Basic Downloading question for new guy

[stereory]

Im new to bittorent trading and downloading SHN and FLAC and I have a few basic questions after being up and running for a few days... I hope someone can shed some light on this for me....

1. I average 16-18mbps. The recordings I am downloading are averaging 1GB each. How many downloads at once do you think I can handle?

I have been doing the bittorent downloads... sometimes it downloads quickly other times not.

2. I have been backing up what I download to an external harddrive by dragging and dropping the folders of flac or shn directly from my computer harddrive to the external drive. It appears the windows "copies" the files to the external drive. Leaving one copy in its original destination and another in the external harddrive. I cant seem to figure out how to get the original in the external drive any other way.

Is this not the preferred way to do this? Am I introducing errors or otherwise harming my recordings by doing this?

3. Bittorent. I have been download shows. When complete, it says I am now "seeding" it. Does that take resources away from my other downloads? Also how do I know if someone is connected to my "seed"... I hate to remove the seed and screw someone over.

I sure would appreciate to hear your opinions. Thank you.

[dasmueller]

I would recommend only one or two downloads at a time to avoid slowing the process. Each additional download will slow down the process. Download speeds will also be affected by the number of seeds and their system speeds.

It also is considered to be good manners to leave the downloads running until you have at least seeded the volume downloaded. A thank you in comments is also desirable.

The quality of what is available to download varies greatly. SBDs, Pre-FM, FM and MTX are generally preferable to AUD recordings. If samples are available I would suggest using them as an indicator of quality.

On my Windows 7 PC I right click on the folder I am transferring to a backup drive and select Send To and then the drive letter I have noticed no problems in years of doing this. It is a good idea to keep a copy that has been unmodified for reseeding purposes.

Others may have different thoughts. Enjoy and welcome to TTD !

[mdshrk1]

I don't know. I only upload.....Just move the files.....drag and drop.....

[Homebrew101]

Originally Posted by stereory

Im new to bittorent trading and downloading SHN and FLAC and I have a few basic questions after being up and running for a few days... I hope someone can shed some light on this for me....

1. I average 16-18mbps. The recordings I am downloading are averaging 1GB each. How many downloads at once do you think I can handle?
Probably 10 downloads at a time easily with those speeds
I have been doing the bittorent downloads... sometimes it downloads quickly other times not.
It would vary because of the upload speeds of those you are grabbing it from

2. I have been backing up what I download to an external harddrive by dragging and dropping the folders of flac or shn directly from my computer harddrive to the external drive. It appears the windows "copies" the files to the external drive. Leaving one copy in its original destination and another in the external harddrive. I cant seem to figure out how to get the original in the external drive any other way.
If the external is connected at the time of download you could just direct the files to that drive when you start the download in your bittorrent program if you didn't want to have it on both drives
Is this not the preferred way to do this? Am I introducing errors or otherwise harming my recordings by doing this?
just copying files they should remain unchanged and no harm no foul

3. Bittorent. I have been download shows. When complete, it says I am now "seeding" it. Does that take resources away from my other downloads? Also how do I know if someone is connected to my "seed"... I hate to remove the seed and screw someone over.
your seeding (uploads) are not affecting your download speeds as far as I know and it is good etiquette to try to have a 1:1 seeding:download ratio
I sure would appreciate to hear your opinions. Thank you.

see above

[ZJLI]

You'd make a good mod, Homebrew





I think the covers & artwork forum is looking for help





(The blue was a nice touch!)

[dasmueller]

no merging tho HB !

[stereory]

So how is it your not wasting internet bandwith by leaving seeds up? If your uploading to other folks, surely it slows down connection?

Im still trying to figure out this concept (its a little more technical then the padded mailers I used to use).

[ZJLI]

Homebrew is good at this stuff. If you don't see him around, just PM him.

He'll walk you through it.

[Homebrew101]

Originally Posted by stereory

So how is it your not wasting internet bandwith by leaving seeds up? If your uploading to other folks, surely it slows down connection?

Im still trying to figure out this concept (its a little more technical then the padded mailers I used to use).

you implied you have a pretty fast internet connection and as far as I know (not much) your upload speed and download speed do not affect each other but in your case even if they did you are blazing fast at 16-18. I finally upgraded to 12 and am quite content with that

plus it's damn selfish NOT to seed to others, some sites would ban you if you didn't although not here at TTD

[stereory]

Do I have to be concerned about catching a virus doing this bittorent?

I saw someone alluding to firewalls etc.

[stereory]

So what length of time is usually standard to leave seeds available?

I usually power down the computer before bed each night, at that point the days downloads have been left up say 12 hours. I assume most people don't power down their PC at night though.

[mdshrk1]

Been torrenting for years. NO virus.

It's not about how long; it's about how much.....give back at least as much as you've taken.

[dasmueller]

I have had no issues w viruses using bittorrent for many years. One can always scan the folder w malwarebytes.

The standard is to leave a seed available until you have uploaded at least the volume downloaded. That being said, achieving that level can be difficult if you are grabbing shows that are not new uploads-ones that have been around for awhile, also for ones that may be less popular. I often seed shows for a month or two after downloading. There is one show I am still seeding from May of 2013 because in my opinion it is rare.

Powering down your PC at night is not a big deal. It will start seeding again when it is powered up again.

[stereory]

I use a wireless router. I cant wrap my mind around all this music coming in thru a phone line and being transferred thru the air.

Am I not getting the best possible quality by not being connected directly to the router or using a dsl phone connection?

[mdshrk1]

A non-issue. I seed over wireless. No one has complained yet....