How to seed?
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...It's stopped again. And I still have not one clue to why. The tracker status has become "Not Working" again.
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This could be down to free VPNs' monthly torrent download limits. 10-15gb isn't very much so you may have already reached it with both VPN services.
I'd start by making sure qBittorrent works with no VPN in the mix. Make sure the VPN(s) are properly closed, not just disconnected. If you're using Windows, use Task Manager to make sure all VPN services are stopped, not just the main interface. If you're still not sure, reboot. But first, make sure your VPN is NOT set to start when the system does. There's usually a simple toggle switch or dropdown to turn this feature on and off. Also, pause all of the torrents in qBittorrent.
Once you're sure there's no VPN anywhere in the mix, start qBittorrent, then start one or two torrents. See if they start downloading. Of course, seeders may not be connected to the one(s) you've chosen, so if they don't start, pause them again, and try a couple more.
Once we've confirmed qBittorrent works with no VPN interference, we can start looking at why it doesn't work when the VPN is running.
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Yeah, it works fine without the VPN active and it only doesn't quite work if I have a VPN Active. Windscribe just flat out doesn't work, and Proton is very slow. But that being said, I am using the FREE version of Proton so I'd assume the servers are kinda congested.
Should I buy the subscription for Proton, or do you have any VPN recommendations? The only other option is trying to be careful while going without a VPN, but I rather not do that.
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@DeepSeaTide I use ExpressVPN, which I find really good on the whole. It has one important feature: "Split tunnelling". This allows you to set a general rule to use the VPN or not use the VPN, but then specify something different on a 'per app' basis. So, for example, you can set qBittorrent to only work if the VPN is connected. If it stops for any reason, qBittorrent stops too, so you don't risk being exposed. But your browser you can set to use the VPN if it's working, but carry on if it's not. Or even, to never use the VPN. There are some sites I visit that just won't connect if it's via a VPN. With that setting, I can happily browse, while qBittorrent is still working away through the VPN.
The one downside of ExpressVPN is that it doesn't allow / support port forwarding. Most VPNs don't. Torrents will work without it, so long as one person in the swarm has it. Think of it as everyone being able to talk and saying "have you got...?" or "I've got...". But only one person can hear what's being said so know when and what they've been asked. (Not a brilliant analogy, but close enough for now.)
According to my AI friend, here are some VPNs worth checking out:
Proton VPN - Included in paid plans - Probably the easiest mainstream option. Dynamic port assigned by the VPN.
AirVPN - Included - Long-time favourite among torrent users. Supports multiple forwarded ports. More technical interface.
Private Internet Access (PIA) Included - Still supports port forwarding and is often recommended specifically for qBittorrent users.
PureVPN - Included on supported plans - Less commonly recommended by torrent enthusiasts but still offers it.
I've not looked at any of these myself yet, but will definitely be doing so when I need to renew my annual subscription.
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Oooh, interesting! What makes AirVPN and PIA good specifically for torrenting? And are they better than Proton?
And between Air and PIA, which seems to be talked about more positively?
(at least, from what you know)On another side note, do I also have to use a VPN while seeding, or is it just the Torrenting part that's risky?
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I don't know about the differences between VPNs myself, was just posting what my AI told me when I asked about those which provide port forwarding. I suggest just googling (or DuckDuckGoing, given how intrusive and AIcentric Google has become) "Best VPN for torrenting".
Your sidenote: Yes! "Torrenting" is the collective term for the whole thing. The "torrent" is the file that matches people who want a file with people who have it. Torrents can be "public" or "private". If you download a torrent from, say "thepiratebay", these are public. You'll see there are multiple trackers. If you look at the torrents you download here, they'll have only one tracker - gaytor.rent. These are private. They're only accessible / usable by other members of this site.
While you are downloading the file, it's called "leeching". Once you have it, if you leave the torrent running so others can download from you, it's called "seeding". The two aren't mutually exclusive, so you may well be seeding whilst still leeching. You're sharing those bits of the file you've got so far with others who need them. But technically, you're still a "leecher".
If a torrent has four files but you only want two of them, so untick them in qBittorrent so the two you don't want aren't downloaded, you'll still be a "leecher" even when the two files you wanted have downloaded and you're seeding them. This is relevant because they'll always be counted in the downloading side (down arrow) here in your to menu bar.
This means that they'll always be taking up some of your download slots, of which you have a specified number according to your ratio, how many torrents you're seeding, and other variables.
To get them out of the download count you either need to complete the torrent (download all four files) or delete the torrent from qBittorrent... which means you're also no longer seeding it.
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One more thing for now, what does the Network Interface thingie do? If I set it to ProtonVPN (For example), does it make it only torrent stuff while ProtonVPN is active whereas "Any Interface" keeps it going even if the VPN goes down?
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@DeepSeaTide "Network Interface" tells qB which route(s) it can use to the internet to work.
If you use "Any interface", even though it might normally use your VPN if the VPN fails for any reason, it will just fall back to direct internet access.
Giving a specific access - e.g. your VPN - means that if the VPN stops working, perhaps because you've simply disconnected it, or actually closed down the VPN app, qB will stop working. You can tell your VPN to only let qB work through it (or at least I can in ExpressVPN. This is fine WHEN THE VPN APP IS RUNNING, whether it's connected or not. But if the app isn't running, there's nothing telling qB "hey, you gotta go through me".
Therefore, binding it to your VPN through qB is a very good idea - assuming you want "No VPN = No torrenting"!
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@Kevin4fm There is also PrivateVPN from PrivateVPN.com
That's who I use, and they're particularly helpful in countries like Turkey where the government has restricted access from torrent clients to our tracker, and most providers use an advanced DPI system, which blocks such requests, even through an ordinary VPN. The way they do this is what they call "Stealth VPN" and sometimes the feature is even referred to as a "DPI Firewall". Simply put, stealth VPN uses a different port for the VPN (usually TCP 443) combined with an advanced firewall that blocks DPI systems from being able to decipher the traffic, allowing the user to fly under the radar so to speak. The only down side to using this feature is that it does slow down the potential of the connection for a few reasons, one of which is the fact that the DPI cannot tell what kind of traffic it is, so it gets given a lower priority. Despite the reduction in speed, it is quite effective at bypassing even the stickiest of blocks and restrictions imposed by a government and/or internet provider.
It should also be noted that PrivateVPN offers port forwarding of at least one port on all server locations. They also have some server locations that forward ALL ports, unless you need to use stealth VPN with that location, in which case, it will only forward ONE port.
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@Kevin4fm While it is true that MOST trackers will work just fine without port forwarding, ours does NOT. Because of the large demand on the tracker for our tracker as compared to just about any other torrent tracker out there, there are some things that we had to scale back in order to save system resources... Support for passive nodes is one of them.
Without proper port forwarding, you'll still be able to download torrents just fine on the most part, however getting upload traffic can become quite difficult, and at times even seem impossible. Also, it should be noted that if your port forwarding settings are not properly in place and you try to download a torrent where none of the seeders on that torrent have their port forwarding settings properly in place, you will likely get stuck in a situation where despite the presence of seeders, no connection can be made to any of them because you cannot directly connect to them, they cannot directly connect to you, and our tracker does not support passive nodes very well.
If you have your port forwarding settings in place, but the seeds on a torrent do not, you're at an advantage because while the tracker itself does not support passive nodes very well, your torrent client itself will, as long as your port forwarding settings are in order. What will happen is instead of you connecting directly to the seeders, the seeder will establish the connection to you, and the transfer will begin using the follow-back path, instead of establishing the connection as a passive node through the tracker. This is why when there are only a few seeders and the torrent is not moving, putting the torrent on freeleech goes a long way. It attracts more users to the pool, some of which DO have their port forwarding settings in order, which results in the torrent finally starting to move.
So it may seem that port forwarding is nothing to worry about, however this is most definitely NOT the case with our tracker.
The only difference between martyrdom and suicide is press coverage! -
...you will likely get stuck in a situation where despite the presence of seeders, no connection can be made to any of them...
Yeah, this was exactly what caused me to find out about port forwarding. I have several torrents where I'm theoretically seeding, but one or two people have been waiting for days, or weeks, but we can't connect to each other so nothing happens.
The port forwarding issue doesn't seem to be that well known / understood, or at least it's only recently I've seen anyone mention it. Perhaps that's 'cos I didn't understand what I was looking for before.
A VPN supporting port forwarding next time is now a prerequisite for me. I just wish I'd known that before renewing my annual contract three months ago!
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Another question: How do I properly seed? My UL and DL ratio isn't going up even though I'm seeding multiple files. Is it because no one is downloading them?
If that's the case, what's the best way to ensure that what I'm seeding gets downloaded? I'm currently downloading and seeding from the freeleech tab.Another thing, does the UL/DL Ratio only count when downloading the torrent file, not the actual media?
(I'm not sure if this is the case since I didn't quite see anything in the FAQ. Either that or I misinterpreted it.) -
So what does this mean in summary? that Port Forwarding is really good and shouldn't be underestimated?
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I think Proton VPN has Port Forwarding? It's locked to premium, of course.
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@DeepSeaTide Yeah, Proton was going to be my likely go-to when I renew, but @MrMazda also mentioned PrivateVPN.com and that he uses it. Given that he demonstrates time and agin that he knows his stuff, that seems worth investigating too before making a final decision.
BTW, I'm not ignoring your earlier question. I'm midway through a fairly lengthy answer in another tab right now!
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I'm assuming that as a new member, you haven't actually downloaded or uploaded much yet. Those absolute numbers are important when looking at how uploading affects your ratio. Whether you've uploaded 11gb and downloaded 10gb, or uploaded 990gb and downloaded 900gb, you still have a ratio of 1.1. But if you then upload a further 1gb, you're suddenly at 1.2 with the former, while it hardly registers with the latter.
Theoretically (and probably simplistically) if you can download, you should be able to upload. I'd start by making sure you can actually see what's happening. You're using qBittorrent, yes?
You can change which columns are displayed by hovering over the column header names bar and right-clicking (1). This brings up a list of all the columns that can be shown. Simply click one to add or remove it. You can sort the list of torrents by any column simply by clicking on that column's name. The ones I find most useful for monitoring uploading are "Uploaded" and "Last Activity" (2) and "Up Speed". (3) In the below screenshot, I've sorted by "Last Activity", so I can see what is currently uploading and what has been active recently.
Display those columns on your app, and it will show you what is / has been uploading, and how much. This will at least help establish that you can upload, and are doing so. Assuming that's working OK, the question then becomes one of choosing the best torrents for seeding.
Before getting into that, let's address how much file storage you can use. I split my seeding files into "Short term" and "Long term". qBittorrent has a handy tagging feature so I tag my torrents appropriately (4). These also work as filters, so you'll notice in the screenshot I've selected "!!S" (my "Short term" tag) so all the torrents listed in the main panel are only the short term ones.
The long term ones I'm going to keep regardless of whether I seed them or not. There's some messing around to point to where I've saved them and getting the file names to match, so I don't find it worth it for most stuff, but I collect a lot of BL series where it's worthwhile to do so. They don't seed often individually, but I've got a LOT, so there's always a slow top-up trickle. "Short term" are what I mainly seed from.
I have a finite amount of space dedicated to short term seeding. When that space is getting full, I can easily sort the list to see what's is still seeding and what is no longer worth keeping. I can then simply delete those torrents, and associated files, to create room for more recent stuff to seed.
Freeleech is a good choice because what you download doesn't count against your ratio, whereas regular stuff does. Because of this, you don't even need to particularly want what you're downloading. You just grab it, use it to seed while it's wanted by others, then you can delete it. You can grab a 100gb torrent, and even if you only upload 10gb back, that full 10gb gets added to your ratio, without any cost of getting it.
Whether Freeleech or normal, though, I find the important thing is getting in early to maximise the chance of others then also wanting to grab it. To best apply this to Freeleech, sort the list by "Freeleech most recent", This puts the torrents that have most recently been added to Freeleech at the top. Sorting by when the torrent was first added, or when Freeleech will end doesn't do this.
Another good way to get upload traffic is to create a new torrent yourself, if you have anything that isn't on here already. There's obviously no download cost and you'll get at least 100% of the torrent size in upload credit. I mention that percentage because it's important to understand that if twenty people download it, that doesn't mean you'll get twenty times its size. Hopefully you will get considerably more than 100% though. Plus, it has other benefits, like increasing the number of torrents you can download each day.
By "the actual media", do you mean the video and image files contained within each torrent? Those are what count for downloading / uploading when calculating the ratio. I'm not sure if the actual .torrent file even counts against your download number. Whether or not they do, that's largely irrelevant. They're (relatively) tiny - usually no more than 50-60kb. My largest one was 1mb, which was for a torrent containing about 760gb worth of files.
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I should have added somewhere, if you do decide to get a paid VPN subscription that supports port forwarding, this will put you miles ahead of many (most?) other members here, and will I'm sure help your seeding tremendously.
There has to be at least one member of a swarm (the term for all the seeders and leechers within a torrent) for it to work properly. If you're that one person, or one of them, you'll likely be one of the first to link up with others wanting what you've got.
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So if I download a 4 GB torrent, the 4 GB would be added to my DL, not the torrent file thingie?
Speaking of seeding, do you need to have the files get downloaded by someone to get that added to your ratio, or do you just need to be seeding it and then it'll passively add to your ratio? That's my main concern- Whether I have to constantly be swapping to new Torrents to earn points once no one is downloading from the old Torrent.
As for the VPN, is this why downloads have been REALLY slow when using a VPN?
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Also, what's the "Super Seeding Mode" in Qbittorrent (I'm assuming other torrenting clients also have that) supposed to do?
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I'm not absolutely sure the torrent file itself (i.e the file called "filename.torrent") isn't included, but even if it is, it's tiny - maybe 40kb, which is 0.0001% of a 4gb file. I think. It's been a long day. I may have added an extra 0. Or left one out.
It's the totla size of the files within that torrent that are counted. In the above screenshot, it's the column "Size".
Seeding and seeding availability are two different things. You get upload credit (1 to 1) for the volume you actually upload. Obviously, you have to have them available - i.e. in qBittorrent and shown as "Seeding" for someone to download them. You bonus points for seeding availabilty, even if no-one actually leeches from you. This is relatively small, and there's a cap on the number of torrents you get it for, but over a long time it adds up. You can exchange these bonus points for upload credit and other stuff, or you can give some to people who have uploaded a torrent as a "Thank you". Click on your bonus points number in the top bar to see a list of what you can do with them.
"Constantly" swapping torrents is relative. I've currently got about 2.8TB of files in my short term seeding space. I constantly add to it. Pretty much everything I download goes in there, unless I know for a fact I'll be keeping it long term (e.g BL shows) in which case I store it elsewhere, tag it as LT seeding, and leave it there "forever" in case someone wants it.
I go through my ST seeds now and then and delete stuff that hasn't seeded for a month. You need to be sure when you delete it that you delete the files as well as the torrent, i.e. ensure you tick "Also permanently delete..." (1), otherwise th files themselves stay where you've saved them, taking up space.
If by "is this why" you're referring to port forwarding on a VPN then no, it doesn't affect speed. (though I'm sure someone will point out there are instances when it does - see @MrMazda's comment for an example). That simply affects whether you can or cannot download, full stop. You can have people available to seed, and people wanting to leech, but if there's no "broker" - for want of a better way of putting it - it just won't happen until / unless someone who does have port forwarding (a "broker") joins the swarm.
Generally, a VPN doesn't significantly slow downloads. I do seem to have recently noticed a significant drop myself in both download speed and the amount I'm uploading. My download speed is usually 8mb/s but recently it's more like 5 mb/s on a good day. And the amount I'm uploading has dropped a lot too. I'm unaware of any changes I've made in my own set-up, so it may be related to some of the recent site improvements and I need to adjust my settings. But I've not investigated so this may just be my imagination.
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