I'm new to torrents and have no idea what this means.
Okay, I actually have some idea. It sounds like torrenting (if that's what you call it) is actually peer-to-peer, not site-to-peer? I thought it was site-to-peer. Download the file, close the connection. What am I missing? What is seeding?
Yes, it is peer-to-peer.
Seeding is you sending the data to other people once you have finished the download. The torrent client (doesn't matter what it is) will say "seeding" somewhere on the torrent when this is happening.
Also, you should also see a "ratio" somewhere. This is the ratio between what you've downloaded and what you've uploaded. Good etiquette is getting your ratio to at least 1 (meaning you've uploaded the same amount of data as you've downloaded), as this helps to sustain the health of the torrent (healthy meaning it's easy/fast for people to download).
I'm on cable broadband, so my download speed is great but upload is total crap (coax is optimized for one-way). But my firewall won't let anyone in anyway. Back in the Napster/Kazaa/WinMX days, I tried to open it up, but I'd get angry messages from other users telling me how much I suck because I'm not sharing. I'd see uploads going out, but the speed totally blew and it wasn't my fault. Maybe people thought I was throttling.
Okay, I re-opened BitTorrent and, if I'm reading this correctly, 3 people are currently connected to me and I'm uploading at about 130 Kb/s. When I was installing it, I remember there was an option to make Windows firewall let it slide, and I checked that, since I knew I wouldn't be able to figure it out later.
And now no one's connected and I'm not uploading. Enough play-by-play. I guess I just suck. I'll leave my client open for a while and try to give back, but maybe I'm destined to be a leech on society.
In other news, I've listened to it all twice now, and I think it sounds great.