AlphaReign DHT Server

This is the DHT server used for crawling and interacting with the BitTorrent DHT Network

This conforms to the BEP 5 the exception of:

• Does not keep track of torrent peer information

This is to keep the DHT server from running out of memory since it's primary purpose is to crawl the DHT network as part of https://github.com/AlphaReign/scraper

If you wish to ensure it's a well formed DHT server, then listen to the correct events and ensure you send back the correct responses.

Install

yarn add dht-server

Getting Started

const DHT = require('./dht');

const options = {};
const dht = new DHT(options);

dht.on('listening', (options) => {
	console.log(`DHT listening on ${options.address}:${options.port}`);
});
dht.on('announcePeerQuery', (message) => {
	console.log(`onAnnouncePeerQuery - new torrent: ${message.a.info_hash.toString('hex')}`);
});
dht.on('getPeersQuery', (message) => {
	console.log(`onGetPeersQuery - new torrent: ${message.a.info_hash.toString('hex')}`);
});

// Start the DHT Server
dht.start();

// Make some neighbours to ensure we get fulling on the network
dht.makeNeighbours();

Options

const options = {
	address: '0.0.0.0',
	bootstrapNodes: [
		{ address: 'router.bittorrent.com', port: 6881 },
		{ address: 'dht.transmissionbt.com', port: 6881 },
	],
	debug: false,
	maxNodes: 2000, // Going much higher than this has severe limits and may break stuff
	port: 6881,
};

Terms

node is an object with at minimum and address and port

Example:

{
	address: '192.168.0.1',
	port: 6881,
}

infoHash is a hex string that conforms to the BitTorrent Standard

Example: a4104a9d2f5615601c429fe8bab8177c47c05c84

API

ping(node)

Ping this node on the network.

findNode(nodeId, node)

Find the node with nodeId by querying node. node is optional. If not is provided, it will query the a node from the internal nodes list

getPeers(infoHash, node)

Find peers with the provided infoHash. node is optional. If not is provided, it will query the a node from the internal nodes list

announcePeer(infoHash, node)

Announce that the client connected to this DHT Server is downloading a torrent with infoHash. node is optional. If not is provided, it will query the a node from the internal nodes list

makeNeighbours()

This will query the internal node list for other peers

sendMessage(message, node)

This will send the message to node. All messages should conform to BEP 5 standards

Events

dht.on('listening', callback)

callback is a function that receives the dht options object. This is primarly used for logging when the server starts listening

dht.on('error', callback)

callback is a function that receives the error from the socket.

dht.on('messageRaw', callback)

callback is a function that receives the raw (becoded) message along with the node address and port

dht.on('message', callback)

callback is a function that receives the message (un-becoded) along with the node address and port

dht.on('response', callback)

callback is a function that receives any response messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('query', callback)

callback is a function that receives any query messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('getPeersResponse', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths get_peers response messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('findNodeResponse', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths find_node response messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('pingOrAnnounceResponse', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths ping or announce response messages along with the node address and port

Both ping and announce response messages are identical and thus we can't discern which it is

dht.on('findNodeQuery', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths find_node query messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('getPeersQuery', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths get_peers query messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('announcePeerQuery', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths announce_peer query messages along with the node address and port

dht.on('pingQuery', callback)

callback is a function that receives ths ping query messages along with the node address and port