Choosing a seedbox provider

Choosing a seedbox provider can be hard! So many choices, so many offers, so many caveats!

Do i want unmetered or traffic limits? Do i want 10Gbps down speed or is 100Mbps sufficient? What is transmission? What is rTorrent? What's deluge?

It's then best to go someone like Pulsed Media with their 14day moneyback guarantee and emphasis on ease of use, making it risk free. They even have Bitcoins as payment method :)

But if you are looking for 10Gig speeds, then someone like feralhosting is more to your needs.

10Gbps, 1Gbps or 100Mbps?
If you are looking just for a downbox, downloading stuff via a 3rd party server quicker and then FTP'ng that data to home, then 100Mbps can be sufficient since 9gb file still downloads in under 15mins, and your home connection is likely much more slower than this, if you have fast download speed at home, then you need 1Gbps - at least down if not upload as well.

If you are seeding or publishing your own content - you need to have more bandwidth available to you, a 1Gbps starts to become a necessity for certain users, but 100Mbps is still a fair bit of bandwidth if you are looking to publish something on a public tracker, that's fair bit, it's still 700Gb a day!
If you are competing with others, then you definitively need as much bandwidth as possible. 10Gbps, Autodl-irssi etc. becomes a necessity of life very quickly.

Why shared over dedi?

In many cases shared seedbox is much better choice than a dediseedbox.

Why shared seedbox is often better choice?

• Ease of use
• Instant availability
• Cost
• Better burst capabilities
• Sometimes you get practically a dedi for shared money

Easy to use

Most of the times a dedi doesn't come setup, it's just a plain install, and you need to know how to install everything etc.

You could go with something like PMSS, but it still requires you to set it up and knowing how to administer the server, updates, creating users etc.

Shared service has already all of this covered.

Instant availability

Shared and semidedi seedboxes are usually instantly available, no waiting period etc. just login and start using it. Even if a dedicated server is provided to you within seconds like many providers do, you still need to install everything and that could easily take up an hour or two.

Cost

Obviously a shared service is going to be much cheaper almost all of the time. Certainly, there is ultra cheap dedis on the market as well, but they often have a setup fee associated with them or other hardships, and often are so weak as to be barely usable.

Better peak performance

Say you get a 10Gbps seedbox from someone like Feralhosting, you are going to see 5Gbps+ peaks at least down. To get a dedicated like that would cost you hundreds a month, but with someone like Feralhosting it's going to be tens of euros. Sure, they have huge markup, and huge amount of users per server to be able to offer that service for tens of euros, but you will also benefit from their optimizations.

There is also plans where you are going to see ultra stable performance despite being shared, for example a 1Gbps seedbox with just 100Mbps upstream capability and traffic limited seedbox, so you get a nice middle ground between dedicated and shared :)

Sometimes you get tons more than you bargained for

With shared services you have the potential to get tons more than what you bargained for, sometimes the other users on the server barely use any resources what so ever, or it's mostly empty server waiting for new signups. Think about it, dediseedbox for shared seedbox money! :O

100Tb Servers No More!

In the past there used to be 1Gbps 100Tb Servers, which meant these dedicated servers had traffic limit. Usually you could not even come close to that traffic limit on a dedicated server.

Today's trend however are 1Gbps burstable and strict limits on the total bandwidth of 150-300mbps.

Traffic limits and traffic overages are a thing of the past, and the seedbox community thanks thee!

Dedicated Seedbox vs Shared Seedbox

Dedicated or Shared Seedbox? That's quite an question!

It all depends on your budget and what you are after. If you want stable speeds and lots of resources, and got a bit of budget - then definitively a dedicated seedbox is your option!

If you need more burst speeds, and don't mind sharing the connection, or you are budget limited then shared seedbox is your choice.

Technically they differ in that dedicated seedbox has dedicated resources, dedicated hardware *just* for you, so for the money it may not offer as high peak speeds or performance, but you will not share with anyone else neither.

Shared seedbox is a slot, or slice, in a server with multiple users. It does not mean you share an account with another user, it merely means that there is a multitude of users on that same server which may affect your speeds.

If you are worried that no bandwidth will be available for you to use, to hit an server with heavy users then a good middle point choice is a seedbox with traffic limits. The traffic limits ensure that a single user may not use 100% of the server resources, as they will get limited if they do too much traffic.

A Guide to Seedbox Speed and More!

There has been much talk about different Seedbox offerings over the recent past, and much of this revolves around the fact that they greatly increase the speed of uploading and downloading files using the internet. For the uninitiated, Seedbox is actually a jargon coined by the Torrent community, and simply refers to a dedicated high speed server which is used especially for file transfers (and therefore the high speed).

Seedboxes are great tools to up your upload ratios whilst using torrent trackers; they can be used to increase your download speed; and even to avoid copyright infringements suits (once you’re downloading using a Seedbox you’re pretty much in the clear). Since almost all Seedboxes, like DediSeedbox, can be controlled using any computer with internet access, you can control your uploads/downloads from just about anywhere.

The Speed:

If you’re hoping to benefit by using a Seedbox it is imperative that you work with a high speed connection, and as long the swarm is able to handle high bandwidths, you would be able to download significantly large files in a matter of minutes. With a 100Mbps connection you’d be able to download around 500mb in a minute. With a 1:1 download:upload ratio, you could even upload the same file to other users in the same time span.  

What About 1GBPS UnmeteredOfferings?

There are a number of companies that offers their customers 1gbps unmetered Seedboxes, and these offers do seem quite attractive. However, the truth of the matter is that in most instances 1gbps offerings offer less value for money than 100Mbps offerings. What also matters is that peers cannot accept data as fast as it can be sent, and as a result the usual transfer rates on a 1Gbps unmetered Seedbox can leave a lot to be desired.

Several Seedbox packages offer 100Tb+ in terms of usage, and this too is not necessary true. Fact remains the several Tb is often more than enough usage and most 1gbps unmetered Seedbox packages are budgeted for about 50Tb usage, and definitely not for 100Tb+ or 300Tb.

In looking at Seedbox speeds, it’s important that you take the average into account, and not the bursts. Consequently, you should be looking at traffic charts from different Seedbox providers to know just what to expect well ahead of time. What has been seen so far is that 100Mbps offerings offer the best value for money.

What to Look For in a Seedbox?

True, that there are many Seedbox companies like DediSeedbox out there, but this does not mean that you choose the first one you come by. When it comes to Speedbox speed, you have to take into account the network’s connection speed, speed per torrent, and speed per client. In addition, you should also take the following into account:

·  Drive space / storage capacity

·  Volume of RAM’s shared resources

·  The ability to run multiple torrents simultaneously

·  The throughput limit

Other factors that need to be considered include knowing which torrent frontend is employed (utorrent, wtorrent, rutorrent, avalanche, rtorrent, etc); and whether you are given the ability to create torrents. Newer offerings also allow you to control your Seedbox account through applications that run on Smartphones, and this is something you might want to look into as well. One more aspect that you need to address early on is checking if the Seedbox in question can run on your choice of operating system (Windows, Mac, or Linux).

Choosing a Provider:

Given that claims of 1Gbps unmetered offerings can leave a lot to be desired, it is best if you look for companies that offer 100Mbps offerings. Aspects you need to look into in making your decision should go beyond the price factor, and you should also take into account the speed that is actually provided as well as the level of service that the company in question has to offer. Once you decide to go with any one company, getting going is quick; in around 24 hours you would have access to your Seedbox.

So, if you are looking at getting a Seedbox to increase the speed of your torrent uploads/downloads, there is no reason why you should not. Getting it from a hosting firm, as opposed to converting a hard drive within your home into one, is always a better idea because of threats like Malwares and viruses. What you need to bear in mind, though, is that getting a 100Mbps connection is definitely better than getting a 1Gbps unmetered one.