Leecher (computing)

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In computing and specifically in Internet slang, a leech is one who benefits, usually deliberately, from others' information or effort but does not offer anything in return, or makes only token offerings in an attempt to avoid being called a leech. In economics, this type of behavior is called "free riding" and is associated with the free rider problem. The term originated in the bulletin board system era, when it referred to users that would download files and upload nothing in return.

Contents

Depending on context, leeching does not necessarily refer to illegal use of computer resources, but often instead to greedy use according to etiquette: to wit, using too much of what is freely given without contributing a reasonable amount back to the community that provides it. The word is also used without any pejorative connotations, [1] [2] simply meaning to download large sets of information: for example the Usenet newsreader NewsLeecher.

The name derives from the leech, an animal that sucks blood and then tries to leave unnoticed. Other terms are used, such as "freeloader", "mooch" and "sponge", but leech is the most commonly used.

Examples

Gaming

In games (whether a traditional tabletop RPG, LARPing, or even MMORPG) the term "leech" is given to someone who avoids confrontation and sits out while another player fights and gains experience for the person, or "leecher", who is avoiding confrontation.

Prevention

P2P networks

Amongst users of the BitTorrent file distribution protocol and common P2P networks, such as the eDonkey network or Gnutella2, a leech is a user who disconnects as soon as they have a complete copy of a particular file, while minimizing or completely suppressing data upload.

However, on most BitTorrent tracker sites, the term leecher is used for all users who are not seeders (which means they do not have the complete file yet). As BitTorrent clients usually begin to upload files almost as soon as they have started to download them, such users are usually not freeloaders (people who don't upload data at all to the swarm). Therefore, this kind of leeching is considered to be a legitimate practice. Reaching an upload/download ratio of 1:1 (meaning that the user has uploaded as much as they downloaded) in a BitTorrent client is considered a minimum in the etiquette of that network. In the terminology of these BitTorrent sites, a leech becomes a seeder (a provider of the file) when they have finished downloading and continue to run the client. They will remain a seeder until the file is removed or destroyed (settings enable the torrent to stop seeding at a certain share ratio, or after X hours have passed seeding).

The so-called bad leechers are those running specially modified clients which avoid uploading data. This has led to the development of a multitude of technologies to ban such misbehaving clients. For example, on BitTorrent, most private trackers do keep track of the amount of data a client uploads or downloads to avoid leeching, while on real P2P networks systems like DLP (Dynamic Leecher Protection) (eMule Xtreme Mod, eDonkey network) or uploader rewarding (Gnutella2) have been brought in place. Note that BitTorrent is not a P2P network, it is only a P2P file distribution system.

Leeching is often seen as a threat to peer-to-peer sharing and as the direct opposite of the practice of seeding. But with rising downloads, uploads are still guaranteed, although few contributors in the system account for most services. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Uploading refers to transmitting data from one computer system to another through means of a network. Common methods of uploading include: uploading via web browsers, FTP clients, and terminals (SCP/SFTP). Uploading can be used in the context of clients that send files to a central server. While uploading can also be defined in the context of sending files between distributed clients, such as with a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing protocol like BitTorrent, the term file sharing is more often used in this case. Moving files within a computer system, as opposed to over a network, is called file copying.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shareaza</span> Peer-to-peer file sharing application

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WinMX</span> Freeware peer-to-peer file sharing program

WinMX is a freeware peer-to-peer file sharing program authored in 2000 by Kevin Hearn in Windsor, Ontario (Canada). According to one study, it was the number one source for online music in 2005 with an estimated 2.1 million users. Frontcode Technologies itself abandoned development of WinMX in September 2005, but developers brought the service back online within a few days by releasing patches. WinMX continues to be used by a community of enthusiasts.

BitTorrent, also referred to as simply torrent, is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a decentralized manner. The protocol is developed and maintained by Rainberry, Inc., and was first released in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitComet</span> BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP client

BitComet is a cross-protocol BitTorrent, HTTP and FTP client written in C++ for Microsoft Windows and available in 52 different languages. Its first public release was version 0.28. The current BitComet logo has been used since version 0.50.

BitTorrent is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client developed by Bram Cohen and Rainberry, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers denoting its official origins. Since version 6.0 the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of μTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. There are currently two versions of the software, "BitTorrent Classic" which inherits the historical version numbering, and "BitTorrent Web", which uses its own version numbering.

GnucDNA was a software library for building peer-to-peer applications. It provides developers with a common layer to create their own Gnutella or Gnutella2 client or network. As a separate component, GnucDNA can be updated independently of the client, passing down improvements to the applications already using it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmission (BitTorrent client)</span> BitTorrent client

Transmission is a BitTorrent client which features a variety of user interfaces on top of a cross-platform back-end. Transmission is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, with parts under the MIT License.

eMule Free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows.

eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, fast recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. Furthermore, eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribler</span> Peer-to-peer filesharing software and protocol

Tribler is an open source decentralized BitTorrent client which allows anonymous peer-to-peer by default. Tribler is based on the BitTorrent protocol and uses an overlay network for content searching. Due to this overlay network, Tribler does not require an external website or indexing service to discover content. The user interface of Tribler is very basic and focused on ease of use instead of diversity of features. Tribler is available for Linux, Windows, and OS X.

The following is a general comparison of BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol.

This is a glossary of jargon related to peer-to-peer file sharing via the BitTorrent protocol.

Direct download link (DDL), or simply direct download, is a term used within the Internet-based file sharing community. It is used to describe a hyperlink that points to a location within the Internet where the user can download a file. When used in conversation, DDL distinguishes itself from other forms of peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading architectures in that it uses a client–server architecture, where 100-percent of the file is stored on a single file server or in parallel across multiple file servers in a server farm.

A seedbox is a high-bandwidth remote server for uploading and downloading of digital files from a P2P network. The bandwidth ranges generally from 100 Mbit/s to 20 Gbit/s. After the seedbox has acquired the files, people with access to the seedbox can download the file to their personal computers.

libtorrent

libtorrent is an open-source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol. It is written in and has its main library interface in C++. Its most notable features are support for Mainline DHT, IPv6, HTTP seeds and μTorrent's peer exchange. libtorrent uses Boost, specifically Boost.Asio to gain its platform independence. It is known to build on Windows and most Unix-like operating systems.

In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file or meta-info file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computers that help participants in the system find each other and form efficient distribution groups called swarms. Torrent files are normally named with the extension .torrent.

Torrent poisoning is intentionally sharing corrupt data or data with misleading file names using the BitTorrent protocol. This practice of uploading fake torrents is sometimes carried out by anti-infringement organisations as an attempt to prevent the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of copyrighted content, and to gather the IP addresses of downloaders.

File sharing in Japan is notable for both its size and sophistication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seeding (computing)</span>

In computing, and specifically peer-to-peer file sharing, seeding is the uploading of already downloaded content for others to download from. A peer, a computer that is connected to the network, becomes a seed when having acquired the entire set of data, it begins to offer its upload bandwidth to other peers attempting to download the file. This data consists of small parts so that seeds can effectively share their content with other peers, handing out the missing pieces. A peer deliberately chooses to become a seed by leaving the upload task active once the content has downloaded. The motivation to seed is mainly to keep the file being shared in circulation and a desire to not act as a parasite. The opposite of a seed is a leech, a peer that downloads more than they upload.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WebTorrent</span> Peer-to-peer web-based torrent client

WebTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming torrent client written in JavaScript, from the same author, Feross Aboukhadijeh, of YouTube Instant, and the team at WebTorrent and on GitHub, for use in web browsers, as well as a WebTorrent Desktop stand alone version able to bridge WebTorrent and BitTorrent serverless networks.

References

  1. Wang, Wally (2004). Steal this File Sharing Book: What They Won't Tell You about File Sharing. No Starch Press. ISBN   978-1-59327-050-6 . Retrieved 6 June 2020. Leech sites [...] provide free, unlimited access to all the files you want.
  2. Narins, Brigham (2002). World of Computer Science. Gale Group. p. 6. ISBN   978-0-7876-5067-4 . Retrieved 6 June 2020. leech mode is the jargon terminology for an access mode on an FTP site that allows the user to download any number of files
  3. Yang, S., Jin, H., Liao, X., Yao, H., Huang, Q., Tu, X. (2009). Measuring Web Feature Impacts In Peer-To-Peer File Sharing Systems. Hushing University of Science and Technology