Furk.net XBMC Addon

Stumbled on this while trawling through the plugins thread on the xbmc forum. Written by gpun
“Furk.net is a file-sharing site with one unique feature – BitTorrent proxy. You upload a .torrent file – you get a direct http link. “

Intrigued, I then found and article on torrentfreak.com (incidentally a very good site, worth a read) “Furk: Direct Download BitTorrent Proxy On Steroids”

Furk bills part of its service as a ‘BitTorrent Proxy’. This means that instead of searching for a torrent file and downloading in the usual manner via the BitTorrent protocol, instead Furk itself joins the swarm in question and downloads the material directly to their own servers. Once completed, users can simply download that material directly from Furk’s super-fast network using the HTTP protocol in their regular web browser. Identical to standard web traffic, HTTP generally isn’t throttled by ISPs, allowing the user to download more quickly than with throttled BitTorrent. In the less likely event that an ISP tries to slow down HTTP, downloads can be made from Furk using HTTPs.

Basically, from what I can gather. You either add your own .torrent files. Furk connects to the swarm and downloads the torrent content to its servers. Therefore masking your IP and removing the distribution element. You can then download the contents of the torrent from the Furk servers directly via https. Meaning your ISP only knows you have visited the furk servers and not what you have downloaded. Similar to usenet. The other way to use the service is to search the furk metadatabase and download the contents of any number of previously cached items.

I must say it looks pretty good. I managed to install the addon. Sign-up to furk.net and stream some content via a win 7 install of XMBC in a matter of minutes. You can pay for this service but it worked for me on a free account. Whether speeds are any good or indeed if it can remain open for any amount of time remains to be seen. Definatly an addon to have in your xbmc arsenal

Installation is as easy as followiong this link and don’t forget to give props to gpun if you visit the xbmc forum

edit: interesting that you can search and stream directly from the xbmc addon, presumably via the API. However, you hit a paywall on the website….. cool

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