Seeders and Leechers?

Question

I cannot understand the basic concept behind seeders & leechers.
Is it like this that more number of seeders the better the download will be. OR Is it like that percentage of seeders & leechers affect the download. Suppose

1.If there are 15 seeders and 15 leechers
2.If there are 75 seeders and 96 leechers

Which download will be better????
will the no. of leecher affect the download?
OR
Only the no. of seeders should be taken into consideration?

Answer 1

That is a good question. Seeders are people who have a complete copy of the file. Leechers are people still trying to download. With torrents, you don't just download from seeders, you also share your bits and pieces of the files to and from other leechers, too. You need at least 1 seeder to be able to complete a download. It could happen like this even, you could get 90% of the file just from the other leechers and only have to get a connection to one of the seeders for the last 10%. The seeder isn't really important, except for the fact that he will ultimately have one or more pieces of the file to complete the download. But if a leecher (who is not 100% yet) could possibly also have the last 10% of the file you need. In that case, it is also possible to get 100% of the file and never touch a seeder. It usually doesn't happen like that, but it sure could.

While your #1 seems like their is less competition and would seem to be better, I find your #2 option to be better. You will be getting bits and pieces from some of the 96 leechers and you will be getting some pieces from the seeders too.

So it might seem like the more leechers there are, the harder it will be, but that is absolutely not true. Torrents don't work like Shareaza. In Shareaza, you only get files from the person who has the file (equivalent to seeder in Torrent). But in torrent, you download different parts of the file (random order) from everyone, including the leecher. That way, you can give your part of the file to another leecher and he gives you another piece. After a while it all comes together. Torrents are generally slower until you get towards 1/3 to 1/2 of the file.

Answer 2

The leechers would become seeders from the first seeder.