Seeders, leechers, peers?

[Simple_Graduate]

I've started using bittorrent and am confused about these terms:

seeders, leechers, peers...different kinds of downloaders?

There are numbers under them...and sometimes there are numbers in brackets also?

Can someone explain this and also tell which one of these I am?

[Wannabe_a_techie]

I don't think leechers are displayed on the software...rather they can be seen on the torrent sites.

[shantanu]

but what exactly they mean : you can try a search on www.webopedia.com

[ravi_9793]

A Seed is a user who has 100% of the file or folder and is currently still uploading the file to other users.

Peers generally would not have 100% of the file but are currently downloading more parts and uploading the parts they have to other peers.

Leechers are those who is downloading the file, but has either cracked their upload or limited it.

[casanova]

Seeders are who have the complete file and are sharing (seeding) it.
Leechers are currently downloading the file.
Leechers are shown as peers in the torrent softwares.
So i.e; leechers and peers are the same.

[Third Eye]

Originally Posted by Simple_Graduate

I've started using bittorrent and am confused about these terms:

seeders, leechers, peers...different kinds of downloaders?

There are numbers under them...and sometimes there are numbers in brackets also?

Can someone explain this and also tell which one of these I am?

http://dessent.net/btfaq/#terms

[shashank4u]

seeders are the persons who r generous enough to share a downloaded files..

leechers are those stingy persons who after file download do not share..

peers are the nodes from which yr computer is downloadin its files..