Seeding and leeching are two activities associated with torrent-based peer-to-peer file sharing. A seed is a complete copy of a file that can be downloaded by other users. Leechers become seeders as soon as they finish downloading all of the files.
Seeding
Seeding is the process of sharing a file or files with other peers. If you leave a torrent job seeding after it finishes downloading, it uploads the file(s) to other peers so they can enjoy them as well. Although the exact length of time you should leave the file seeding is unknown, it is recommended that you share until the amount of data you upload equals the amount of data you download, also known as achieving a 1.0 ratio. It’s difficult to say exactly when you’ve reached this ratio, but leechers are people who leave the swarm before even getting close to it. Because leechers are bad for swarms, some peers or even private trackers use them.
Torrent is not like YouTube, which has all of the movies, videos, and other media available for download. When a user uploads a file, he is acting as if he is sharing it with others. On the torrent network, his file data is available in bits. A few excerpts from the file he uploaded, as well as excerpts from people who downloaded it.
These bits or pieces are downloaded in the form of torrent files. When a piece becomes available on the internet, it is downloaded, and once all of the pieces have been downloaded, they are merged.
After downloading a file, the individual pieces are uploaded to various servers so that others can download them at a faster rate.
Is seeding a good idea?
Seeding is, to my knowledge, completely safe. You’re simply uploading the files you’ve downloaded. Seeding is an infinite process, so be cautious when using data. You are serving the file to anyone who wishes to download it.
Leechers
The term “leecher” simply refers to a peer or any client that does not have 100% of the data. It also refers to a peer (or peers) that has a negative impact on the swarm by having a very low share ratio, downloading far more than they upload. Leeches may be using asymmetric internet connections or failing to leave their BitTorrent client open after their download is complete to seed the file.
Some leeches, on the other hand, use modified clients or limit their upload speed excessively to avoid uploading.