A seedbox (seed+box) is a type of server designed for seeding torrents. It can either be deployed as a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or physical server, sharing or using dedicated resources. In addition, Seedboxes might be either cloud-based or on-premise, but to get the most benefits, a seedbox has a higher potential if it is located on the cloud.
In simple words, seedboxes do what your computer does, upload/download (seed) torrents. But, there’s a big difference, they are designed to do it at high speeds and without compromising your identity. Since seedboxes are generally deployed outside your premises, on a cloud-based server, you’ll end up using the seedbox’s IP, and not yours.
Why were Seedboxes created in the first place?
Seedboxes were created by serious torrenters with ninja-like scripting skills, to keep up with their share ratio from demanding private trackers. Unlike public trackers such as thepiratebay or RARBG, which don’t regulate torrent sharing and member participation, these private trackers are closed communities with massive torrent libraries and with a strong philosophy of sharing.
The private tracker members with serious torrenting sharing attitudes saw the need to offload or “outsource” the demanding torrenting processing and bandwidth off from their computers. This idea turned out to provide tons of other fantastic benefits for them.
The Top Six Benefits of a Seedbox.
1. Offload the resource-intensive and bandwith-hungry torrenting from your computer.
Source: cud.ac.ae
A VPN would download your torrents, and it would do a great job protecting your identity, but it won’t do a good job speeding things up when you have 30 torrents in your queue. Seedboxes, don’t use your resources. These servers use their own capacity in terms of processing and bandwidth, to deal with your torrent list. So, obviously, you would still need to use your “lightweight computer,” but only to connect to the “robust cloud-based seedbox server,” give it instructions, tell it what torrents to download, and then log off. Behind the curtains, the seedbox keeps downloading/uploading torrents on your behalf.
2. Protect your privacy.
A seedbox protects your torrenting privacy from ISPs, governments, copyright trolls, torrent swarms, and torrent trackers. But there is still another player that seedboxes need to ensure protection: themselves. How can a seedbox ensure they are not keeping your traffic logs and giving them away? Just like a VPN provider, a seedbox can provide a privacy policy and headquarter themselves far away from the jurisdiction of the Five-Eyes surveillance. The best seedbox providers are hosted in countries with a simple and convenient legal framework for P2P file-sharing technology. For example, countries like the Netherlands, France, Mexico, Spain, and Switzerland are perfect places for torrenting services.
3. Download your seedbox-hosted content to your on-premise machine via safe transfers.
Source: reddit.com
When you download torrents from the Internet to the cloud-based server, you won’t have the content physically in your on-premises machine. Your content will still be hosted in cloud-based storage. So how can you download it to your hard disk? How can you get your content without laying a finger on BitTorrent? Seedbox services generally offer secure FTP (via SSH), FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS), or sync services so that you can transfer the content into your storage using anything but BitTorrent and avoid the exhaustive ISP’s-torrent-port tracking campaigns. Generally, protocols like SFTP, FTPS, HTTPS, WebDAV are never throttled, controlled, and can be highly secured.
4. Don’t download your content; stream it online!
Thanks to media library systems like Plex or Kodi, you can build your own fantastic Netflix-like streaming service. The best Seedboxes providers will usually include such streaming services in their servers so that you can watch your content online without having to download it locally. Use the seedbox to build up your media library and use Plex to organize it, display it in stunning dashboards, make it accessible through any device, and even share it with friends.
5. Provide a high degree of convenience.
Seedboxes do the “dirty and hard work,” while you just let your computer and bandwith take a rest. You only use your computer or mobile to log in and monitor your torrenting activity from anywhere and at any time. You can simply, add or remove torrents on the go, or if you have a streaming server linked to your seedbox, you can simply play it online. In addition, a seedbox can be configured to automate your torrenting activity with tools like Sonarr, Radarr, and Jackett. For example, you install Sonarr (or just activate it), set up a media profile, and let the program automatically download and maintain all your favorite TV shows, without you having to move a single finger. Same for movies and music, set up your profile so that either Radarr or Jackett can learn from you and automatically download content.
6. Use it as a superior alternative to VPNs.
Seedboxes and VPNs are two completely different types of technology. Although they work differently, either one can provide torrent privacy and security. First, a VPN accomplishes security+privacy, by providing you with end-to-end encryption and by masking your IP. A Seedbox, on the other hand, doesn’t need to encrypt your traffic because, as said before, it is a standalone server, outside your premises. Obviously, a seedbox provider will still have to provide security and privacy, because after all, you are still interacting with it. A seedbox might provide, for example, a secure remote connection via encryption and certification-based protocols like, SSH, RDP, or SSL. Plus a seedbox server might even be configured as a VPN server.
Final Words.
In this article, we reviewed six reasons why you need a seedbox if you are a serious torrenter. Seedboxes allow you to offload the resource-intensive and bandwith-hungry torrenting from your computer. They also protect your privacy and allow you to download your seedbox-hosted content to your on-premise machine via safe transfers. But if you don’t want to download your content to your hard disk, you can stream it online!
In addition, seedboxes provide a high degree of convenience, as you can automate, stream, and manage all torrents remotely. So, if you are looking for a VPN to download torrents, wait, Rapidseebox’s seedboxes are a far superior alternative to VPNs.
