Re: using bittorrent for backup of personal files

On Thu, Mar 08, 2012 at 12:24:10PM +0200, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
On Ma, 06 mar 12, 19:18:49, Rob Owens wrote:
I'm considering using bittorrent to back up large files such as pictures
and home movies. I am the admin for several of my family members'
computers. The idea would be to back up my files onto their machines,
then eventually back their stuff up in the same manner, resulting in
several off-site backups for each of us.

From what I know of the BitTorrent protocol it is beneficial only if the
data needs to be transfered to more than 1 site, where the remote
site(s) are not sharing the same internet connection, otherwise it
doesn't bring any benefit over ftp/rsync/etc. It's not obvious from your
message if this is the case.

I intend to transfer to more than 1 site. Both for the purposes of
backup, and for sharing the files with my family members in several
different households.

I want to keep this data private. What are my options, besides a VPN?
I hesitate to use a public torrent even on encrypted data, because the
computers of tomorrow may easily crack today's encryption using brute
force.

I'm not sure what you consider to be a "public" torrent, but in my very
un-informed opinion, encrypted torrents should be quite secure already,
just don't use a public tracker or distribute the DHT key. Yes, there is
a bit of security-by-obscurity here, but I wouldn't worry about it
unless it was really sensitive data.

I'm a bit of a novice, so my terminology may be off. But by "public" I
mean a torrent that I upload to any public tracker, like
thepiratebay or something. Anyone could download my torrent, not that they
would know to look for it.

My data is sorted in directories by year. If I make torrents for each
year, most of the data will be static. But how should I handle the
current year's data? Can I update the torrent file without forcing a
re-download of all the current year's data?

Not sure, but even if you create a new torrent each time you add more
data, all clients I have tried so far will not re-download, but they
will re-check the hash on all existing data.

I'll have to experiment with that. I haven't ever created my own
torrent, but I guess I could figure this one out by creating a small
torrent with dummy data, and then modifying it.

-Rob


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