Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?
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An example right now is https://www.gaytor.rent/details.php?id=dfcbd18db1f251c6c91a397988232f5a84e668887fb786ec but I'm curious about the general idea, not just this one torrent.
The site shows 1 seeder and 32 leechers. I downloaded the .torrent to try to help seed it, but the swarm contains only leechers, and we're all at 0.00%. It seems like someone is reporting to the tracker that they're seeding, but not actually participating.
I see this happen on other sites sometimes too, so I don't think this is a site-specific issue. I'm just curious how things work. Will something eventually get marked as not having any seeders if they don't start responding, or is it just tied to what their torrent client reports?
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@blittle if the tracker reports a seeder it means they are in the swarm, this doesn't necessarily mean that they are available to seed.
depending on that one seeder's specific settings, his client might prioritize other torrents and actively prevent him from uploading pieces for a particular torrent.
it might take several hours or even days for them to start seeding a torrent if they are the only seeder and their client have very strict seeding rules.
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@blittle
Hopefully someone with more technical knowledge than me will chime in and fix what I get wrong here.- improperly configured VPNs and firewalls that are not actually accepting incoming requests
- seedboxes that are hung and not responding.\
- countries where it's not possible to seed fully, like India (this is a version of 1, but out of the user's control).
Because of the situation you've observed, it makes sense to honor reseed requests and help reseed even if the torrent is showing a small number of seeds. I do this when I can, though I don't really need the upload credit, to try to keep torrents alive.
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@blittle OK I did try to download and was connected and now disrtibutinng @ 1mbps happy now ...
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@john32123666 said in Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?:
@blittle OK I did try to download and was connected and now disrtibutinng @ 1mbps happy now ...
Thanks!
Now it's got tons of seeds.So I think I understand it -- "1 seeder" means someone out there in the swarm has it and is talking to the tracker, but doesn't guarantee that they're actively sharing it with others right at the moment.
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@blittle said in Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?:
@john32123666 said in Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?:
@blittle OK I did try to download and was connected and now disrtibutinng @ 1mbps happy now ...
Thanks!
Now it's got tons of seeds.So I think I understand it -- "1 seeder" means someone out there in the swarm has it and is talking to the tracker, but doesn't guarantee that they're actively sharing it with others right at the moment.
Not even close. Read the thread again.
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@ianfontinell-0 said in Why do some torrent show seeders when they're not in the swarm?:
If the tracker reports a seeder it means they are in the swarm, this doesn't necessarily mean that they are available to seed.
Perhaps you could clarify for me what a "swarm" is. I had been thinking that all seeders and leechers were on more or less equal footing, but it sounds like "swarms" are subsets of seeders and/or leechers, and if I'm not in an active swarm (that has material I want or can share), then I'm just idle until I get into the right swarm.
I'm somewhat IT-savvy (I'm the go-to resource in our office before we need to call a real expert), so feel free to give a more technical explanation.
Thanks in advance for this, and for the many helpful comments you have added to the forum.
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@eobox91103 swarm simply refers to the collective of all peers who are active in the distribution of a torrent regardless of whether they are downloading or uploading. in this sense, there is only one swarm.
what you described can happen, still. that is because the tracker, who is responsible for peer discovery, often limits the number of peers that can be discovered, and the peer list you get is determined by the tracker's algorithm. it is possible to end up with a peer list that is not very useful.
but it's worth noting that peer discovery occurs every time your client re-announces itself to the tracker, and you might get another subset of peers.
this is not a protocol rule, each tracker has its own rules. some trackers might report all peers in very specific scenarios, some trackers might report only partial peers in all scenarios.
i will soon write a topic to help elucidate this better, along with other words from torrenting terminology.
