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How to gain better ratios
#1
Guide To Better Ratios


Don't Stop Your Seeds


One of the most confounding things I've come across as a mod are users who try to shift the blame to their ISPs when a quick check on their profile reveals that they are not seeding at all. Why did you stop your seeds?? You have downloaded 30gb worth of stuff, go seed some of them back for goodness sake.

There is no point in seeding 20 files at the same time
Hey look, you have a limited upload of 128kb/s (ie 128kb/s = 16kB/s). Seeding 20 file at the same time will really just backfire on you.

Firstly, Each TCP connection that you make will add additional overhead to your bandwidth, thus lowering the amount of actual data capacity. What this means is that each torrent will only be effectively seeding data at very low rates.

Secondly, bittorrent clients are designed such that when your peers see that you are sending data so slowly, chances are that client will snub you and prioritise incoming data from OTHER clients ahead of yours so you not only do not fully utilise your bandwidth for purely sending useful data, you are also rejected by your peers.


Limit your upload slots per torrent

In most clients, you can change the max number of upload slots per torrent. Limiting this to a reasonable amount such that each upload slot gets a reasonable amount of bandwidth will help your seeds. The same logic applies as above. Having too many connections or seeding too many torrents at 1 time will be detrimental.

Basically the rule of thumb is to not spread your upload bandwidth too thinly across too many connections. What you want to do instead is to fully utilise your UL pipe for sending pure data.

Strategize what you decide to seed

And in relation to the above 2 tips, now that you have decided to only seed a few files at a time. Which one do you actually seed? A good rule of thumb is to seed torrent with a low seeder to leecher ratio. If you use Azureus, it keeps track of this data for you even when your torrents are not seeding so just pick the best torrent to seed and stop the rest.

Another strategy is to frequent the request forum. If you pick upon a request, you not only get to be the first seed, you also get the eternal gratitude of the requestor.

Do you really have to download 50 torrents at the same time?
Look. It really makes no sense to be complaining that you can't help having such a bad ratio. Of course you can't help it. Medical science has no cure for lack of common sense. You should consider your ability to seed back before you download.

Cap/Limit your downloads speeds to match your upload speeds.

This advice should be golden to users with a heavily unbalanced DL/UL pipe. It is human nature to want to grab grab and grab some more as fast as we can. If you have wonderful DL/UL speeds and can make up the deficit within a few days, sure go ahead. If you have a measly 3mbps/16kbps bandwidth, you will rub your hands in glee downloading 30gb worth of Photoshop DVDs within 3 days but spend the next week frantically trying to make up the deficit on a horrible UL capacity only to realise it is impossible and then you experience ratio problems. Well instead of complaining that you have slow upload bandwidth, if you cap your download bandwidth to match your upload capacity, you will not have this problem.

I know some that this is a step many of us are reluctant to take but hey if you think about it, it's quite logical after all. A typical lynda.com title averages 18 hours of training time. If you limit yourself to 1 download at a time at capped speeds, by the time you finish watching your first lynda.com title and take a break the rest of the day, your next lynda.com title will be done and ready to be tackled. And this is ....uming that you watch all the training videos that you download back to back.

Think about it. How many of us have tons of material sitting in your HDD that remains unwatched or unused just cause you can't afford the time to go through it as yet. Why be in such a quick rush to grab all those GBs that just sit idle and take up space and give you a major ratio headache? Limit your downloads at a time and at CAPPED speeds.

Upload fresh new content

This has got to be the most obvious advice. Not only will you boost your ratio, but you will improve the choice of content for other members and get a warm fluffy feeling inside knowing that you have made people happy.

Frequent the request forum

If you pick upon a request, you not only get to be the first seed, you also get the eternal gratitude of the requestor. Filling requests really fosters the community atmosphere - please do it if you can.

Check your own torrents

By clicking on your username or "my torrents" to see if a leechers are waiting for a seeder or a torrent you have needs more seeders. If the seeder:leecher ratio is low - help!

Check your torrent history

This wonderful feature lets you review all other torrents you have uploaded or downloaded that are still on the tracker. Please check this regularly. It will often be the case that a swarm you stopped seeding to few weeks ago really needs your help!

*** *** *** *** *** ***
Total Share Ratio vs Ratio Per Torrent?

Some users are attempting to get each torrent they seed to a 1:1 ratio for fear their *Overall Share Ratio* will drop if they do not do this.

Users need to be more concerned about their Overall Share Ratio instead of single torrent ratios. Some users are sacrificing great opportunities to seed and increase their share ratio by dividing their bandwidth with torrents that have plenty of seeders.

Lets say you're seeding a 2GB file or a 150 Meg file with 50 leechers and no one has completed leeching to help seed. And that you are seeding three torrents that each *already* have 10 - 50 or more seeders.

There is no reason to keep seeding the three torrents that already have 10+ seeders. The only thing this does is prevent you from seeding at your optimum rate which prevents you from obtaining the best user Share Ratio you can get because they slow down your total upload rate.

In this case, the additional open torrents also slow down those 60 leechers of the brand new 2GB file or 150 Meg file which only you are seeding and no one else is.

I'm not saying it's not important to seed each torrent to a 1:1 ratio. It's simply better to stop the other three torrents with 10+ seeders to allow maximum bandwidth for your 2GB file or 150 Meg file until you have seeded long enough to have (ideally) nine other helpers.

You can resume seeding the other three torrents to a 1:1 ratio hours or days later when there are less seeders, when newcomer leechers are needing the file and because it is better for your own bandwidth and Overall Share Ratio in the end.
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