 15 days one invite is given to all Power Users and above. The maximum amount of invites you can have at a given time depends on your user class: 2 invites for Power Users, 4 invites for Elite Users, & 10 invites for VIPs. Elite VIPs earn 2 invites every 15 days and can store up to 15 invites. Honored Members have unlimited invites.
If an invite is not confirmed within 3 days it is automatically deleted. You also have the option to delete invites by going to your "User details" page and selecting "Given" under "Invites." A table will be generated that displays all the invites you have given. Select "Delete" to delete an unconfirmed invite. All deleted invites will be replaced with an additional invite so do not worry about deleting them.
You can view how many given/available invites by going to your "User details" page and looking at the number next to "Given"/"Available." To invite someone select "Available", enter an email/message on the following page, and press "Invite!" A confirmation email will be sent to the email address you have entered and the person will be given 3 days to confirm it.
How do I add an avatar to my profile?
- Find an acceptable image. For more information, refer to the rules
- Upload the image into our BitBucket.
- Copy the URL you were given when uploading it, paste it into the avatar field in your profile, and click the submit button at the bottom.
You can check to see how it looks on the sidebar, or your details page.
When are accounts auto-pruned from the site?
- Unparked accounts are pruned when 90 days have elapsed since the last recorded activity.
- Parked accounts are pruned when 365 days have elapsed since the last recorded activity. Also note that we regularly clean out accounts with very low share ratios.
- Leecher accounts are deleted 28 days after demotion to Leecher, assuming the member was not promoted back to User during that time.
What's a "passkey"?
A passkey is a 32-character string associated with your account that uniquely identifies you as a BG user. When a .torrent file is downloaded from your account, the passkey is automatically added to the announce URL in the .torrent file. It is this passkey which helps the tracker maintain all of your torrent-related statistics. IMPORTANT: Make sure you keep your passkey private at all times. The passkey uniquely identifies you, therefore if someone discovered it they would be able to leech from your account. Your passkey may be shown in your bittorrent client, so be careful when posting screen shots or error messages.
How can I reset my passkey?
Should you suspect that your key has been compromised, use the Help Desk to request a reset.
Note: A passkey reset will invalidate all the .torrent files you have previously downloaded, and you'll need to download them again. For this reason, we suggest bookmarking the torrents you download (or using an alternate method of keeping track of your downloads).
Torrent and Statistical Information
Why do I have two numbers for my post count?
Posting in the forums is one of the many things measured to give a good idea of your overall contribution; but not every post counts. The first number listed in your post count is the number of "main forum" posts. Any post which winds up in the section called "The Attic" -- that's the Spam and Trash Can forums -- does not count toward your overall post count.
So, what's MY ratio?
Your ratio is viewable in several places, but the easiest place to look is right at the top of any page while you are logged in!
It's important to distinguish between your overall ratio and the individual ratio on each torrent you may be seeding or leeching. The overall ratio takes into account the total uploaded and downloaded from your account since you joined the site. The individual ratio takes into account those values for each torrent.
You may see two symbols instead of a number: "Inf.", which is just an abbreviation for Infinity, and means that you have downloaded 0 bytes while uploading a non-zero amount (ul/dl becomes infinity); "---", which should be read as "non-available", and shows up when you have both downloaded and uploaded 0 bytes (ul/dl = 0/0 which is an indeterminate amount).
What bittorrent clients can I use?
While bitGAMER recommends uTorrent 1.6 or newer and Azureus 2.5.0.4, you may use any client which is not on our banned client list, reproduced below:
- Azureus versions prior to 2.2
- µTorrent versions prior to 1.5
- BitComet
- BitLord
- BitRoll
- BitThief
- BitTorrent Plus
- BitTyrant
- BitSpirit
- Bits On Wheels
- eDonkey/eMule
- FoxTorrent
- G3
- kTorrent versions prior to 2.1
- Rufus
- Shareaza
- Shadow
- Transmission versions prior to 0.81
- UPnP
- XBT
- XTorrent
Also, clients in alpha, beta, or other experimental versions should be avoided.
Why are there extra torrents listed in my profile?!
There are several situations in which this occurs naturally:
- A single torrent is listed several times: If for some reason (e.g. pc crash, or frozen client) your client exits improperly and you restart it, it will have a new peer_id, so it will show as a new torrent. The old one will never receive a "event=completed" or "event=stopped" and will be listed until some tracker timeout. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.
- A finished or canceled torrent is still listed: Some clients, notably TorrentStorm and Nova Torrent, do not report properly to the tracker when canceling or finishing a torrent. In that case the tracker will keep waiting for some message - and thus listing the torrent as seeding or leeching - until some timeout occurs. Just ignore it, it will eventually go away.
- Your external IP address is shared (NAT/ICS): When a torrent is first downloaded, the tracker uses the IP to identify the user. Therefore the torrent will become associated with the user who last accessed the site from that IP. If you share your IP in some way (you are behind NAT/ICS, or using a proxy), and some of the persons you share it with are also users, you may occasionally see their torrents listed in your profile. (If they start a torrent session from that IP and you were the last one to visit the site the torrent will be associated with you). Note that now torrents listed in your profile will always count towards your total stats.
To make sure your torrents show up in your profile you should visit the site immediately before starting a session.
Can I login from different computers? (Multiple IPs)
You may torrent data from up to three locations. The tracker is capable of following sessions from different IPs for the same user. A torrent is associated with the user when it starts, and only at that moment is the IP relevant. So if you want to seed/leech from computer A and computer B with the same account you should access the site from computer A, start the torrent there, and then repeat both steps from computer B (not limited to two computers or to a single torrent on each, this is just the simplest example). You do not need to login again when closing the torrent. Multiple users can also be connectable from the same address, provided they have configured their BitTorrent clients to use different ports.
When are torrents auto-pruned from the site?
Torrents become 'dead' (not normally visible on the browse page) if they have not had a seeder for six consecutive hours. Technically, the torrents are still part of the site; they are simply not listed in the default torrent search (from clicking the Download link). To see "dead" torrents, you must change the search scope on the Download page to include dead torrents. When a torrent is dead, users can still requests a reseed using the appropriate link on the torrent's details page.
Torrents are permanently deleted if they have not had a seeder for 14 consecutive days.
What's this Golden Torrent business about?
Golden Torrent status is given to torrents that epitomize everything we would like to see in a torrent — well packed and organized files with a high quality description. They serve as beacons of quality, setting an example of how things should be done. With a Golden Torrent, the tracker only counts 50% of what you download and gives you a 50% bonus to what you upload.
Uploading
What kinds of things should I upload?
Consult with the rules to get a definitive list of what is permitted to be uploaded. However, here are a few additional criteria to consider when preparing to upload a torrent:
- Is this a well-tested, high-quality set of data?
- Did I find the data I am about to torrent enjoyable/useful?
- Am I uploading for some reason other than boosting my own statistics?
If the answer to any of the above questions is "no," then you might want to reconsider the value of both your time and the potential leechers.
How do I upload a torrent?
Before continuing, please read the rules to ensure that your upload is appropriate for this site. Uploading torrents is a three-part process: first, you must prepare the files you wish to seed. Next, you must use your BitTorrent Client to create a .torrent file. Finally, you must upload that .torrent file to the tracker and begin seeding.
For a more information check out this guide.
If you're still having trouble, review the posts in the General Help forum, and consider posting if you can't find the answer.
Can I upload your torrents to other trackers?
No. We are a closed, limited-membership community. Only registered users can use the bG tracker, and there are measures in place to prevent the .torrent file from being used by outsiders. However, the files you download from us are yours to do with as you please. You can always create another torrent, pointing to some other tracker, and upload it to the site of your choice.
Downloading
How do I download the files from this site?
If you are new to the bittorrent, welcome! The first thing that you will need is an appropriate BitTorrent client. While there are several good and bad ones available today, BG recommends the latest version of either Azureus or µTorrent. You should download and configure an appropriate client right away. Consult the remainder of this section of the FAQ for more configuration tips and tricks.
How do I use the files I've downloaded?
Check out this File Guide.
Why did a torrent suddenly disappear?
There may be three reasons for this:
- The torrent may have been out-of-sync with the site rules.
- The uploader may have deleted it because it was a bad release. A replacement will probably be uploaded to take its place.
- Torrents are automatically deleted after 3 days of inactivity.
If you'd like to know what happened, you can check the Site Log.
How do I resume a broken download or reseed something?
Simply re-download/re-open the .torrent file. When your client asks you for a location, choose the location of the existing file(s) and it will resume/reseed the torrent.
Why do my downloads sometimes stall at 99%?
The more pieces you have, the harder it becomes to find peers who have pieces you are missing. That is why downloads sometimes slow down or even stall when there are just a few percent remaining. Just be patient and you will, sooner or later, get the remaining pieces.
If, on the other hand, the file permanently (longer than a day) stalls at 99%, it may be an indicator that the download has been corrupted. It may be necessary to restart the download from scratch.
What are these "a piece has failed an hash check" messages?
Bittorrent clients check the data they receive for integrity. When a piece fails this check it is automatically re-downloaded. Occasional hash fails are a common occurrence, and you shouldn't worry.
Some clients have an (advanced) option/preference to 'kick/ban clients that send you bad data' or similar. In general, this option should be turned on, since it makes sure that if a peer repeatedly sends you pieces that fail the hash check it will be ignored in the future.
The torrent is supposed to be 100MB. How come I downloaded 120MB?
See the hash fails topic above. If your client receives bad data it will have to redownload it, therefore the total downloaded may be larger than the torrent size. Also, heavy-traffic torrents sometimes result in two seeders "simultaneously" supplying you with the same file pieces. Although rare, this too contributes to the overall "over-download" of a file.
Why do I get a "Not authorized (xx h) - READ THE FAQ!" error? (off until further notice)
From the time that each new torrent is uploaded to the tracker, there is a period of time that some users must wait before they can download it. This delay in downloading will only affect users with a low ratio, and users with low upload amounts.
- Ratio below 0.50 and/or upload below 5.0GB : delay of 48h
- Ratio below 0.65 and/or upload below 6.5GB : delay of 24h
- Ratio below 0.80 and/or upload below 8.0GB : delay of 12h
- Ratio below 0.95 and/or upload below 9.5GB : delay of 06h
"And/or" means any or both. Your delay will be the largest one for which you meet at least one condition.
Note also that this works at tracker level, you will be able to grab the .torrent file itself at any time.
N.B. Due to some users exploiting the 'no-delay-for-seeders' policy we had to change it. The delay now applies to both seeding and leeching. So if you are subject to a delay and get the files from some other source you will not be able to seed them until the delay has elapsed.
Why do I get a "rejected by tracker - Port xxxx is blacklisted" error?
Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default bittorrent ports (6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.
bitGAMER does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols. The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports (that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).
The blocked ports list includes, but is not neccessarily limited to, the following:
| Direct Connect | 411 - 413 |
|---|---|
| Kazaa | 1214 |
| eDonkey | 4662 |
| Gnutella | 6346 - 6347 |
| Napster | 6699 |
| BitTorrent | 6881 - 6889 |
In order to use use our tracker you must configure your client to use any port range that does not contain those ports (a range within the region 49152 through 65535 is preferable, cf. IANA). Notice that some clients, like Azureus 2.0.7.0 or higher, use a single port for all torrents, while most others use one port per open torrent. The size of the range you choose should take this into account (typically less than 10 ports wide. There is no benefit whatsoever in choosing a wide range, and there are possible security implications).
These ports are used for connections between peers, not client to tracker. Therefore this change will not interfere with your ability to use other trackers (in fact it should increase your speed with torrents from any tracker, not just ours). Your client will also still be able to connect to peers that are using the standard ports. If your client does not allow custom ports to be used, you will have to switch to one that does.
Do not ask us, or in the forums, which ports you should choose. The more random the choice is the harder it will be for ISPs to catch on to us and start limiting speeds on the ports we use. If we simply define another range ISPs will start throttling that range also.
Finally, remember to forward the chosen ports in your router and/or open them in your firewall (if either your firewall or your BitTorrent client do not support uPnP), should you have them. See the Why am I listed as not connectable? section and links therein for more information.
What's this "IOError - [Errno13] Permission denied" error?
Reboot your computer, it should solve the problem.
Explaination: IOError means Input-Output Error, and that is a file system error, not a tracker one. It shows up when your client is for some reason unable to open the partially downloaded torrent files. The most common cause is two instances of the client to be running simultaneously: the last time the client was closed it somehow didn't really close but kept running in the background, and is therefore still locking the files, making it impossible for the new instance to open them.
A more uncommon occurrence is a corrupted FAT. A crash may result in corruption that makes the partially downloaded files unreadable, and the error ensues. Running scandisk should solve the problem. (Note that this may happen only if you're running Windows 9x - which only support FAT - or NT/2000/XP with FAT formatted hard drives. NTFS is much more robust and should never permit this problem.)
Torrent Speed Information
Why do I upload so much slower than I download?
Internet connectivity comes in various mediums, speeds, and duplexes. But the majority of internet users have a download:upload bandwidth ratio of 10:1. Effectively, this means that you will always be able to download up to ten times faster than you can upload. Users new to the torrent community can sometimes be caught off guard by this simple fact, and their ratios can be permanently (sometimes terminally) crippled.
Don't be one of those users: catch the problem before it starts, and have the self-discipline to limit your overall number of downloads or your download bandwidth in order to keep your ratio reasonable.
How do I download torrents faster?
Be aware that downloading from a closed torrent community may be slower than downloading from an open community or a public download site. The download speed mostly depends on the seeder-to-leecher ratio (SLR). Poor download speed is mainly a problem with new and very popular torrents where the SLR is low. (Proselytising sidenote: make sure you remember that you did not enjoy the low speed. As you continue to participate in the community, seed so that others will not endure the same.)
There are a couple of things that you can try on your end to improve your speed:
- Do not immediately jump on new torrents: the best speeds will be found around the half-life of a torrent, when the SLR will be at its highest. (The downside is that you will not be able to seed so much. It's up to you to balance the pros and cons of this.)
- Make yourself connectable: see the Why am I listed as not connectable? section for more details.
- Limit your upload speed: as listed above, a good rule of thumb is keeping your upload speed at about 80-90% of its theoretical maximum. The upload speed affects the download speed in essentially two ways:
- Bittorrent peers tend to favour those other peers that upload to them. This means that if A and B are leeching the same torrent and A is sending data to B at high speed then B will try to reciprocate. So due to this effect high upload speeds lead to high download speeds.
- Due to the way TCP works, when A is downloading something from B it has to keep telling B that it received the data sent to him. (These are called acknowledgments - ACKs -, a sort of "got it!" messages). If A fails to do this then B will stop sending data and wait. If A is uploading at full speed there may be no bandwidth left for the ACKs and they will be delayed. So due to this effect excessively high upload speeds lead to low download speeds.
- The full effect is a combination of the two. The upload should be kept as high as possible while allowing the ACKs to get through without delay. You will have to fine tune yours to find out what works best for you. (Remember that keeping the upload high has the additional benefit of helping with your ratio.)
- If you are running more than one instance of a client it is the overall upload speed that you must take into account. Some clients (e.g. Azureus) limit global upload speed, others (e.g. Shad0w's) do it on a per torrent basis. Know your client. The same applies if you are using your connection for anything else (e.g. browsing or ftp), always think of the overall upload speed.
- Limit the number of simultaneous connections: some operating systems (like Windows 9x) do not deal well with a large number of connections, and may even crash. Also some home routers (particularly when running NAT and/or firewall with stateful inspection services) tend to become slow or crash when having to deal with too many connections. There are no fixed values for this, you may try 60 or 100 and experiment with the value. Note that these numbers are additive, if you have two instances of a client running the numbers add up.
- Limit the number of simultaneous uploads: isn't this the same as above? No. Connections limit the number of peers your client is talking to and/or downloading from. Uploads limit the number of peers your client is actually uploading to. The ideal number is typically much lower than the number of connections, and highly dependent on your (physical) connection.
- Just give it some time: as explained above, peers favour other peers that upload to them. When you start leeching a new torrent you have nothing to offer to other peers and they will tend to ignore you. This makes the starts slow, in particular if, by change, the peers you are connected to include few or no seeders. The download speed should increase as soon as you have some pieces to share.
What if I can't find the answer to my problem here?
Post in the Forums, by all means. You'll find they are usually a friendly and helpful place, provided you follow a few basic guidelines:
- Make sure your problem is not really in this FAQ. There's no point in posting just to be sent back here.
- Before posting read the sticky topics (the ones at the top). Many times new information that still hasn't been incorporated in the FAQ can be found there.
- Help us in helping you. Do not just say "it doesn't work!". Provide details so that we don't have to guess or waste time asking. What client do you use? What's your OS? What's your network setup? What's the exact error message you get, if any? What are the torrents you are having problems with? The more you tell the easiest it will be for us, and the more probable your post will get a reply.
- And needless to say: be polite. Demanding help rarely works, asking for it usually does the trick.
