How super seeding mode actually works ?

Other platforms, generic questions.
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Rabelais

How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Rabelais »

Hello guys, I'm an uploader and I've just downloaded qBittorrent (I used uTorrent for many years).
I will be glad if someone else could explain to me how the "super seeding mode" precisely works. I usually seed at high speed (~5 MB/s) and I'm trying to use this client at its best with the purpose to seed in a better way.
Thanks in advance!
ciaobaby

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by ciaobaby »

qBitTorrent uses  libtorrent which behaves as the protocol specifies
Rabelais

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Rabelais »

[quote="ciaobaby"]
qBitTorrent uses  libtorrent which behaves as the protocol specifies
[/quote]

Big thanks, that's was what I was looking for! So super seed is only good with a limited bandwidth ?
ciaobaby

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by ciaobaby »

Not necessarily,  The idea of super-seeding is make as many pieces as possible spread around the swarm so it improves the availability of any one piece, as it prevents any one peer from downloading all the pieces from the initial single seed then leaving the swarm, it also prevents peers from 'streaming' the payload until every piece is available from multiple sources.
It's not about reducing or saving the initial seeders bandwidth the purpose is to prevent peers hogging seed resources until the swarm has developed sufficiently and of course there are times when "Super-Seeding" should NOT be used at all.
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Peter
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Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Peter »

I thought super-seeding means that you upload to the very first (or at least only one) peer.
Guess I knew that wrong. oh well.
Switeck

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Switeck »

Super Seeding can only work correctly given a few conditions.
1.There must be multiple peers trying to download ALL of the torrent in no particular order. (Peers downloading sequentially breaks Tit-For-Tat. Peers downloading only certain files will not help other peers downloading only different files.)
2.The peers must be able to upload to each other. (If peers are firewalled to each other, the pieces cannot be shared between them and the initial/super seeder may quit uploading anything until it sees other peers have these pieces.)
3.The peers must report to the seed that they have downloaded individual pieces in a timely manner. (BitComet and clones may be guilty of not doing this. If the initial/super seed doesn't see that each uploaded piece reaches other peers quickly, it may quit uploading and wait for these pieces to appear on other peers.)
4.There are no or very few other seeds. (If other seeds are uploading, they can be sending out duplicate pieces which will appear to mean that the peers are sharing correctly between each other instead of acting in a leech-like manner.)
5.The initial/super seed needs to be able to stay connected with pretty much all the peers on a torrent. (Otherwise, a peer may be uploading to "invisible" peers the seed doesn't see...and the seed may refuse to upload any more to that peer.)
6.The torrent swarm lacks any hostile/malicious peers. (Because if regular BitTorrent peers can screw this up, imagine what intentionally hostile peers can do!)

Endgame strategies such as used by BitTyrant all the time or by uTorrent once it only has a few pieces left to download can reduce the effectiveness of super seeding.
Last edited by Switeck on Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Freonpsandoz

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Freonpsandoz »

I think I finally understand why 90% of public torrents are swiss cheese! Instead of completing the torrent for one peer in the hope that peer will share until another copy is made, pieces are given to many peers, but nobody has all of the pieces. The one seed leaves before anyone gets all pieces, and everyone is left with swiss cheese.

Are these tricks also why if frequently find that, when I'm downloading a music torrent, the track I really want most to listen to and have given high priority is downloaded first -- except for one piece, which is downloaded dead f'ing last after every other piece of the torrent?
Switeck

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Switeck »

If it's the 1st or last piece of a file that's slow to download, it's because it's shared with an "unpopular" file next to it...that almost nobody has.
jedikiller

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by jedikiller »

That actually sounds great, it's like communism.
But if the slower downloader has a very slow speed eg.10B, that would also limit the overall traffic?
Freonpsandoz

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Freonpsandoz »

Switeck wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 6:26 pm If it's the 1st or last piece of a file that's slow to download, it's because it's shared with an "unpopular" file next to it...that almost nobody has.
That's not true. In the vast majority of cases, I'm connected to only one seed.
Switeck

Re: How super seeding mode actually works ?

Post by Switeck »

Yes, on very old public torrents...
Peers become seeds and leave...so only 1 seed remains.

Super seeding only works when there's multiple peers and few seeds, so that's what I was assuming for purposes of how and when to use it.
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