Number of seeds at 4(156). Is this normal?

[Chimpanzee]

Hi.

I'm not new to torrents but have never completely understood how they work. I understand the basics like what seeds are and what the ratio is and stuff like that, but not anything in much depth.

Whenever I download a torrent, the Seeds column always shows something along the lines of "4(156)". Does this mean there are 156 seed available and I'm connected to 4 of them? If so, is this normal. Why can't I connect to more of them?

(In this case, my Peers column is showing "95(1427)" if that helps.)

Cheers for your help.

[DreadWingKnight]

I'd say it's perfectly normal.

Even so, connecting to more seeds won't guarantee you better speeds, since the seeds are likely busy uploading to other peers.

[Chimpanzee]

Thanks.

But it couldn't damage my speed if it was connected to more? Is there any way to improve it or does everyone get this experience?

Did I assume correctly that the number outside of the () was the number I'm connected to and inside the () is the number available?

Cheers for your help.

[DreadWingKnight]

Actually, it could damage your speed if you connect to more, especially if they're ALL busy uploading to other peers.

Additionally, connecting to more could potentially increase your protocol overhead, which would leave less bandwidth available for actual data transfers.

It'll take away from the improvements in speed you get from trading pieces with other downloaders.

Your assumptions about the brackets are close.

Outside IS the number you're currently connected to.

Inside is the number that uT THINKS is there (they may not necessarily be there).

[nos_slived]

Inside is the number that uT THINKS is there (they may not necessarily be there).

There are numerous causes for this, the most common being trackers that "remember" peers for long periods of time. A tracker that remembers peers and seeds for 24 hours may report 10000 seeds, even though 9999 of those seeds were connected at different times throughout the day, and have all gone offline since, which would result in something like "1 (10000)".