Red Swoosh caches files by default for 40 days. This means that if a bunch of people download a file, those caches will be available for 40 days afterwards. In this regard, it does not matter how large the file size is in practical terms (i.e. i'm excluding a discussion about files less than 1K in size). . . This architecture means that on a file that has a constant amount of folks downloading over time, RS will have 10-100x more caches (what BT people think of as seeders), than instantaneous downloaders. This is fundamentally different than Bittorrent.
Bittorrent, though it has some level of seeders that are done downloading on each file, for the most part has only downloaders available as uploaders. This means that it is hard to find seeders for small files that download fast, which also means that small files come down *very* slow and possibly not at all on bittorrent.
File Size: So swooshing a a 1MB to 3MB file is not overkill? When does it make sense to just use FTP or HTTP?
Caches: I am not clear on your point. Lets say a 100 people download the same file today and tomorrow nobody downloads it. Will it be available via a swoosh for 40 days? I was under the impression that a file will only be available via a swoosh if people were in the process of downloading it. (As in Bittorrent)
I know it's easy to compare Bittorrent and swoosh, but the comparison won't go that far!
Redswoosh is designed for maximum efficiency. This means that nobody has to be leeching or seeding or anything like that.
There are no seeders, and no leechers, which is a nice change of pace. So long as someone has downloaded the file, and is currently holding it in the cache, the p2p effect will kick in and improve download speeds.
While the effect is more noticeable with big files, just as Travis said, with small files you don't get those really annoying waits that always happen with BT.
If you're interested in going deeper into swoosh-land, just PM me and we'll chat it up. Jlevy AT redswoosh.net
1) Red Swoosh will index a file for 40 days after it has been downloaded. You can always go to the Control Panel (see the RS icon) and delete the file in the RS cache, but RS will only upload when resources are unused. . . that means if you notice an upload affecting your PC use, we consider that a bug and you should report it to us, so that we can fix it so that our client is truly *polite*
2) Regarding file size, you probably can pull from server or ftp when files get under a 100KB. Even still, RS can deliver those files more efficiently, but heck, it's only a 100KB file.. . :)