Q: Understanding Availability <-> Seeds/Peers mutual relationship

[jkowalski455]

Hi all!

Let me start with short citation from uTorrent manual:

From Toreent's Job List:

Availability displays the number of copies of the torrent contents that are distributed in the swarm.

From Detailed Info Pane / Info:

Seeds displays the number of seeds you are connected to. The second number is the number of known seeds in the peer cache collected from the tracker, DHT, and PEX. The number in the parentheses is the number of seeds reported by the tracker scrape.

I understand every seed has 100% of content, i.e. should add 1 to availability. Am I wrong here? Apparently yes, as comparing Seeds to Availiability I see no clear rule. Please see few examples for torrent's I created and started seeding few days ago:

Avail: 1.407 Seeds: 0 of 4 connected (1 in swarm) - this I would consider as correct if only seeds ins warm were accounted for

Avail: 1.860 Seeds: 0 of 9 connected (4 in swarm) - there are at least 4 seeds so why so low avail?

Avail: 1.886 Seeds: 0 of 9 connected (2 in swarm) - as above

Avail: 1.802 Seeds: 0 of 14 connected (4 in swarm) - as above

Avail: 3.979 Seeds: 0 of 4 connected (2 in swarm) - opposite: avail to high, but this could be explained by peers of course (25 connected, 10 in swarm) so not a problem

So my question is how EXACTLY Availability is calculated and especially how seeds affect it and which seed number corresponds to availability formula?

Thanks in advance

[DreadWingKnight]

Each seed you are CONNECTED to adds 1.0 to availability.

Based on the numbers you're seeing, there are NO seeds connected to you AT ALL, but there are still enough copies of all the pieces to be able to complete the downloads.

In Swarm numbers are estimates and those seeds may not be seeding anymore.

[jkowalski455]

Each seed you are CONNECTED to adds 1.0 to availability.

Based on the numbers you're seeing, there are NO seeds connected to you AT ALL, but there are still enough copies of all the pieces to be able to complete the downloads.

In Swarm numbers are estimates and those seeds may not be seeding anymore.

Thank you for the quick answer!

I know there is NO seed connected to me cause these are my torrents and I am seeding them Sorry for not being clear enough.

My question was to understand better when I can stop initial seeding 'safely'.

I have set 'Seeding Goal" in preferences but wondered if Availiability is better to look at.

So, according to your answer Availability is a factor useful for downloading only, useless for initial seeding goal, right?

[ciaobaby]

useless for initial seeding goal, right?

Tep

My question was to understand better when I can stop initial seeding 'safely'.

Keep a log of connected peers and how much data has been uploaded to them.

[jkowalski455]

Keep a log of connected peers and how much data has been uploaded to them.

Hmm, you mean manually, with pen'n'paper? Can't see any feature to keep history in uTorrent other than statistics, i.e. total uploaded amount, share ratio etc. Got another idea. Take a look at Tracker->Downloaded field:

Downloaded - displays the number of times the torrent job was reported to be complete by peers on the tracker.

Do I understand correctly that this number is the total count of peers that completed 100% of torrent? If so, these are potential seeds, unless they are leachers of course... So I could just observe what is maximum number of what all trackers give me (I guess multiple trackers can report the same guy so better not to add them up) and assume some number is enough. Is there any statistics-based rule on how many leachers falls on one seed? I mean the average, sth from your own exp, any clue? For example, if I want to have 6 seeds having my torrent, and the average was 1 seed per 10 leachers I would wait till 6*10=60 "Downloaded" reports from single tracker. Does it make sense? Or will this estimate be even worse than "seeds in swarm" estimate and thus not too useful either?

I feel I might be re-inventing wheel here so let me re-phrase my question in the simplest way:

I am interested in having 6 seeds of my torrent. Should I check it against 2nd or 3rd number here: "0 of 9 connected (4 in swarm)"?? This is copied from uT, Info tab. Or should I just set Seeding Goal to 6 seeds and forget?

I am also going to keep eye on available seeds even for older torrents I may have stopped, using bt.scrape_stopped setting. This is just to not let them die Any reasons I shouldn't do it for?

[ciaobaby]

Hmm, you mean manually, with pen'n'paper?

Or you could copy and paste into an Open Office Calc worksheet.

Detailed Info panel -> Peers -> Uploaded NOT tracker stats

Should I check it against 2nd or 3rd number here: "0 of 9 connected (4 in swarm)

You do know that all this information is explained in the µTorrent manual and there is absolutely no need to wait for answers.

Help -> µTorrent Help F1 -> Contents -> µTorrent User Manual -> Appendix A: The µTorrent Interface -> Main Window -> Detail Info Pane -> Info -> Transfer.