Seeds are users that have 100% of a torrent. More Seeds usually means more speed. Leechers are users that don't have 100% of a torrent yet.
You can grab torrents either with a file (.torrent) or a magnet link. The latter is just a link that tells the client how to get the torrent.
A tracker is a server that manages the torrent. You don't really have to deal with that.
- Always use a VPN. edit: Proton still supports port forwarding.
- Make sure to map the network adapter of qBittorrent (or whatever client you use) to the VPN device so you don't leak your IP when you have a disconnect.
- Set up something like Sonarr (Shows), Radarr (Movies), Jellyfin (or Plex) to streamline everything.
- You can also include Prowlarr in the setup to automatically sync indexers to Sonarr and Radarr. Thats also where you find other indexers like 1337.to and whatnot.
- If you want more convenience and speed, get a Seedbox like ultra.cc
- Seed, seed, seed!
You are right, no port forwarding is not great. I would recommend Proton then.