How to Seed a Torrent

Last Updated: August 15, 2022 Tested

Sharing files with bittorrent networking is a popular choice for peer to peer (P2P) sharing. In fact, since 2006, bittorrent networking has been the most popular choice for file sharing in terms of total bandwidth used. Getting started with torrent sharing is a relatively easy process, and by learning a few key steps, you can be a valued peer in any bittorrent community. Learning how to seed a torrent is an important part of this process.

Steps

1
Download and install a bittorrent client. This is a piece of software that handles the torrent sharing process for you. There are many clients available for free download on the Internet; search for and read reviews for some of them to determine which one is right for you. Some of the most popular bittorrent clients are Tixati, uTorrent, Vuze, Ares, and Transmission.
2
Search for the particular torrent in which you are interested. This can be done easily using a bittorrent search engine. There are several of these on the Internet, and they are specially designed to find users with the torrent file you are looking for. Popular torrent search engines include The Pirate Bay and Isohunt. You may also have some luck searching for a torrent on a regular search engine.

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3
Download the desired .torrent file. A file with the ".torrent" extension is simply a text file that acts as a pointer to the real file in which you are interested. Once the file is where you want it to be on your hard disk, don't move it again (otherwise, the torrent client will have trouble finding it).
4
Open the .torrent file into your bittorrent client. This is usually achieved by double-clicking on the file. The bittorrent client will automatically search the Internet for users who have that exact torrent. It will then connect you to those users and begin downloading and piecing together the file.
5
Check how many users you are retrieving the file from. Your bittorrent client will label users as either "leechers / peers" or "seeders." Leechers are users who only have part of the file, and seeders are users who have the whole file. The more users you are connected to, the faster your download will be.^{[1]
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- Once you have finished downloading the file, leave the bittorrent client running. This is how you seed torrents, and this step is crucial to the health of the file sharing community. By leaving the software open, you are allowing other users to download pieces of the file from you ("seeding").
- It is important that you upload at least the file's size worth of data; for example, if you download a 300 MB file, you need to seed until other users have downloaded 300 MB worth of that file from you.
- The ratio of downloading to uploading that you do is carefully tracked by the Bit Torrent software, and that ratio determines how fast you are allowed to download. If you only download files and then immediately close your software, your download speeds will suffer because you are not doing your part for the file sharing community.
6
Delete the .torrent file from your hard disk. This step is optional. You can continue to seed the file as long as you want (and this will establish a very good ratio), but once your upload to download ratio for that file is about 3 to 1, you can safely delete the .torrent file to reduce clutter.

Community Q&A

Question

How do you know your upload to download ratio?

Community Answer

In info, under transfer, somewhere it should say share ratio. For example: share ratio: 4.9.
Question

Do I have to seed my file?

Community Answer

Seeding is completely optional, but it is recommended for other people to download that same file also. No seeds = no download speed.
Question

How do I leach a torrent if the ratio is low?

Community Answer

It's fine, a low ratio could also mean a low connection or that no one is downloading the file anymore.

Warnings

Be aware that by downloading files (such as movies or songs) which you don't already own, you are probably violating copyright law. There is a very real risk of litigation for users doing this.

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