We're now going to install the TorrentFlux BitTorrent client software. Go to the TorrentFlux webpage and have a good look around and check what the latest version is. TorrentFlux is no Azureus, but it is a lot less demanding and is ideal for our use. These instructions use version 2.0 beta 1, so navigate to your home directory and type in (this all goes on one line):

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/torrentflux/torrentflux-2.0beta1.tar.gz?download

This will download the gzip to your home directory. Now type in:

tar -zxvf torrentflux-20.beta1.tar.gz

which will extract the file to a directory of the same name (torrentflux-2.0beta1). Now go into your new directory and have a read of the INSTALL document.

Next copy the html directory into the place where your web pages are kept:

mkdir /var/www/torrentflux
cp -r html /var/www/torrentflux

Now we need to create the mysql database for TorrentFlux to use:

mysqladmin create torrentflux

Then using the provided torrentflux.sql script, create all the required tables:

mysql torrentflux < torrentflux.sql

Next, you'll need to create a mysql user. So go to the mysql command line and enter:

mysql

Then connect to the database you just created with:

connect torrentflux

Now create the user:

grant CREATE,INSERT,DELETE,UPDATE,SELECT on torrentflux.* to tf@localhost;

And set the password:

set password for tf = password('MyPassword');

Now quit out of mysql using 'exit'.

Copy the two bittorrent python files and make them executable:

cp TF_BitTornado/ /usr/local/
chmod +x /usr/local/TF_BitTornado/btphptornado.py
chmod +x /usr/local/TF_BitTornado/btshowmetainfo.py

Next you need to edit the config.php file:

vi /var/www/torrentflux/config.php

Near the top you will see various settings. They should look a bit like this:

$cfg["db_type"] = "mysql";
$cfg["db_host"] = "localhost";
$cfg["db_name"] = "torrentflux";
$cfg["db_user"] = "tf";
$cfg["db_pass"] = "MyPassword";

$cfg["path"] = "/samba_share/downloads/";
$cfg["btphpbin"] = "/usr/local/TF_BitTornado/btphptornado.py";

$cfg["btshowmetainfo"] = "/usr/local/TF_BitTornado/btshowmetainfo.py";

There are other options here, such as port numbers you might wish to change and they are all fairly obvious. Save and quit the file, then navigate to http://ipaddress/torrentflux with one of your other computers. Hopefully, you will be confronted with the login screen. Note that the username and password you enter here will be saved as the super-user.

If you've used BitTorrent, the TorrentFlux client is pretty self-explanatory. But if you need help, jump on over to the TorrentFlux Forum.

That wraps it up for Part 2. In the next and final installment, we'll add the ability to allocate bandwidth between BitTorrent and other Internet activities, and check out the file serving performance of what we've created.