Thread: Seedbox Guide (Advantages and best use)

Having decided to possibly get a seedbox in the future, I decided to do some research first on how best to use it. It was harder than I thought with information everywhere on this site, and so I decided to write this guide/information to help make it easier for people in my position.

FYI, I did write this (by researching mainly on this site, which was tedious and so gave me an idea to put out the relevant and helpful info into one place), so please don’t remind me to reference lol.

If there is any wrong info on here, please post below and I shall amend it.

For any terms/jargon you may not understand, use this: Official Private Tracker Dictionary

Seedboxes are useful for speed and high bandwidth, allowing users to download and upload at very high speeds, helping you to keep a good ratio on many trackers. You can then download the content to you home computer usually at the highest speed your home connection allows. They are also used for safety as you are not downloading using your home IP and the transfer is usually encrypted. Another reason people use them is to get around the problem of their ISP blocking p2p or throttling their connection.

Using your seedbox can give you high speeds but this does not always guarantee you will get a good ratio. Below is some information on how best to use your seedbox and ensuring you get your moneys worth:



Inform your Trackers
Your first step after getting a seedbox is to find out if you need to inform your tracker before using it as it could possibly get you red flagged and banned. Not all trackers require you to inform them, but some do and it is advisable to be sure. The following link is a list where you can do just that (be sure to thank the poster if it helps you): Tell these trackers about your seedbox (List)

Auto Download
To make the most out of your seedbox, you want to download popular torrents (or the ones you want) as fast as possible, allowing you to seed for longer at higher speeds and so building up your ratio. You can setup your torrent client to automatically download a particular torrent as it becomes available by using RSS or IRC announcements and setting filters which help specify which torrents to download. This allows you to download without the need to be at your computer. Even if you are at your computer mostly, it’s still very useful for cross-seeding by setting auto download for trackers with fastest pre-times, allowing you to then cross-seed quickly to other trackers.

There are a number of ways to use it, like for downloading popular TV shows every week while also specifying to only download 720p or Xvid formats of the show. You could also set a filter to download every torrent in the movie category under 1GB. Or if you want to make use of a the bonus/karma points at your tracker, you could use a filter grabbing all files below 100MB, so you use less space and can therefore seed the files for longer and earn many bonus points. Setting a filter for freeleech I believe is also possible but they can be quite large so you rather do this manually while calculating space requirements if your hard drive capacity is not the largest.

Most trackers have tutorials on using/setting either RSS or Auto Irrsi (uses IRC) correctly for that particular tracker, or you could always ask a member of staff, but be sure to first search the forums properly for any information on the matter.

Below are some helpful tutorials (be sure to thank the poster if it helps you):

Setting up autodl-irssi on a seedbox - Very useful tutorial
Irssi tutorial – Very useful tutorial
How to rutorrent RSS plugin – Very useful tutorial
ruTorrent - RSS Filters – How to set filters
RSS Feeds - Increase your ratio quick with auto-downloading – Useful tutorial


Freeleech
To make the most of your seedbox, you want to download a lot of these torrents and fast, even if you don’t need the files. Be sure to consider the space requirements as these files can be quite large. You could also set to download certain files (say 1 or 2 movies from a pack) if space is a problem. These are the best ratio boosters and should be made use of especially with a seedbox as you can download fast, then upload fast, and also longer as seedboxes are usually left running 24/7 (as opposed to home connection where there is a need to switch of your computer at times).

Cross-Seeding
This is very helpful way to boost ratios at trackers, particularly those with harder ratio requirements, and it is advisable to make use of this in order to utilise the full bandwidth of your seedbox. As stated previously, you want to download from a tracker with best pretimes to get it early and then cross-seed at other trackers. It is also advisable to check if your tracker allows this as it could cause problems (not sure myself). See below for guide.

How to Cross-Seed safely – The better guide here at TI explaining cross-seeding (be sure to thank the poster if it helps you and also read the comments).

Other Useful Info

Labels – use this feature in utorrent and label which tracker the torrent is from, so you know the seeding requirements that need to be fulfilled.


Threads you might find helpful (be sure to thank the poster if it helps you and also read the comments):

Tips to use your seedbox effectively – Some good tips
Ultimate Seedbox FAQ – Very good info (a must read)
SCC mIRC Auto-Download Script & WebUI – SCC Auto-Download
How to keep good ratios on one site because of another site – Cross-seeding. A good explanation on how to go about it.
How to cross-seed torrents – Although it says cross-seed, it explains how to download from 1 tracker and then upload the same file to a second tracker while still uploading to the first tracker.
Guide To Outside Seeding - A good guide for noobs to UNDERSTAND how to cross-seed. It just explains how to do it in a good way for noobs (though uses public trackers so is not entirely relevent), so just to get an understanding on cross-seeding.
How To Get extra bonus / karma points on tracker – This is useful to do if you have seedbox as you seed 24hrs and can make good use of bonus/karma points.
Great TRICK to seed for looong time – Seed while Leeching. Just a little trick which many users claim to work.
High Level Uploading – Another little trick you might find useful to get the most out of your Seedbox.
How to maintain a good ratio – A useful post that covers all general information that you need to know about keeping a good ratio and surviving.
Improve Your Ratio – Similar to above (worth reading)
scottk - "the masterpiece" – Info and ratio tips (from TI posts) for each tracker
Seeding Tips Tricks for Specific Private Trackers – Info and ratio tips for each tracker
Seeding Tips Tricks Part 2 – Info and ratio tips for each tracker