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[bennyb98]

Ok, so i'm a newbie here, first post, so I have been downloading some torrents from here and I noticed I have a bad ratio (not really sure what that is) it seems to be because i'm not uploading much so my question is how do I let get my machine to upload? I am using uTorrent 1.7.7 and just downloaded it and didn't change any settings so not really sure why its not uploading anything.

Sorry if this is one of those obvious questions just didn't want to be downloading a bunch of stuff and then not upload anything.
thanks

[monorail91]

I'm not a torrent expert by any means, but I don't think that you can control how much you are uploading. The fact that you have your torrent still on your uTorrent screen thing lets other people download stuff, which I think means you're also sort of uploading it? I'm really fuzzy on the terminology, but I'm pretty sure you're doing a good thing! 

[kirky]

With torrents, it's sometimes tough to determine if you are "uploading" correctly.  It could be that there is a problem, it could be that nobody needs or wants what you are uploading.  You should get some sort of error message maybe if you are not configured correctly, but maybe not.

If you upload even a little bit, then you are probably configured correctly.

The good news, is your ratio means nothing here.  While it's nice if you can seed, it's not a requirement and you won't be penalized for having a low sharing ratio.

[bennyb98]

Thanks for the help!  Just wanted to see If I was doing something wrong or not!

[eyore]

It may just be that nobody else is downloading.
If you are seeding, someone else needs to be downloading the file from you. The downloads from you (as a seeder) go direct to the person downloading, not to a central hub, if you follow.
I have quite a few with a share ratio of nothing because nobody wants them at the moment and others with a ratio of 6 or so.
Although we all like to give something backand, as you actually have a ratio of more than zero, all is probably well and there's no way you can get picked to have your files sent. The tracker (or something not under our control)  does that somehow 
It seems to select some but not all of the seeds. (out of my depth now)
Don't worry about it. Just keep them on the screen 

[clemsonspacemountain]

thanks for the great info
i just got downloaded a torrent fro hismattijesty and i didn't know what to do with it. i'm using the 1st torrent mp3 downloader from turncows, and i didn't know how to work it either
with all this great info, i can finally have the final pice of space mountain qeue music
 p.s. to bennyb98
noobs unite!!

[Heatblizzard]

I am a torrent dummy so I really don't know what I am doing except downloading cause I am afraid I have to shut my firewall of if I do let others upload which will let in all sorts of crap that isn't worth the destruction of my PC.  plus I don't know how to upload a torrent anyways.

[eyore]

You should be able to configure your firewall to accept mousebits as a trusted site in the same way it lets your mail and IE use the Internet.
There's usually an option for in/out stuff that you can pick one or the other or both.
Depends on the firewall and if you can configure it of course.
 

[macsizzle]

This post has saved me a great deal of heartache. I've been using my bittorrent client for a few years now and I had absolutely no idea that if you weren't seeding it might be because no one was downloading what you had to offer. But I guess it makes sense since most of the stuff available on this site is rare and not very publicized. Now I know why out of the torrents I have downloaded from this site most of them are not seeding. Should I keep the torrents active until I get a 100% ratio or will it be ok if I delete them? I don't want to leech but it seems like it could take forever for me to get a good ratio on seeding these torrents since downloading is so sporadic and I am running out of room on my hard drive. What are your thoughts? Thanks for answering this question for me. I love this site!!!!!

[eyore]

Leeching isn't frowned upon on this site so don't worry about it. The admins are not going to shout at you.
It is nice to seed and the suggestions I have seen is to allow a seeding to continue until there are a few seeds available. Especially if it's a new torrent and popular. I have also seen posts saying to stop seeding if there are a lot available to save on bandwidth.
I would suggest that if it's not a popular torrent there's no point in keeping it seeding but keep a watch on the "torrents needed" box on the index page and, if you have it, start seeding it. You should be able to just "stop" a torrent without removing it from your list.
I'm sure one of the top guys will give you the official line.
Personally, I like to seed as much as I can but I still have many with a zero share ratio because nobody is asking for them. As they remain on my PC, I can't see the point in not making them available if required.
Oh, if you like downloading from here, may I suggest an external hard drive - the largest you can afford?
That way, it doesn't take up room on the PC. I have several - mostly for my Disney stuff (those HD videos do eat into the hard drive)

[macsizzle]

eyore, you are on top of things and very informative, thanks a bunch!!!! I will take all of that into consideration from now on with torrents that need seeding and not stress so much about seeding everything all the time. As for the external hard drive, I actually have a 750 GB and 500 GB drive with which I store all of my files. However, since I download all of my torrents directly to my computer I can't delete the files off until I have finished seeding in this case or put them on my external. But now since I can get rid of some of the torrents that aren't seeding I should be able to free up some room on my computer since I've transferred everything to my external hard drive. Just off topic, is there any reason I should download the Disneyland 50 Years in Retrospective since I now have the Disneyland Forever Project? Thanks again!!!

[eyore]

I leave my external hard drives plugged in so they are on when my PC is (USB port - 4 way connection) and download directly to them (and seed from them). I only download stuff that I need (programs etc and mail) to my C drive. Nowhere near enough room to download to it
Personally,  I download things that vary even slightly from one another. I haven't compared the two but so I don't know if they both contain the same stuff (shame on me) but I'm sure others will advise.
Oh, I only know things because I have asked here for them when I have had problems myself. What I know is tiny compared to the experts here. They are a really great bunch of people and will always help - even with the most basic of problems.