I am sharing about 25 albums on soulseek but my uploads are empty which as far as I know means nobody has tried to download anything from me. I don't have port-forwarding available to me, I use a VPN, and I am periodically offline. Is it really weird that nobody has downloaded anything from me or is that kind of normal?

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[–] dan@upvote.au 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

How is the downloader going to ask the uploader for the file without an open port?

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The open port is only to facilitate a direct connection between PCs to upload/download. It is not required for your client to advertise through a tracker, DHT or PeX that you are an available seeder.

[–] dan@upvote.au 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Soulseek is a totally different protocol to torrents. It doesn't use a tracker. Files are per-user. When you download a particular file, it only comes from one user. It's like how Limewire and KaZaA used to work (since it's from that same era)

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulseek#Central_server_and_search_engine

It's a tracker. It works on exactly the same principles as torrents.

Here's a screenshot of a search and download I did on a VPN that doesn't allow port forwarding.

[–] dan@upvote.au 0 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

There's no tracker. Your link just says that there's a central search and chat room server. The search just points your client to users that have files with that name. It doesn't track anything else.

The server does not know which files you download - that's just between you and the person you're downloading from. You can download files directly from a user (e.g. by searching for a username then browsing their files) without relying on the central server at all.

You don't need port forwarding for downloads, only for uploads.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 0 points 23 hours ago

I'm done discussing this. You're wrong. A simple google search will show you a bunch of posts on Reddit and elsewhere saying the same thing I am.

It's not my responsibility to make up for your decision not to find easily accessible information.

[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Edit: I stand somewhat corrected, according to what I can find after diving into the slsk rabbit hole a bit, it basically is like torrenting, except each "request" only goes to a single client instead of the swarm, so while the below comment still applies to the speed of making a connection, the downloader won't have gotten it from somewhere else as they'll have been waiting for you.

It is required to initiate a connection from the downloading side though. If your port is closed the only way a connection can be established is by periodic polling by your client... And unless the content you have is really niche, by the time you reach out the downloader probably will have gotten it from someone that was available.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nope, the port can be open on either the downloader or uploaders side. It doesn't matter which. Only one is needed.

[–] dan@upvote.au 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Are you talking about torrents or about Soulseek? Soulseek doesn't use DHT nor PeX.