These three terms are very important. They all represent users who are currently using BitTorrent to share files or folders. 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. However, you can also refer to seeds as peers as some sites like to call all users of a torrent peers. Leechers is a term often thrown around and depending on what you are using, it has many different meanings. You could say that somebody who doesn't have 100% of a file is currently leeching the file but the correct meaning would be somebody who is downloading the file, but has either cracked their upload or limited it so much they are barely uploading at all. These users are called leechers because they just grab their files and go. They slow down the overall file transfers. As I have said however, the term is thrown around, so if you are on a website that says there is currently 1000 leechers using a torrent, don't immediately think it means people who aren't uploading and are just taking from everybody without participating at all. For sharing through BitTorrent to work successfully, there has to be at least one active seed still using a torrent.
If there are a limited number of seeds compared to peers,
it makes a big differnce.
Expecially if there are more 'leechers' than peers.
Try a well seeded torrent to test and see the difference.
