What does seeding mean in torrent?

Answer 1

The people sharing & connected to each other using the bit-torrent protocol are split into 2 categories. SEEDS(uppers) & LEECHERS(downloaders) In the begining while downloading a torrent for the first time you are a leecher because the download hasn't completed. When it completes you switch to a seeder and dedicate that stream to simply uploading. The more seeds available the faster the download.

Seeding is the process of connecting to a torrent when you have a complete file.

Yes it is important to seed 1 to 1. The more seeders there are on a torrent the faster the torrent is. You are not downloading the torrent from the actual site you get it from. You are downloading it off another user that has it on their computer.

Let's say someone uploads a torrent to a site and that person seeds at 100kbps. At first every single leecher is trying to get the file from the uploader which if there are 10 leechers then each leecher is approximately getting the file at 10kbps.

Let's say the 10 people finish downloading the torrent from the uploader. Each also is seeding at a speed of 100kbps.

That means the total speed of the torrent after the 10 get done downloading the file is 1100kbps. Because 10 are seeding at 100kbps and the original uploader is seeding at 100kbps. So if there are 11 more leechers getting the file now each of those leechers are approximately getting the file at 100kbps instead of 10kbps because there is a 1 to 1 ratio per seeder & leecher.

If everyone just downloaded the file from the uploader and stopped seeding without seeding the torrent 1:1 then the uploader will always be stuck seeding. Which the speed of the torrent will hardly go up because the leechers will always outnumber the seeder.

So it is important to seed back at least what you take. So if you download a file that is 1GB then seed back 1GB. That is why it is called FILE SHARING. People are considerate enough to share their stuff you can repay them back by seeding back what you take so others can enjoy it as well.

Answer 2

When you are downloading/uploading the file, you are referred to as the 'leecher'. Once your download is complete, you will see that your Bittorent client will keep on uploading the file, since downloading takes much less time than uploading. Once you have completely uploaded the file, you are known as a 'seeder'. The more the seeders on a torrent, the faster the downloads.