Just how altruistic are my Bittorrent settings?

osio · 05-07-2007, 07:18 AM

My Bittorrent settings are the default ones:
Seed completed torrents until share ratio reaches 80 percent or for 300 minutes, whichever comes first?
I usually download large iso images like distros. I delete the bittorrents when I read: Done. Shared 80%.
What are the settings that set apart contributors from parasites?
Thanks,
bittorrent-4.4.0-1.fc4
distro Fedora 2.6.17-1.2142_FC4

rjwilmsi · 05-07-2007, 09:06 AM

Well if everybody shared less than 100% bittorrent would never work. 300 minutes might be generous, but it depends on how fast you upload. If my router didn't crash every couple of days because of 24/7 bittorrent use I'd share my opensuse 10.2 ISO until the 10.3 came out.

Cogar · 05-07-2007, 03:02 PM

I agree that you should share until your ratio is at least 1.0 (100%).

osio · 05-07-2007, 04:14 PM

But would the default settings be of only 80%?
Maybe the percent is on the packets of the file, not the actual size of the file. I might have sent 80% of the packets several times to multiple clients. My upload would exceed several times the size of the originally downloaded file in total kB.
Are there bittorrent servers delivering more than all the clients?

Cogar · 05-07-2007, 04:28 PM

The share ratio is total volume uploaded divided by total volume downloaded.

rjwilmsi · 05-08-2007, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by osio

Are there bittorrent servers delivering more than all the clients?

I don't think so, the server is used to coordinate and connect the users, it usually doesn't host the file at all. The idea of a sharing a file using a P2P service is that server load is significantly reduced compared to hosting by FTP.

osio · 05-08-2007, 01:57 PM

OK, thanks. I changed my settings to 100%.