Really new to uTorrent, torrents in general... Noob question

How to I change my settings so that I leech 100% and don't upload or seed *anything* at all?

All I have done is set the Upload speed limit to 1 kb/s. How do I not upload at all?

If you don't want upload, don't use Bittorrent. The concept is upload what you download.

In addition a very low upload will decrease your download speed.

Is the problem because you're on Rogers Cable ISP in Canada, one of the most hostile ISPs in the Western world?

Or because you've gotten a nasty letter or email saying "quit sharing or else"?

Please allow me to play devils-advocate for a moment, and state up front that I subscribe to the communities' goal and concept of file "sharing", taking from the community of file-sharers but, at the same time, giving back, in order for the program to function as it's supposed to therefore, I myself am a seeder.

So, at the risk of myself, also a newbie, being labeled counter-productive, an outlaw and a bad guy, why don't you guys just answer his question?

We all get it...we understand the concept behind P2P as being a two-fold proposition, a "partnership" if you will, that in order for you to be able to download there must be those uploading or "seeding" at the same time in order for the program to work successfully therefore, it's only fair that if you participate by using a program like uTorrent the expectation or "arrangement" is that you will make yourself available as a seed.

But there are some, a very small percentage of users new to P2P, who have read enough about the risks file sharers take from using a P2P program and the probability of getting caught by way of cyber-investigations, for example by factions of the RIAA and MPAA, and the possibility of hefty fines or even worse, jail time, for copyright infringement in the U.S. and other countries of the world.

So, why not allow this minute percentage of users the peace of mind they seek by giving them the choice of preventing or at least reducing the chances of themselves being exposed to this possibility by way of a method of throttling their uploads or seeding so they don't need to live a life full of paranoia and fear of that proverbial 3 a.m. "knock on the door"?

Quote"

"Is the problem because you're on Rogers Cable ISP in Canada, one of the most hostile ISPs in the Western world?

Or because you've gotten a nasty letter or email saying "quit sharing or else"?"

I am with Rogers, and I want to reduce my chances of getting a letter. I am also sorta selfish and want to use my 60GB download/upload bandwidth on pure downloads

Completely turning off uploads will do little to nothing in avoiding a letter. Many of the monitoring corporations don't even check to see if you're downloading or uploading -- they harvest your ip straight from the torrent tracker and may never even connect to you! Of the ones that check, you'd be in trouble if seen downloading from them...they may not even be set up to receive uploads.

BitTorrent REQUIRES uploading to function correctly. It's part of its core rules...

Being able to set upload really low should be good enough even for dial-up.

You could try downloading torrents that was almost entirely seeds...and/or block peer ips with ipfilter.dat -- but I can tell you that'll be more trouble than it's worth. You'd probably be getting new incoming connections often, so getting new peers could happen all the time.

Turning off DHT and Resolve IPs (right-click in PEERS window of an active torrent) can reduce bandwidth consumption.

Probably reduce it a tiny bit more by disabling Peer Exchange -- but that only works on public torrents and is less busy than DHT. It helps immensely in finding more peers/seeds -- by asking the ones you're connected to what they see.

Reducing global and per-torrent connection max can also reduce bandwidth consumption. This won't hurt download speeds much if you're still allowing 20-40 connections per torrent. A really bad thing that can happen with TOO many connections is you actually exceed your rated max download or upload speed and your ISP blocks excess traffic but counts it towards your monthly limit.

Risky business.

That's what it is Switech, this business of participating in P2P and exposing ones self to being tracked, identified, reprimanded and fined or worse for transferring unauthorized copyrighted material between computer users who, for a large part, are otherwise law-abiding, model citizens who would never think of breaking the law yet find themselves vulnerable simply for wanting to download a video or audio file. I know that's minimalistic but that's basically whats going on.

Even more frightening is when you point out:

"Many of the monitoring corporations don't even check to see if you're downloading or uploading -- they harvest your ip straight from the torrent tracker and may never even connect to you!"

Which tells me that my PeerGuardian 2 is not affording me any protection at all, it's worthless if I expect it is hiding or secreting me from those trackers because simply by the act of transferring files I can be susceptible. It just creates a false sense of security.

The bottom line I suppose is this...the blatant transferring of unauthorized copyrighted material in many countries, including the U.S., is illegal and as it is with any law you may break, if you get caught you must pay the penalty.

I'm seriously considering if it's worth taking that chance and worth participating in this risky business that could lead to a hefty fine and perhaps even a criminal record.

Thanks for your input Switech, you've enlightened me to things I was not aware of.

Gene

Example of research into how copyright monitoring companies work:

http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/