What Trackers Are

• A tracker is a server that helps users find other users also downloading the same file; the more users that are connected to a tracker, the faster its downloads will be.
  
  

Tracker Traffic

• Sometimes trackers experience heavier traffic than they can handle. When this is the case, users are likely to experience connectivity errors, often called tracker errors.
  
  

Time Frame

• When tracker errors are server-side, they are usually temporary and due to a server restart or server maintenance. When the server comes back up, downloads will continue and error messages will subside. Users already connected before a tracker goes down will continue to share between themselves, but new connections will not be formed since no new users will be able to access the tracker.
  
  

User-Side Tracker Error

• Sometimes a tracker error represents a problem on the user's side. When this is the case, it means that torrent-friendly port forwarding, which better allows a computer to receive incoming connections, has not been established on the computer.
  
  

Telling the Difference

• If a user experiences tracker errors from multiple trackers (servers) or for an extended period of time, it probably means the problem lies with the user's port forwarding settings. When this happens, a user should test the port forwarding settings on a computer to ensure that the settings are compatible with the torrent program they're using to download.