Thread: [TI-Recommended] Xirvik Seedboxes!

Hi guys!

We have been striving very hard to find you a good solution in seedboxing and here it is!

The company we recommend with absolute confidence is Xirvik Torrent! Found at http://xirvik.com/

Not only is it a reputable company that has been advertising here at TI is is also well established!

I'll not blabber on here is the review!

First of all i would like to say, that it was a nice experience testing this seedbox.
It has opened my eyes to more options and more choices when it comes to selecting a seedbox and the levels of necessity a seedbox needs to have.
Now, lets get to business!

My first impression of the seedbox was that it was very easy accessible. No additional software was needed to control it. A simple Web browser is all you need. During my time with the seedbox, i mostly used Firefox, however any web browser will do! The first thing i noticed when i logged into the web interface was that there is alot of information present which made it less clear for users to understand how everything works when using this for the first time. My experience was initially limited to windows clients like ABC, uTorrent, Vuze and several other popular clients, so i expected the same level of user friendly interface as those applications. Therefore i was very dissapointed when i saw the main screen (fig.1). There was simply too much information, especially for beginners.



When i started to do some trial & error techniques to figure out how it all worked, i came to the conclusion that the interface was actually very simple to use. It was simply the amount of information available on the main screen that made it look bad initially. As you can see in figure1, there are two ways you can add a torrent to the interface. The first option is the "Browse" method. This method is very simple, since you download the .torrent file from your tracker to your local PC and you can access that file by clicking on the "Browse" button. When you have done that, you can simply select "Upload", or "Upload+Start". When you have chosen the option you want, you can simply click on the "Go" button and then file will be added to your list. There is also a batch option available to upload multiple torrent files at the same time. You can do that by clicking on the "multiple upload" link and it will redirect you to the page where you can add up to 12 torrent files at the same time (fig.2).



There is also a second option to add torrent files, which is filling in the direct URL address of that specific torrent file. This way, it will be uploaded directly to the seedbox without having to download the .torrent file to your local drive first.

As you can see in figure1, on the top right side, you can see your download/upload/total speed, the drive space you are using and the server load.
On top of your torrent filelist you also have three bars which is a graphic view of the percentage of upload/download speed and storage space which you are using. On the bottom left side you can see the Server Transfer Stats, which will show you the amount of data that has been transfered the last day/week/month/total. On the bottom right side you see the same information, only for your user account and not the complete server. Now on the bottom, in the middle you see some extra information like the refresh time countdown, the connections available and used, the drive space and the server load.

The torrent filelist itself has several columns, one for each of the following things: 1.Connect Status/Folderbrowsing, 2. Filename, 3. Trackername, 4. FileSize, 5. Downloaded Size, 6. Uploaded Size, 7. Status, 8. Progress Percentage, 9. Download Speed, 10. Upload Speed, 11. Seeders, 12. Leechers, 13. Estimated Time, 14.Control Buttons.

The first Column shows you the connection status with several colors, indicating the status (green, red, orange). In the same column, you have the option to download the .torrent file or the actual data by https transfer. The last column contains all the buttons to control each individual torrent. the options are 1.Run, 2. Run Fast, 3. Stop, 4. Delete. The option 1 and 2 buttons have a green color if the files is still not downloading as well as seeding. However, when the download is finished and when it's only seeding, it will turn blue, indicating that the file is currently only seeding. Option 2 (Run Fast) will start the torrent with the default settings. If you want to adjust the settings for each torrent file (see figure 3 for all available options), i'd strongly suggest starting the torrent with option 1 instead of 2. Option 1 also allows you to choose whether you want to use the 'Tornado' client or the 'Transmission' Client. This is very helpfull since some clients are banned from certain private trackers. When you have started the torrent file, there is always an extra button (button 5) which allows you to edit those specific settings if it needs altering. Option 4 (delete) is initially not what it says, since i assumed it would also delete the files on the seedbox also. However, this option only delete the torrent file out of the list, but keeps the actual data still on the harddrive of the seedbox. If you want to delete the .torrent file along with the data, you need to select the torrents you want to delete with the checkboxes available in column 14 and then select the option you want to perform (in my case "delete with data") in the dropdown box which is located on the bottom right side of the torrent filelist.



As you can see in figure 1, on the top right side of the screen there are four options available: 'Home', 'Directory', 'History' and 'Profile'. The Home link is simply a link to the main page where you are already in (fig.1). We will discuss the other links in that order.

The Directory link gives you access to the seedbox harddrive (fig.4). You can download everything that is on your seedbox harddrive for there by the https protocol. Besides that you have several extra options like renaming your folders, creating a torrent file of that specific folder/file, downloading the file and deleting the folder/file. You can also use the checkboxes to perform an option on multiple files/torrents at the same time.



The History link shows you the Upload Activity of the last 30 days (fig.5). It has three columns which are: 1.User, 2. Filename, 3. Time Stamp. The columns pretty much speak for themselves and this simply is an easy was to monitor or keep a log of what you have downloaded in the last 30 days.

The Profile link gives you access to alot of options. This is an advanced section since there are alot of options you can change (fig.6 & fig.7).
As you can see in figure 6, there is alot of information, like the join date, the page views, the user type and several other things. You also have the ability to change your username and password, the current theme (15 themes available) and the language (20 different languages available). There is also a notification option if you want to receive an e-mail when your download has finished. As you can see, you can tweak pretty much anything that is shown on the main screen (fig.1) in this section. This is great since alot of information was redundant in my opinion. The fact that this option is available for users makes the complete thing even more great since everybody can customize it the way they like it.









This is pretty much everything i can say about the interface. Now lets talk about the speeds this seedbox had. I have pushed it to its limit several times and i was very disappointed with the results. However, i do not blame Xirvik for the lack of speed completely, because the fact was that it was set up as a shared seedbox, so i needed to share my seedbox with multiple users, so for me the maximum output was never the output i expected from a 100Mbit line. I have tested the FTP which is available and the highest results i got was downloading with 4MB/s (without any torrents running at that time) and that wasn't exactly what i was looking for since my home connection is 100Mbit. However, i will also state again that since this review was done on a shared seedbox the maximum output wasn't only controlled by me.

The torrent client speeds were better than the FTP but also not the maximum output i expected. The maximum download speed i got during my trial was 6MB/s and it was pretty much the same with the upload speeds. Taking into consideration that this was a shared box, it was a decent speed output.

The Conclusion:
My first opinion of the seedbox was negative and not objective to be honest since everybody is used to a different interface and this one was not clear, especially not for beginners in my opinion. The fact that i also wasn't able to get the full 100Mbit out of it, even though i tried hard to achieve that result is also something to think about. However, since both negative points can be solved (the first by customizing your view in the profile options, the second by getting your own seedbox (not shared)), i have to say i'm very pleased with the results this seedbox has given me. The fact that it's accessible from pretty much any location that has a web browser, and the fact that no additional software is needed to access the seedbox just makes it better. Since i had no difficulties with the seedbox, it wasnt necessary for me to contact the Xirvik's Support Team. I can however confirm from other sources that the customer support is quick and helpfull. The Biggest downside of the current setup is that i had only 30GB to use which is pretty much nothing if you want to get some ratio buffering. If i were to give a final grading to the seedbox, i'd end up with an 8, simply because of that factor, otherwise it would have been an 9!

By Sraosha

I am However very disappointed about their lack of respect since they ignored my e-mails, PM's whatever, so if you want respect or help, dont expect much...(written by Sraosha)

Awesome review mate, repped :D

Images don't work.

thanks for the info dave. ive been looking around for a seedbox but i couldnt decided on which one to get because ive seen bad reviews on alot of them and didnt know which one to really trust.theres always pros n cons on everyone of them but this is a good starting point for me so thanks! ;]

Originally Posted by G8D

Images don't work.

yes they do. Just be sure to press the "Click the image to open in full size" text and not the actual picture as the text tells you to :P

Wow, that was comprehensive. Either our admins have sold out or we can trust this company! :laugh:

Originally Posted by materro

Wow, that was comprehensive. Either our admins have sold out or we can trust this company! :laugh:

My bet is on the latter.