what does error message mean?
The best thing to do in general if you're having connectivity problems is just wait. Often trackers are unavailable or slow to respond, usually due to high load or sometimes DDoS attacks. Some torrents can take a while to get up to speed, so patience is a virtue. That being said, below are some common error messages with explanations and what to do about them.
Note: Often you will get a red error message when there's a problem connecting to the tracker, but the client will keep on retrying. This is normal. It can result in the download progressing normally and successfully, even with an error message displayed on the screen. Make sure to note the time-stamp on the error, and if it's more than 5 to 10 minutes old, you can ignore it. The newer versions of the experimental client "age away" the error messages after 5 minutes to deal with this situation.
Problem getting response info - [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "C:Documents and Sett..."
For some reason, Internet Explorer sometimes doesn't save the torrent file in the Temporary Internet Files directory properly. The solution seems to be to right click on the link and choose Save As..., and save the torrent file to disk, and then double-click the file to launch the client. Clearing the IE cache seems to help if this problem is recurring. It seems to be related to torrent files with square brackets (']' and '[') in the filename.
Too many args - 0 max.
This error in indicative of a bad command line. See the section on setting the command line and ensure that the arguments to the BitTorrent program include --responsefile "%1".
A piece failed hash check, re-downloading it
This is a benign message, you can safely ignore it. It means that you received a piece of the file that didn't check out as being correct, so it will be downloaded again. Probable cause of this might be someone incorrectly using the "skip hash check" option.
bad data from tracker -
Usually you can ignore this, it seems to happen when the tracker is overloaded or otherwise flaky.
Problem connecting to tracker - timeout exceeded
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 503: Connect failed
Problem connecting to tracker - [Errno socket error] (10061, "Connection refused")
Problem connecting to tracker - (111, 'Connection refused')
There was a problem contacting the tracker. Trackers tend to be heavily loaded, and connections sometimes fail. The best thing to do is just be patient and leave the client open. If you find you're getting this a lot, you can try increasing the HTTP request timeout by adding the parameter "--http_timeout 120" (the default is 60, unit is seconds.) See the section on changing the command line if you need help doing this.
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 400: Not Authorized
This indicates that the administrators of this tracker are not allowing it to be used for this torrent. Some trackers will only track torrents that are also posted in their forums/website, for example. Usually this indicates a stale torrent -- try going to the web site associated with the tracker and see if you can find an updated torrent.
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Probably a stale torrent. Try to find a new link to the torrent.
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 407: Proxy Authentication Required
You may need to configure a username and password for your proxy server setting in order to contact the tracker. See this section for details.
The best thing to do in general if you're having connectivity problems is just wait. Often trackers are unavailable or slow to respond, usually due to high load or sometimes DDoS attacks. Some torrents can take a while to get up to speed, so patience is a virtue. That being said, below are some common error messages with explanations and what to do about them.
Note: Often you will get a red error message when there's a problem connecting to the tracker, but the client will keep on retrying. This is normal. It can result in the download progressing normally and successfully, even with an error message displayed on the screen. Make sure to note the time-stamp on the error, and if it's more than 5 to 10 minutes old, you can ignore it. The newer versions of the experimental client "age away" the error messages after 5 minutes to deal with this situation.
Problem getting response info - [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "C:Documents and Sett..."
For some reason, Internet Explorer sometimes doesn't save the torrent file in the Temporary Internet Files directory properly. The solution seems to be to right click on the link and choose Save As..., and save the torrent file to disk, and then double-click the file to launch the client. Clearing the IE cache seems to help if this problem is recurring. It seems to be related to torrent files with square brackets (']' and '[') in the filename.
Too many args - 0 max.
This error in indicative of a bad command line. See the section on setting the command line and ensure that the arguments to the BitTorrent program include --responsefile "%1".
A piece failed hash check, re-downloading it
This is a benign message, you can safely ignore it. It means that you received a piece of the file that didn't check out as being correct, so it will be downloaded again. Probable cause of this might be someone incorrectly using the "skip hash check" option.
bad data from tracker -
Usually you can ignore this, it seems to happen when the tracker is overloaded or otherwise flaky.
Problem connecting to tracker - timeout exceeded
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 503: Connect failed
Problem connecting to tracker - [Errno socket error] (10061, "Connection refused")
Problem connecting to tracker - (111, 'Connection refused')
There was a problem contacting the tracker. Trackers tend to be heavily loaded, and connections sometimes fail. The best thing to do is just be patient and leave the client open. If you find you're getting this a lot, you can try increasing the HTTP request timeout by adding the parameter "--http_timeout 120" (the default is 60, unit is seconds.) See the section on changing the command line if you need help doing this.
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 400: Not Authorized
This indicates that the administrators of this tracker are not allowing it to be used for this torrent. Some trackers will only track torrents that are also posted in their forums/website, for example. Usually this indicates a stale torrent -- try going to the web site associated with the tracker and see if you can find an updated torrent.
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Probably a stale torrent. Try to find a new link to the torrent.
Problem connecting to tracker - HTTP Error 407: Proxy Authentication Required
You may need to configure a username and password for your proxy server setting in order to contact the tracker. See this section for details.
