MonoTorrent to distribute software

Question

Just wondering of what people think of using MonoTorrent and the torrent protocol as the core part of an installer....

Essentially I am creating an installer which has the following requirements:

• Access through Firewalls/Proxies
• Runs over SSL
• Authenticated access to the installer/files
• Background download
• Handel bad connections (i.e. if a disconnect occurs, pickup downloads that were halfway through a file)
• Validate integrity of downloaded content
• Download Throttling

So given all of this, I thought that embedding MonoTorrent in the installer package, running a private tracker and having the clients download (no seeding only leaching) from the server would be a good idea.

This also has the side benefit of being able to bring extra servers online or offline depending on load.

What do you guys think? Can I get this functionality from MonoTorrent and how hard is it to setup? Is there a better alternative that will meet these requirements?

Answer 1

I can't comment specifically on MonoTorrent, but large software companies have indeed used the torrent protocol to distribute patchers and installers (see Blizzard Entertainment, for example).

Answer 2

I believe this would be relatively impractical because of the need of seeders (so a big user-base)

You would have to rely on having more people installing your software at the same time, which, unless you are an uber-corp or something else would not be so feasible.

This makes sense in the case of blizzard an highly addictive MMORPG game, with frequent and big patches and millions of p(l)ayers scattered around the world.

Monotorrent seems to be dead... howerver it seems also to work (I'm fighting with it at the moment).

Given that you are not allowing seeders the major torrent benefit is not used, so in my opinion you are asking for a load balanced download system based on https, basic authorization, and SVF-aided file consistency checking.