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Basic question regarding Seeds & Peers


RockinRoll69

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Posted

Hi,

I've just got a couple basic questions that I didn't find the answers to in the user manual nor the FAQs:

I read what are Seeds & Peers and I thought I had a basic understanding but what do the numbers in the parenthesis mean?

For example:

1) Status Downloading Seeds 0 (7) Peers: 0 (0)

2) Status: [F] Downloading, Seeds 0 (65), Peers 0 (2)

3) Status: Downloading, Seeds 0 (0), Peers 4 (9)

As I'm sure you know, none of those are actually downloading anything, even though they're higher in the queue than ones that are downloading...and I've set two Bandwidth Allocations to High.

I've right-clicked and selected Update Tracker

As you can see, I've also selected Force Start (and waited & waited. The [F] in example 2 has been about 36 hours). When that didn't work. I clicked on Start again.

I thought that Seeds meant people who have the full torrent (or object of the torrent) fully downloaded and are offering it to others.

I thought Peers meant people who are downloading but don't have the complete file, but I also thought that meant they could "seed" the parts they have downloaded.

So, why aren't any of these downloading?

What is the difference between the numbers outside & inside the parentheses?

Thank,

Rock

Posted

The number inside the parenthesis are the total number of seeds or peers the tracker reported at the last polling. The numbers outside would be the number you are connected to, if any are indicated.

None are downloading because you are not connected to any seeds or peers, except for #3 and you may have the same amount of the torrent they have, aka Availibility and you all are waiting for a seeder.

Maybe the seeders of the other 2 torrents have them stopped. I do that all the time, when I want one to finish seeding.

Maybe they don't exist anymore and will be reflected on the next tracker update.

Posted

Thanks, WLS!

Do you know how long the tracker takes to update after you select Update Tracker for an individual torrent?

And regarding my example 2 with Seeds: 0 (65), Is it really likely that all 65 people have stopped them? Sorry, if that's a stupid question. Remember I'm brand new to this. It just seems improbable to me that all of them would do that.

Also, on that torrent I have 0.0% and I can't connect to the Peers to download whatever pieces they have.

I presumed that I must have done something wrong, messed up a setting, accidentally blacklisted them or something, since I had so many potential seeders to connect with.

By the way, I just checked and that torrent is now reporting: Seeds 0 (62), Peers: 0 (1)

Thanks for the help.

Posted

WLS-

I think I just figured out an answer by looking in my Completed directory. I've got a number of torrents listing as Queued Seed.

I'm inferring that means, for example, in my second example above indicating 65 seeders, that there are 65 seeders available but I can't connect to them because all their ports are being used to seed other torrents.

If that's right or wrong, please, let me know.

Thanks.

Posted
I'm inferring that means, for example, in my second example above indicating 65 seeders, that there are 65 seeders available but I can't connect to them because all their ports are being used to seed other torrents.

If you're seeding, you will NEVER connect to other seeds. Period, full stop. It's a waste of a connection slot and a LOT of protocol overhead for absolutely no benefit.

Queued seed means you've used up all your active torrent slots and that particular torrent is waiting for one to free up. It has absolutely nothing to do with ANYTHING on remote computers.

Posted
Queued seed means you've used up all your active torrent slots and that particular torrent is waiting for one to free up. It has absolutely nothing to do with ANYTHING on remote computers.

Thanks! But I didn't mean it had anything to do directly with remote computers. I was saying that all my slots are being used up and from that I was inferring that remote computers slots were all being used for the same reason.

By the way, I've got dyslexia so I just do the best I can to muddle my way through guides, manuals, FAQ's, etc. But it's not easy to extract the data I need, especially from something brand new to me and "voluminous" (from a dyslexics perspective anyway).

And I did several searches including Bing, Wikipedia, and at least a couple here and didn't find what I was looking for. Only then did I post my questions.

From the FAQ I read, "Generally, it's considered good manners to continue seeding a file after you have finished downloading."

That's all I was/am attempting to do...use good etiquette and let others download what I've already downloaded. I just went with the uTorrent defaults and started downloading torrent files. The default settings allow me to seed and download at the same time...that's all I was saying. So, I don't know what you mean by, "If you're seeding, you will NEVER connect to other seeds." I didn't change any settings (purposely) so unless the uTorrent's defaults try to do that I'm not doing it. And I don't even understand why I would even attempt to do it. Unless I'm missing something it sounds like you'd being trying download something you've already downloaded.

I just went back through and reread the FAQ and the guide you included in your post and I still didn't find my original questions addressed. Again, maybe it's just the dyslexia but nonetheless I didn't find it. And, I think that was actually my 3rd time through the FAQ.

Posted
WLS-

I think I just figured out an answer by looking in my Completed directory. I've got a number of torrents listing as Queued Seed.

I'm inferring that means, for example, in my second example above indicating 65 seeders, that there are 65 seeders available but I can't connect to them because all their ports are being used to seed other torrents.

If that's right or wrong, please, let me know.

Thanks.

If I understand your first post correctly you are trying to download these 3 torrents.

Correct?

How many torrents total do you have in your client? Maybe you need to stop and delete some completed jobs.

I dunno if that is right or wrong. I don't care that much. If it doesn't start downloading after a certain amount of time I delete the torrent, look for a better seeded one or completely forget about it.

With that small number of seeders for the examples you gave, they don't look like very popular or maybe really old torrents. Forget them and stop losing sleep.

What version of uTorrent are you using?

Posted

If I understand your first post correctly you are trying to download these 3 torrents.

Correct?.

That's Correct. They're 3 lectures I really want to hear and I've done several searches on Kickass Torrents, PirateBay, isoHunt, torrentwatch, etc. and the only torrents that post are the one's I'm already attempting to download.

How many torrents total do you have in your client? Maybe you need to stop and delete some completed jobs.

Uh. I'm guessing way too many (embarrassed grin). I have 65 completed and 33 in queue. I thought I was being nice by leaving them available for others to download. I'm guessing it's stupid, aye? Do you know the link to the section of the guide, or another resource that explains that part of torrenting?

I haven't read the entire guide nor FAQ but I have been through the entire Table of Contents and read everything I thought was pertinent. But I didn't see anything about keeping ratios, or deleting old torrents because they mess things up, etc. Sorry, it's probably the dyslexia.

By the way, I don't expect you write the answer to that. I can see it could be rather lengthy but if you know of the place in the guide or in another resource that explains those types of thing I'd appreciate you posting the link(s)!

I'm gonna see if I can find something on a Tube site that is in lecture/demo format.

With that small number of seeders for the examples you gave, they don't look like very popular or maybe really old torrents. Forget them and stop losing sleep.

What version of uTorrent are you using?

Okay, I'll just dump 'em. And version 2.2.1

  • 5 months later...
Posted

How many torrents total do you have in your client? Maybe you need to stop and delete some completed jobs.

Uh. I'm guessing way too many (embarrassed grin). I have 65 completed and 33 in queue. I thought I was being nice by leaving them available for others to download.

No, you're not stupid. Almost nobody is good at anything when they first attempt it. It is a good idea to keep up with good etiquette, as without it, there would be no P2P community. A VERY fair ratio number is 1.000, or 100%. this means that you have uploaded the same amount that you have downloaded. To change the default ratio before a torrent is finished go to preferences>queueing>Minimum ratio percent. Remember, 100% means that you will upload the same amount of data that you download.

If I remember correctly, Utorrent defaults at 8 active torrents (8 seeds max, 5 downloads max), but these numbers may be off. After a torrent reaches the "finished" state, it will no longer try to download/seed that torrent. you may as well delete it. or, you can change the desired ratio settings of the torrent and keep it active. Torrents with high seed:peer ratios may never seed based on your specific connection. If you notice that a torrent has been in the "seeding" status for a while, not uploading, AND theres a small number of peers compared to seeds (theres no definite number, but i use half as mine) then it is not worth trying to seed that torrent to the default ratio. Another generalization is 'if theres less than 100 seeds, dont even bother trying to download it"

For what i see thus far in your situation, delete the 'finished' torrents. Put bandwidth allocation of the remaining torrents to normal. If this does not solve your downloading issue, then try stopping all of the torrents that are 'seeding' untill your 'downloading' torrents finish downloading and begin seeding.

Hope this helps :)

  • 1 year later...
Posted

Ok, so this is an old thread, I can only hope some kindly admin. might respond. I have (I think!) at least an "adequate" understanding of the peer and seed concepts but my tracker list isn't showing the x(y). There are no peers or seeds in parenthesis only # out of parenthesis.? In the particular torrent I am looking at, it shows a number of seeds (no # in par. as I said) but in my peers list for this torrent, I am showing no seeds and the peer % and availability match.To finally get to a ?, Why am I not seeing the peer/seed #'s in the x(y) form and if there are seeds present why am I not d-loading from them? Also, the # of seeds has changed over time (never very many but at 1 point in the 40's now in teens) so this can't be referring to the "hypothetical" # in the swarm, can it? Sorry so long winded, any help would be appreciated tia!

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