Before you buy, you want to know you have selected the best host for you…
What is a seedbox?
A seedbox is a server, or server slot setup with the purpose of seeding bit torrent files. Typically they have very fast speeds: 100mbs / 1Gbs.
Why would you want a seedbox?
- There are a few reasons to get a seedbox. The first is to free up your home internet connection. If you are seeding torrents you have to leave your computer on all the time. This can be a real pain, as it limits what you can do with your home computer. If your Home ISP only has a limited amount of bandwidth, it can also be expensive to be constantly uploading files, and it can use all the bandwidth you want to use for other online tasks.
- The second reason, is that if you are downloading pirated content via bit torrent, using a seedbox gives you an extra level of protection, as your home IP never connects to the torrent, only the seedbox IP.
- If you are downloading files from private torrent networks that track your ratio, a seedbox can be a great way to build up your ratio, as your seedbox will be seeding 24/7 at a very high speed.
How does a seedbox work?
When you signup for a seedbox, you will be given login details. There are typically 3 parts to your account:
- The client area. This is where you see you account details, what plan you are on, if you have a bill due, and where you typically submit support requests if you are having issues.
- The torrent client. This is the part you log into to get to your bit torrent client. There are a few common torrent interfaces used by seedbox hosts. The most common being rTorrent. rTorrent is very similar in appearance and functionality to the popular desktop torrent client µTorrent. Other options include: Deluge and TorrentFlux. The torrent client is just like your desktop torrent client however you access it from a web browser, and instead of saving files to your PC, you save them to the server. You load torrents in much the same way you would with a desktop client.
- FTP. FTP access is what allows you to download your completed torrent files back to your desktop. Seedboxes typically provide encrypted FTP…or FTPS, or FTP over SSL to ensure your connection with your seedbox is safe and content your are transferring can not be viewed by your ISP. To access the FTP server of your seedbox you will need an FTP client such as cuteftp or filezilla.
What are the best cheap seedbox options?
There are plenty of options for your seedbox hosting provider. However, as seedboxes are often used for questionably illegal activities, you will quickly find that the quality and reliability of many of the hosts is very poor. We have tried to take the risk out of the process for you by researching the best options. We have tested a range of providers, and also gathered feedback from many online forums where such topics are discussed, and we have come up with a good list of reliable providers for seedbox hosting. As you are looking for a cheap seedbox there are plenty of very cheap box providers out there, however these “very” cheap providers tend to have serious limitations, most commonly only having a very small amount of storage, in some cases as low as 5-10gb. This is never going to work and you will find your self constantly having to login to your seebox via ftp to keep downloading your files. Another common limitation of very cheap providers is that you can only have a certain amount of torrents seeding. This will also be a real pain, so for our selection we have ignored these providers.
Our selection considerations:
- Must have greater than 50gb of storage
- Your server slot should not be shared with too many other users 10+ is not ideal
- Should not have a limitation on the amount of torrents you can seed.
- Cheap price range $14-$20 US a month.
- Good reviews and user experience
- 100MB connection speed – As you are looking for cheap and starting out, this is the best place to start.
- Payment options
- Support