Seeders, Leechers, and Port Forwarding Explained
So I'm sure youve seen these words multiple times, used by people when speaking about torrents or on torrent download websites. So what does it all mean? Lets put it in simple terms as they are simple concepts to understand.
Seeders:
Basically seeders are people who have already downloaded the file and are uploading them so that others can download as well. The more seeders the faster the download will go.
Leechers:
Leechers on the other hand, are the complete opposite. They are the number of people, like yourself, who are trying to obtain the file.
Remember, if a torrent file has 0 seeders, it will NEVER download. So try to get well seeded files.
Whats the deal with port forwarding?
The definition of port forwarding reads
“A transparent process, meaning network clients cannot see that port forwarding is being done. This process enables you to run a public Internet service on a machine that is otherwise hidden from the Internet by your gateway. Port forwarding may also be used to aggregate traffic from an application that uses several ports for transactions and consolidate it into one port for reporting total traffic identified with that application. "
Now, that sounds fancy and all, but how can it help me?
There are many different types of routers out there, but the most commonly used is by Linksys, so ill give you a basic understanding of what this consists of.
The first step is to access the router. The IP address varies from rotuer to router.
For LINKSYS the IP address is 192.16.1.1 and the default logins are “admin” for both username and password.
After logging in you will see the main setup page. Clock on the Applications and Gaming tab at the top of the page.
This will bring you to the port Range Forward page. Here is where we will actually forward the ports.
In the first box you will enter the name of the application this will apply to, be it BitTorrent, eMule , eDonkey, or whatever. For arguments sake we will apply it here as BitTorrent, with the specific BitTorrent client to be Azureus. So for Application type "Azureus."
For the Start and End Port, we'll be select a port from the reccomended 49152 - 65535 range (For BitTorrent only, and be sure to apply this port number to the Azureus client as well.). Keep in mind that ports used are program specific so check which ones the program requires to be forwarded. Type the port number or range in both boxes.
In the IP Address box type the name of the computer's Ip address to which this is to apply. If your not sure what the IP address is, follow these easy steps:
Open the run dialog box
Type “cmd”
Type “ipconfig”
At the risk of stating the obvious, if you'll notice your IP address will be listed there at the top where it says "IP Address." This is the address for the computer whose ports you are forwarding.
To finish last thing you want to above in the Port Range Forward page is to check the "enable" box. You'd be surprised at how a lot of people forget to do this simple task. Now click Save Settings at the bottom of the page and were all done. Presto, your ports are now forwarded.