k1ng

I'm using Bitorrent 3.2.1b CVS Experimental client . With my upload settings set at unlimited.

I'm trying to download two 4.5 gig bittorrents (sopranos season 2 & 3)... and it's killing me! I see that I'm connected to over 30 people with each download. When I click on the "Advanced" options, i see who Im connected with, what speeds they are downloading at, what speeds I'm sending to each person, and the speeds that each person is sending to me. I see that some of these people are downloading at 40-60 kB/s and I see that i'm downloading at 1-3 kB/s. I'm uploading at my max (30kB/s). I'll be uploading 7-8kB/s to one person and that person is not uploading at all to me. I was under the impression that bittorents set it up so I would at least be able to download at the speeds that I was uploading at.

The client shows 35 peers downloading at a total speed of 1100 kB/s. Just doesn't seem right that I'm only downloading at 1-3kB/s.

Is there a way to get better speeds from bittorrents? maybe a different client would help? It's quoting me 300+ hours left on these, and i've already been downloading for 30+ hours.

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Cryptie

This is just from my own personal experience with BitTorrent. If you leave your upload settings at Unlimited your upstream will become saturated, at that point your download is limited. The reason for this is that when you are downloading something you are still sending information back such as Acknowledgements that data has been received. If all of your upstream is full then it gets much harder to send those messages and so your download slows. Try setting your upload at dialup/isdn for a few minutes and see what happens to your rates.

meanSpleen

I agree with Cryptie -

When you max out your upload, you pretty much shoot your download in the head. eMule reccomends, when using the eMule client on the eDonkey network, that you find your max upload and reduce it by 2-6kb. This way you have plenty of "space" left on your connection for downloading.

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Cynthetiq

while what you are saying may be true...he also posted this thread...

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=55976

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k1ng

I've changed my settings and limited my bandwidth and checked the bitorrent a litte bit later and it was going at 10-14 kB/s, which isn't great but it sure as hell beats the 3kB/s i was gettint last night.

Thanks for the advice guys!

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KnifeMissile

Two things to note when trying to optimize Bit Torrent performance.

First, limit your upload bandwidth. You've already done this but I just thought I'd mention it for completeness. Obviously, you need to tweak it by figuring out what up-stream speed works best for your connection. So, don't be afraid to experiment.
Also, remember that it takes the system a while to get settled so don't judge performance by how fast you download in the first five minutes...

Secondly, it really helps if you allow people to connect to your machine. It sounds like you're using a firewall/NAT-in-a-box router and, in that case, you'll want to forward ports 6881 to 6999 to the computer running the bit torrent client.
In theory, this shouldn't make much of a difference because very few people use a firewall and, thus, you should be able to connect to them if they can't connect to you. However, in practice, it seems to make a huge difference. Perhaps more people are using firewalls than I realize? I used to get pitiful performance from bit torrent, even with the up-stream bandwidth limited, until I forwarded these ports to my client machine. Now, I typcially get download speeds of 100 kB/s (this was an enormous imrovement to what it used to be, 20 kB/s maybe?).

I hope this helps...

Rangsk

I'd also like to give some input on the client you are using - it is OLD. There are much newer ones with bug fixes and more features. Here are a couple options:

The official client:
http://www.bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/download.html

BitTornado (formerly Shadow's Experimental)
http://www.bittornado.com/

Azureus (Java client)
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

ABC (Puts all downloads into one list box and is based on Shadow's Experimental Client):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pingpong-abc/

I recommend you try all of these first before deciding on one. They all have advantages over others, but I'm sure one is right for you.

Changing the client may or may not fix your download problems. I do highly recommend you do not use unlimited upload unless you are on a T3 or better.

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bltzkriegmcanon

Some good advice, I'll make sure to use that in future situations.

I LOVE this client. My personal fave.

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KnifeMissile

Oh yeah, Rangsk brings up a good point. Not too long ago (a couple of months, maybe?), the bit torrent protocol changed (probably to improve network scaling) but this caused older clients to not work so well (although they do still work). I don't recall which version this happened with but it's possible this is your problem, k1ng.

Personally, I like ABC but, again, Rangsk makes a good point when he says that you should find one that best suits you...

k1ng

You guys are great! I took your advice by limiting my uploads, forwarding those ports, and downloading Azureus and my speeds went from 3kB/s to over 80kB/s.

You've made me so very very happy! =)

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