Plugins and Torrents, That's All You Need

good
key review info
application features
  • Web UI
  • (14 more, see all...)

P2P download has gained a lot in popularity and the software enabling this activity has grown to reach quite high standards. Torrent managers are one of the best methods for a continuous download of a large file. The principle they rely on is pretty simple and its efficiency is proven by the large amount of adepts they have gained over a short period of time.

New features are added frequently to the various torrent managers on the market, features that extend functionality and inject more flexibility. Little by little, users have been given the possibility of setting download/upload restriction to certain files, schedule when they should start downloading/uploading, updating the tracker, showing the files that are being downloaded, etc.

BitTorrent technology has indeed reached high standards and it would seem that there is little to be done in order to enrich the managers, but I am sure developers will get creative and bring out new sets of useful features (like WebUI, that allows control over the tasks from a remote location, via a web browser).

Solutions on the market for torrent downloading are many and as time goes by the list only grows bigger. One of the latest BitTorrent clients drawing attention is Deluge. The application is cross-platform, being designed to work on both Linux and Mac, as well as on Windows. As many other torrent clients available on the market, Deluge is absolutely free.

Regarding the interface, uTorrent fans will find it somehow familiar, as the resemblance is striking. Anyway, it is an easy to use format designed to allow even the most inexperienced user navigate with little, if any, difficulty. All tasks are available in the upper part of the screen while details and information on selected task is provided in the inferior part.

Unlike other BitTorrent clients on the market which provide flexibility due to integrated functions and features, Deluge's tractability resides in the plugin list it features. All options can be enabled from this list in order to make it more to your liking. At a first look, the software does not appear to offer anything besides the basic functionality of an ordinary torrent manager but with the help of plugins you can enrich it with new functions.

By default, all that the users can enjoy in Deluge are the simple operations of starting and pausing a task, adding new torrents to the list, view statistics of the job (amount downloaded, up/down speed, number of seeders, share ratio, number of pieces, ETA for completing the task, tracker used, peers files, etc.). However, Deluge is more than this.

Configuring it opens a door to more options, allowing the user to define a location for saving the downloads and torrent files, set the maximum number of simultaneous active torrents or choose the way space should be allocated (space allocation cannot be eliminated). Setting up the network is fairly easy and comes with the now trivial options for setting a communication port (you can define a pool of ports to be used or enable random port changing), enable DHT (Distributed Hash Tables), UpnP, NAT-PMP, Local Peer discovery, Peer Exchange.

Bandwidth allocation can also be configured but, by default, it will affect all the downloads equally and not individual tasks. Here users have a chance at setting the number of slots for upload and the maximum download/upload speed in kilobytes.

Additional configuration for the application covers minimization to system tray when "Close" button is pressed, setting up a password for system tray (this way only authorized users can bring the interface on desktop).

But the core of Deluge is Plugins window, where you can practically redesign the feature list of the entire program. Eighteen options await their enabling in Deluge and promise enhanced functionality. Up until this window, Deluge could pass as a very simple BitTorrent client with few things to show compared to other alternatives.

Plugins window includes event logging, RSS, scheduler, speed limiter, network activity graph, Web seed (add web seeds to the torrents), WebUI, torrent search, torrent creator, enable notification when a download is finished, moving the torrent to a different folder, etc.

Suddenly, Deluge becomes more and more appealing as its functionality has tripled. It can run tasks until a user defined ratio is reached. The scheduler is very similar to the one in uTorrent as it permits making settings for the entire week keeping in mind time intervals and configuring upload and download limits.

Plugins represent an extraordinary functionality stretch bettering the software to the extent of turning it into serious competition. However, there are some details that need attention, like the double initiation of Preferences window or the fact that some of the plugins do not work properly.

During our testing FlexRSS window kept minimizing to taskbar when right clicking on feed name, expanding the feed name caused the URL to disappear from the window and Preferences window kept appearing over it. WebUI worked fine, but it could not pause or start the tasks selectively. You can only pause or start all of them at once. Also, if no password is applied you will not be able to open web interface and you will be returned "Password is invalid, try again" message. Additionally, the status of the tasks is not in real-time and you have to set the refresh rate and all the blinking of the web page is quite a discomfort.

A little bug we noticed in the application is the double display of Preferences window every once in a while (check images at the end). There is one aspect I don't know what to make of: why allow multiple instances of Preferences window?

The Good

It is highly customizable and provides all features a user could need. RSS is a good new addition as well as torrent search (which allows adding as many search engines as you want) and all the plugins available.

Deluge is extremely easy to use, even if you are not familiar with torrent managers, and comes with a cute interface.

WebUI feature is great as it allows monitoring torrent jobs from a remote location using just a web browser (you need fix IP though).

The Bad

The application is not yet finished and you will bump into a series of mishaps. RSS displays indeed the latest additions from websites, but you cannot navigate to them from FlexRSS. All you can do is view the latest titles. On XP RSS button was not displayed in the interface despite all our efforts.

WebUI is not as smooth as I expected and without a password you cannot access it.

Preferences window multiplies when you least expect it, which may seem as fun at the beginning but, as you work with it, this action becomes more and more annoying.

On our Vista test machine it took about 20MB of RAM with a single task running while on an XP test system it rose to about 38MB. I would say that is quite a chunk of RAM there and contradicts the "lightweight" description made by the publisher (installer is of about 8MB in size and installation folder is of ~ 31MB).

The Truth

Once it is all set up, Deluge can become a serious competitor on Windows systems. It is at the beginning and some of its functionality is crippled by nagging mal-functions. But it is a good start though it lacks that finishing touch to wrap all the functionality in a brilliant BitTorrent client, flexible enough for any user.

Bottom line is that it does very good when downloading files but it still needs to take care of loose ends which are not few in number.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 4
features 3
ease of use 3
pricing / value 3


final rating 3
Editor's review
good
 
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