I recently wrote a guide about how you could use pidgin, a free and open-source Instant Message client that supports AIM protocol to add content to your Azureus Queue remotely, for those that for whatever reason don't want to or can't set up a webui. It's relatively simple, shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes of setup, and provides an insanely easy means of adding content to your Azureus queue from a remote location.This was originally published on my website under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License which in layman's terms means that you can pretty much do whatever you want with it provided you give me credit for the original work, and don't try to make money off of it. And now, without further adieu...

Using Pidgin to Add to your Azureus Queue Remotely

First things first, there are countless ways to control a torrent-box remotely that will offer you a higher level of control than this procedure, but if your looking for a quick and easy way to add content on-the-fly, without much setup, then this guide is for you.

Requirements:

* Azureus Vuze (latest version recommended)
* Pidgin (latest version recommended)

The goal of this little project is to be able to add torrents to Azureus' queue from any computer with an AIM client capable of transferring files (I used, and HIGHLY recommend Pidgin). The basic setup is this: Azureus has a feature where it will autoscan a directory for new content at a predetermined time interval (i.e. 60 seconds). Pidgin has a plug-in where it will autoaccept file transfers from pre-defined 'AIM buddies', and save them to a pre-defined directory. By daisy-chaining these two features, we can IM .torrent files to an AIM account running on Pidgin on the torrent box, at which point Pidgin will automatically accept the file transfer, and Azureus will subsequently add the torrent to its queue.

Setting up Pidgin

Create a NEW AIM account that will be used on the torrent-box, say something like Steves-torrent-dedi. Next you are going to want to download and install Pidgin onto the torrent computer. Now, I use Linux almost exclusively, so I downloaded pidgin through my distribution's repositories. However if you are using Windows or OS/X you can get the installer from Pidgin's Site. Now to actually set up the account settings. When you launch pidgin it will prompt you to enter account information.



Click the Add button and fill out the fields accordingly with the information of the AIM account you just created. Pidgin can use many protocols besides AIM, such as Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, et cetera, so you may be able to use accounts operating on those networks as well, though I haven't tested it myself. It's also probably a good idea to have it remember the account password so it can login automatically.


If after entering all the information, and verifying that you input it correctly, the account still won't log in, you may have to fine-tune some of the advanced settings. The two biggest problems are 'Use SSL' and 'Use Client Login'. Toy around with these, 'Use Client Login' usually needs to be turned off for Pidgin to login to an AIM account successfully.


By this point, you should have the AIM account running on Pidgin, now you need to add your own personal AIM account to the newly created account's buddy list. To add your personal account as a buddy, simply click Buddies>Add Buddy and fill out the form. Once you have done this go Tools>Plugins, and check off autoaccept.


Next click the configure plugin button to fine-tune its settings. Blocking transfers from users not on your buddy list is probably a good idea, since ideally you would want you to be the only person capable of doing this. The pop-up is a personal choice. Creating a new directory for each user will save all the transfers from Buddy-A in /folder/Buddy-A/file, this is useful for other applications, but not this one since Azureus will only scan one directory for .torrent files, and it won't do it recursivley. Configure the folder where you want the uploaded torrent files saved, the simpler the better. Despite what the screenshot says I used "/home/mint/Uploads".


Now just right-click the Buddy you want to autoaccept files from, and click autoaccept. Then check autoaccept once again.



Setting up Azureus

Congratulations, your done configuring Pidgin, now onto Azureus. I use version 4.3.1.4 with the classic interface, so you may have to adjust this based on your individual settings. Find your way into the options menu (Ctrl key and , key) and select mode, then change it to advanced.NOTE: I did the Pidgin setup screenshots on my Desktop, and the Azureus Setup screenshots on my server, which is why the OS's are different. YOU are supposed to do it all on the same computer, your designated torrent box. Try to pay attention to the programs themselves and not the OS.


Now while still in the options menu, expand the "Files" submenu, then highlight "Torrents"(Menu doesn't actually need to be expanded). Now check off "Import new .torrents automatically", and enter the directory that pidgin will autosave to. You can also modify the scan interval if you so choose.


And Voila! The setup is done. Try sending some .torrent files to the account set up on the torrent box, from the account you enabled auto-accepts from. This isn't the most powerful solution when it comes to remote management, but it is one of the easiest to set up, and so long as you're not doing anything too intensive, it should suit you fine as a quick way to add content.



This is my first comprehensive step-by-step tutorial, so feedback is most welcome. Let me know what you guys think!