For the last week or so I've been unable to d/l anything that is tracked/announced through Pirate Bay. I can d/l files tracked through Demonoid and The Box. I was using EZTV to find torrents, but ALL those seem to go through Pirate Bay now (even torrents from other sites are tracked through Pirate Bay).

I'm guessing it's my ISP. I'd love to hear suggestions as to 1) how to get around this and 2) other trackers that might carry the shows I'm looking for (at this moment: current eps of The Big Bang Theory and The Mentalist).

TIA for any help you can offer.

What error message do you get for the tracker not operating after you start the download?

No error, I just never connect and start d/l the file. Tonight I got "Life" off of EZTV and it just sat there. It showed a few leechers and zero seeders on my client, but nothing d/led. The torrent sites show 100s of leechers and a couple dozen seeders.

I d/l the torrent from xtremespeeds.net and had the entire file in less than 30 minutes--the other torrent was still just sitting there.

after you click download torrent. where exactly does it stop the process.

and which client are you using.

I use UseNeXT because it gets posted with many current shows within hours of them being aired. I know lots of us don't like to pay for connectivity - we already pay our ISPs for that - but I just find it expedient to do so, because of just this sort of thing. And UseNeXT does have a 'free' mode if you are prepared to wait around... or maybe you can find a free service out there giving a connection to UseNet, I've not really tried to do that.

I have 2 ISPs and one throttles p2p traffic between about 6pm and midnight, the other does not - I don't suppose you're seeing an effect of that type?

@TM,
Many European ISP's are blocking Pirate Bay.Where do you live?
This started February 5th.This is a new tactic to take down P2P.
It started in Denmark and is moving across the continent.I would suggest using a proxy or joining private torrent sites.Though what softwizz has suggested is a good idea,the quality is just not there and for decent downloads you have to pay.Usenet is the first file sharing protocol to be on the net,started as a news sharing network.

You wont even get to see TPB if your ISP is blocking it..
When Tele2 started to block TPB in Denmark, thejesperbay.dk showed up in matter of minutes.
Try Mininova which is indexing several trackers.
IF you live in USA/CANADA check f your ISP is throttling your torrent traffic;

google project - http://www.measurementlab.net/
glasnost - http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php

gl :)

I'm in the US. I can get to PB on my browser. I can d/l the torrent file from PB (or any other torrent site). When I load the torrent into my client (Transmission), it loads up like normal, and sometimes even shows a few connections, but never d/l any of the file. There are no errors, just no d/l.

I can use torrents from The Box, Demonoid or xtremespeeds.net with no problem. Nothing with PB as the tracker moves. At all (I've let them sit for 48 hours).

Suggest that if you are having trouble with dl's from ThePirateBay that it may be because of the client you are using for your dl's.

I live in the USA and use uTorrent and am having no trouble with any dls from ThePirateBay.

I am having no problem downloading from pirate bay
must be your isp or firewall

Firewall hasn't changed in a year or so, so my bet is my ISP. I'm surprised no one else is having the same problem.

My client successfully d/ls from any tracker that is NOT PB, so it really doesn't make sense that there is something wrong with it.

The fact that "everyone" is using PB is troubling, too. It's nice to have reliable torrents, but it makes it much easier to shut down.

are you using peerguardian?, becuase i was.. and this blocked PB.. i removed it and all is good!

Its working fine for me

Peerguardian is only available for MS OSs. I'll look into one for Mac OS. Thanks.

I d/l Peerguardian for Mac OS, but it doesn't unzip properly and fails. I'll keep looking.