Why is seeding a torrent helpful?
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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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
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.
Kinda just how the Internet works in general, really. Just distributed vs centralized
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!
Nobody is hacking your computer LMAO. It just lets them establish a connection to your computer to leech the file(s), nothing more
Person 1 has file A, which person 2 wants to download. Person 2 connects to person 1 and starts to download which makes person 1 a seeder. If person 1 has file A but doesn't seed, person 2 can't download file A since there is no seeder.
When you seed you make sure that others can download that same file, but yes, they establish a connection with you to download it. If I have understood it correctly.
Bittorrent is a file sharing protocol, which isn't inherently dangerous. The 'torrent' contains the information that's being passed around to allow connectivity to that particular file. This is also not inherently dangerous as that information is very specific and limited... and doesn't allow any other user to browse the rest of your computer.
What may be dangerous is downloading a file that contains malware or viruses via a torrent. Use reputable sites and keep your security software up to date. Better yet, use a different computer for this activity with a vpn.
Also potential security vulnerabilities in the torrent client. But that's uncommon and they fix them as they're found.
Torrents work by someone directly connecting to your computer, that's what happens when you download and seed a torrent after.
So the whole time you're doing anything with torrents, hundreds/thousands of other computers are connecting to yours to make that work.