What Are Leechers & Seeders?
The world of online file sharing has given rise to its own terminology, with the terms "seed" and "leech" being two notable examples. To find out if you're a seeder or a leecher, you need to know a little bit about Bittorrent technology and how it transfers files around the Internet.
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Bittorrent
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Bittorrent is a file transfer protocol that attempts to speed the process of downloading files from the Internet. Rather than attempting to transfer a file from one user to another, Bittorrent reconstructs the file, taking bits of it from everybody on the network that has that file. As a result, a Bittorrent client can download parts of a file from several owners at once, theoretically pulling the data from whoever has the fastest data connection at any given moment.
Seeds in Bittorrent
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Bittorrent can even pull data from somebody who has just part of the file, as long as it's a part it still needs to reconstruct that file. However, in order for Bittorrent to complete the file, at least one person on the network has to have the whole file. That complete file is called a "seed," and people who make complete files available for Bittorrent transfer are called "seeders."
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Leeching
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Someone who simply downloads files without providing seeds themselves is called a "leech," and the practice is referred to as "leeching." In practice, most file sharing networks are largely composed of leeches, but if the balance between those who leech files and those who serve them gets too lopsided, the file servers are overwhelmed and may simply quit.
Significance
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People who serve or seed files tend to be seen as the "good guys" in the world of file sharing, while those who simply leech tend to be looked on as dead weight. Some IRC file-sharing channels won't even let you download files unless you also serve them, and many Bittorrent clients automatically start seeding files as soon as they're completed, to increase the number of seeds.
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