I keep seeing in forums and sites like these that say it’s frowned upon to not seed torrents that you use/used. I saw a post on here or Reddit (I don’t remember) with a guy ecstatic that someone started seeding his download he had been trying to get done for months. I know seeding lets someone download something using your computer but how is it helpful if someone doesn’t have a site and/or isn’t “in-range” ?
If you can’t tell, I don’t know much about how torrenting works other than how to download something using one. I hope that you all can just explain or point me in the right direction because I would like to support the community.
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Hey everyone! I saw the comments and they were all very helpful. I just had no idea how torrents worked lol. I will be sure to do my part and I hope anyone with similar curiosity can also benefit from this post! Feel free to say your piece but note that I get the gist of it now.
Torrents are P2P. You are downloading from other people who are seeding. If no one seeds, there’s nothing to download. Simple as that. Etiquette dictates you should seed more than you download to ensure the network stays lively.
So even if no one directly connects to my computer, just letting it seed is all you need? I use Deluge and, when it finishes downloading, it says “seeding” but I worry that means that someone can connect to my computer directly. Does it work fine if I just leave it be?
the reason you were able to download it is because other people were seeding it. that’s why seeding is helpful
I worry that means that someone can connect to my computer directly.
That’s how torrents work. Everytime you’re downloading so.ething you’re connecting to other people’s computers and letting other people connect to yours.
They don’t connect to your computer like you’re thinking. There is a connection, yes, just like when you’re downloading you connect to other people’s computers. You can see them in the peer list.
Oh that’s what that is! I kept seeing that but it didn’t really click. Thanks!
It’s basically like a room full of people with USB sticks. If you are just taking all of their USB sticks to download data off of, but you don’t put your data back on the USB sticks to share them with others, you’ll get kicked out of the part for being a jerk. It’s the same with torrents.
They are not the classic client-server thing that the web usually is. There isn’t a big server you are downloading from, it’s just other people that are seeding the torrent. So it’s common courtesy to do the same to allow more people to download it.
That’s the beauty of torrents. With servers, you just have to tell the owner to take the file down. With torrents, you’ll have to find every person that currently has the file and seeds it to take it fully offline. So yes, this exposes you to some risks. If you are downloading pirated content and live in a country where these laws are enforced, you’ll want to use a VPN to torrent. But with seeding, you’re giving back to the community that you’re taking from.
This actually explained it so much. I kept thinking in the normal web hosting way. I had no idea the internet was this easy. Torrents are really cool! I am sure to share ALL my USB sticks! Even the ones I don’t use.
better to keep track of a ton of torrents and seed the ones that go completely dead
This is a much more involved method than just seeding everything you download to at least a 1.0 ratio, but if you’re extremely resource-limited, then sure
