Torrents - Seeding? Create your own server!

Torrent uses a peer-to-peer model to transfer file from server to other peers known as clients. Consider a situation where an examiner distributes the question paper to each child. This type of distribution is an example of a client-server model where the server directly communicates with the client. Whereas in the same scenario, if the server has given many copies to one person and that one person then distribute that paper to another. This is an example of a peer-to-peer model in which the children are peers. 

The torrent file that we download doesn’t contain the actual data instead it contains the meta-data of the file we are looking for. 

Torrent Seeding refers to a machine possessing all of the data that was downloaded using the torrent file. A peer or downloader becomes a seed when it completely downloads all the data and starts/continues uploading data for other peers. It basically means you are allowing other peers to download or copy the file you downloaded. If you are seeding a torrent, people all over the world have access to the files, thanks to you. As the number of seeds increases the download rate for newcomers that come in the swarm for downloading the file increases. 

Create your own sharing platform 

Using torrent we can share files with our friends who are not around us. Suppose you have a large document that you want to share with your friend who is far away from you. So for this purpose, you can create a torrent file consisting of the meta-data of the file you want to share.

• Open any torrent client and go to File.
• Choose to Create New Torrent...

• Select the file you want to share. Do not delete or change the location of the file after choosing the location of the file. 

• Do NOT tick the private torrent box (unless you’re using a private tracker). 
• Add public trackers from the list here. (Add all of these)
• Click on create and share the torrent file.
• While sharing your PC must be online.
• Once it is shared with one peer and it starts seeding the file then even if the server is down the peer will work as a server and the file can be shared again without the server being active all the time.

The main advantage of using torrent for sharing is that there is no need for the server to be online all the time. Only for the first peer, the server needs to be online. Once the file is with one peer it can share that same torrent file and even if the server is not online at that moment. The torrent file will still work and the document will be transferred from one peer to another peer without the involvement of the server. Whereas in a client-server model if the server is down, the file cannot be shared until the server is up again.

We hope this helps. If any suggestions or doubts you can add a comment and we will reply as soon as possible.