Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Weird email from customer

[EuroVPS/Director]

Today I got a sales question from a potential customer, asking if our Windows hosting packages included a "bit torrent tracker"

Now obviously we are not going to be hosting any illegal torrent sites, but I am curious, what exactly is this "tracker" that this guy was looking for?

Why would any web host provide a "tracker" for web hosting customers?


We have no problems having people run whatever they want inside their VPS's, but on a shared account, I just don't understand the purpose for this.

Best regards,

[iThaka]

hmm...that is a weird question. Just email the guy back stating you are not allowing warez hosting. Simple as that...that is quite blunt though.

[EuroVPS/Director]

Ithaka, are you from Ithaca, GR?

[WireNine]

Bit Torrent tracker is a way of tracking P2P sharing, obviously this will be used to share files between users. Now you don't know if he/she will be using this for illegal sharing activities (most likely yes).

Most hosts would answer that question with a 'NO!'.

[iThaka]

Originally posted by afa340a
Ithaka, are you from Ithaca, GR?

Negative, sorry

[EuroVPS/Director]

Well like I said obviously I told him that we don't provide this service.

Just checking to see if there could be any legit purpose for a "tracker"

Take care,

[sigma]

Originally posted by afa340a
Just checking to see if there could be any legit purpose for a "tracker"

I'm sure there could be. After all, BT is used to distribute Linux, FreeBSD, and many other major software distributions. There's plenty of material shared via BT that is legal to share. It's just a protocol for efficient distributed distribution, so to speak.

Kevin

[energy]

There are many legal uses for torrents, and some hosts that provide trackers.

Here is a big one: http://www.he.net/faq/bittorrent.html

[crazyone]

yea looks like trouble

[2Grumpy]

I'd probably reply that bittorrents of any kind are not allowed on shared accounts, not so much because it's a bittorrent but because it would require a constantly running service and we (and most hosts) don't let shared accounts launch any sort of permanent app.

On a dedicated server I'd tell them they can run whatever software THEY want to install, as long as they're not breaking any laws (hint hint).

[akashik]

Just say no and e-mail him this:

[rghf]

@akashik: Dunno why but that really struck a chord with me and really cheered me up. Thanks

[akashik]

Everyone likes bunnies.

[Bakie]

I would just say no. Simple as that. He should just host the tracker from home.
Nice bunny

[sigma]

Actually, I've always suspected that's a hamster.

Kevin