Once you have finished downloading the file, leave the bittorrent client running. This is how you seed torrents, and this step is crucial to the health of the file sharing community. By leaving the software open, you are allowing other users to download pieces of the file from you (“seeding”). It is important that you upload at least the file’s size worth of data; for example, if you download a 300 MB file, you need to seed until other users have downloaded 300 MB worth of that file from you. The ratio of downloading to uploading that you do is carefully tracked by the Bit Torrent software, and that ratio determines how fast you are allowed to download. If you only download files and then immediately close your software, your download speeds will suffer because you are not doing your part for the file sharing community.
