If you are familiar with torrenting, you may have heard of these terms: seed, peer and leech. But what do they mean and how do they affect your downloading experience? Let’s find out.
Seed: A seed is someone who has the complete file and is sharing it with others. The more seeds a torrent has, the faster you can download it. Seeding is considered a good practice in the torrent community, as it helps other users get the file.
Peer: A peer is someone who is downloading the file from one or more seeds, but does not have the complete file yet. Peers can also share the parts of the file they have with other peers, which increases the overall speed of the torrent.
Leech: A leech is someone who downloads more than they upload, or does not upload at all. This reduces the availability of the file and slows down the torrent for everyone. Leeching is frowned upon in the torrent community, as it is seen as selfish and unfair.