Downloading Torrents And "payback"

[p_brownstone]

I occasionally use uTorrent to download Torrents and am always willing to leave the finished Download seeding for a while as payback - my Computer and Internet Connection is on 24 / 7 .

In the uTorrent window is a column headed "Ratio" - what is the acceptable ratio I should allow before deleting the Torrent?

(I assume I understand the basic principle here!!)

Patrick

[MKAsok]

1.000

[briley]

1.5 to allow for the leechers

Or force seed when you see lots of leechers and few seeds.

[wolfmanjack]

mine is almost always 2.0 or higher by the time i get the file downloaded since the upload is often faster than the download on my dsl .

[thaicbr]

ok i'm new to this........... can some one explain.thanks

[Supernova]

Generally, the accepted ratio is 1:1. Since most ISP's in Thailand have uploads capped at 512K it could be difficult to achieve high upload:download ratio unless you're willing to seed for 2-3 days (depending on your UP speed).

[dave_boo]

Depends on how altrusitic you are. A good person will shoot for a ratio of 2.0+ because this means you've fed an additional copy back into the system. An average person will do 1.0. A leecher will disconnect as soon as they get all their pieces. But as mentioned above, set up your client to reject leechers; if people aren't giving back they don't deserve anything.

[MKAsok]

ok i'm new to this........... can some one explain.thanks

This applies to private trackers: Give back what you take i.e. 1:1 and you won't go far wrong. Of course, anything above 1:1 is always going to be welcome, but some would argue overseeding encourages hit and runners and takes away the opportunity from others to seed back (particularly if you have a seedbox or very fast upstream speed). The truth is the supply and demand nature of torrents requires a certain amount of flexibility and common-sense decision making on the part of BT users. Some (private) trackers have more specific rules regarding global ratio vs individual (on each torrent) ratio e.g. seed to minimum 0.7 or 72 hours (continuously with no leechers) on each torrent. If you seed 0.7 on one torrent you need to overseed another or others to maintain your global ratio - that kind of thing.

If you want to seed back to 1:1 on a public tracker, that's all good, but not required by the rules - i.e. you can 'hit and run' torrents with no consequences.

[InSiSongkram]

As stated before 1:1 is what you should be doing i.e. uploading equally as much as you have downloaded.

[Phil Conners]

But as mentioned above, set up your client to reject leechers; if people aren't giving back they don't deserve anything.

Is there a way to do that in utorrent?

[villagefarang]

The torrent agent that I use has a global setting of .25 and then shuts down on its own. That leaves me seeing no need to do more.

[dave_boo]

But as mentioned above, set up your client to reject leechers; if people aren't giving back they don't deserve anything.

Is there a way to do that in utorrent?

I use Transmission inside of Linux. I believe that utorrent doesn't have any such ability, but you can get Auzrues and it will do it for you.

[MKAsok]

The torrent agent that I use has a global setting of .25 and then shuts down on its own. That leaves me seeing no need to do more.

Fine for public trackers. Will get you banned from most private trackers.

[torrenova]

Upload speed is an issue for me though I try to leave it open through the night and close it through the day.

[basjke]

And what you do when it isn't possible to seed 1:1?Let say when there are no leechers anymore.Happens to me many time thatI have been seeding for days but no leechers.

I also read on some forum that if you reboot your modem you will get another ip address because it isn't static.How do trackers keep track of your ratio in this case?

[Supernova]

And what you do when it isn't possible to seed 1:1?Let say when there are no leechers anymore.Happens to me many time thatI have been seeding for days but no leechers.

Simple. You 'overseed' on those torrents where there are leechers. Most people think they have to achieve a 1:1 ratio on every torrent, which is good, but is not required. You could seed 0.5 on a given torrent, then seed 150% or 200% on another. As long as you maintain a global ratio of at least 1:1, you'll be fine.

I also read on some forum that if you reboot your modem you will get another ip address because it isn't static.How do trackers keep track of your ratio in this case?

Private trackers require users to login. When you download .torrent files from these sites, a unique id or signature is added to the .torrent files you download to keep track of you. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming this is how it's done.

[MKAsok]

When you download .torrent files from these sites, a unique id or signature is added to the .torrent files you download to keep track of you. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming this is how it's done.

This is correct, it's called a passkey. Your IP is (generally speaking) irrelevant to the tracker (however most trackers will place a limit on the number of the number of distinct IPs being used by one account - usually around 5 - this is to prevent users from sharing their passkey).

[basjke]

When you download .torrent files from these sites, a unique id or signature is added to the .torrent files you download to keep track of you. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming this is how it's done.

This is correct, it's called a passkey. Your IP is (generally speaking) irrelevant to the tracker (however most trackers will place a limit on the number of the number of distinct IPs being used by one account - usually around 5 - this is to prevent users from sharing their passkey).

So when you get banned you just create a new account.Problem solved,right?

[Beacher]

Utorrent default is 1 to 1.5, but as our upload speeds here in LOS are quite slow (2 M DL / 512 K UL) I changed mine to 1.1. In other words, I give back 110% of what I take (instead of Utorrent's default of 150%), and considering the circumstances here, I think that's pretty fair.

[MKAsok]

So when you get banned you just create a new account.Problem solved,right?

Depends on the tracker. Many of them (particularly the higher-level ones that never open sign-ups) are pretty rabid about banned users staying banned. Assuming you have a dynamic IP and you sign up with a different IP, your IP will still be in a certain range (unless you change ISP) and most private trackers would rather ban an entire IP range than have someone coming back again and again and taking the piss. Of course this can be a real pain in the nuts for the rest of us: right now I can't access my Karagarga account, because a whole IP range from True is banned. Remember also, you can't just create a new account, you need to be re-invited. If someone invites a previously banned user, they (and their entire invite tree) will also be banned. So no, it's not really that simple.

[Phil Conners]

Utorrent default is 1 to 1.5, but as our upload speeds here in LOS are quite slow (2 M DL / 512 K UL) I changed mine to 1.1. In other words, I give back 110% of what I take (instead of Utorrent's default of 150%), and considering the circumstances here, I think that's pretty fair.

Where in utorrent do you set that?

[MKAsok]

^It's in Options/Preferences/Queueing for the global default. You can also override the global default in each torrent's individual properties (just right click the relevant one in uTorrent - select properties).