Why are they so low?

[Blank CD]

Hey all,

First post

It's another low speed post...I just don't understand what more I can do to try and get them higher. Currently I have an average download speed of about 12 kbps on a torrent which has about 1000 seeders and 2300 peers.

I have the green light with a tick at the bottom, showing that apparently my "network is working as it should". BT Voyager says that I have a status of 'connected', a strength that is 'excellent' and a speed of 11.0 Mbps.

I have checked the port is forwarded correctly and it is. The Tiscali speed test said the following:

Your current bandwidth reading is:

89.04 Mbps

which means you can download at 11.13 MB/sec. from our servers.

28.8 kbps dial-up

33.6 kbps dial-up

53.3 kbps dial-up

56 kbps ISDN

128 kbps ISDN

150 kbps DSL

256 kbps DSL

512 kbps DSL

91180.5 kbps YOU

I have Windows Firewall turned off and McAffee allowing internet access for uTorrent. I tested McAffee firewall and it said this:

" Unable to Probe

The IP address requesting this page is different from the IP address of your computer. This indicates that your computer is behind a proxy or NAT. These devices allow you to access the Internet by relaying traffic, typically from multiple computers, through a single IP address.

We are unable to directly probe your computer, you should take comfort from this. You have that much more protection between your computer and the Internet."

Maybe someone has some ideas?

Thanks a lot,

BCD

[Ultima]

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Pick a torrent from there... how does it run? Additionally, we need to know your upload speed.

[Blank CD]

OK here's a screenshot of my speeds with that torrent you told me to get:

Link : http://oct02.imghost.us/wyjqap.jpg

What - the - fuck ?! ?!

So what do you think is going on ?

Thanks,

BCD

[torrero]

For testing, use the speed guide and choose xx/10Mbit settings.

[Switeck]

If you're firewalled, your download speeds will no doubt be a LOT lower than if not.

Get µTorrent (and possibly ONLY µTorrent) unfirewalled -- and the green light -- and see if speeds don't go to at least 1 MB/sec total.

Just remember, if you're not uploading an almost equal amount then you're not likely to get such massive speeds. People don't like getting little in return.

[Dead-Jester]

Quote from Switeck

Just remember, if you're not uploading an almost equal amount then you're not likely to get such massive speeds. People don't like getting little in return

Question: How can people tell how much we are giving back in return? I mean I usually keep a torent active until I've seeded atleast 1.0, but how can I tell if someone who is downloading from me isn't sharing?

[Blank CD]

Hmm OK, I have put that particular speed setting on and currently have averages of 11.8 kbps.

As for unfirewalling uTorrent? Excuse my noobiness but how do I do that? Even though the port selected is forwarded, uTorrent can still be firewalled?

Thanks a lot btw !

[Ultima]

What does the port checker in µTorrent say?

@Dead-Jester: They don't know exactly how much you shared back, but they give preference to people who actually uploaded to them. You can't really tell yourself if someone else is sharing back.

[Switeck]

The BitTorrent protocol itself (if followed correctly!) attempts to reward uploaders to you by uploading in preferance back to them. If an ip is only uploading to you at <1 KB/sec, then often your connection won't upload back to them at all...except for a lack of other choices.

You can check a torrent and see how much an ip has uploaded/downloaded with you since it connected to you...however if it disconnects those values are reset.

[kurahashi]

Your current bandwidth reading is:

89.04 Mbps

which means you can download at 11.13 MB/sec. from our servers.

Thats really nice, but now getting to the point - how big your UPLOAD exactly is?

[Blank CD]

Well according to this site: http://www.abeltronica.com/velocimetro/pt/?idioma=uk&newlang=uk

My download speed is: 1325.04 kbps

My upload speed is: 230.16 kbps

It's odd because with torrents from some sites that library torrent files I can get speeds of up to 200 kbps off 25 seeders but with torrents from other sites with 900 seeders I get an average of 26

[Cardinal]

Yeah, this sounds a lot like what I'm dealing with too.

=======================

Checking port 8910 on 207.62.88.11...

OK! Port 8910 is open and accepting connections.

You will be able to receive incoming BitTorrent connections.

=======================

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-10-03 19:50:20 EST:

12122 / 20274

Your download speed : 12122 kbps or 1515.3 KB/sec.

Your upload speed is much faster than down.. have you tweaked?

Your upload speed : 20274 kbps or 2534.3 KB/sec.

=======================

This is at the high school I teach at. I know the port to the district proxy server for the web browser is 8910, and as you can see, the uT test says that port is open. I know the web traffic has to go through the district server as a proxy, but does that mean that all traffic on that port is sent to the proxy server? Even so, why would I some days get DL of 400KB and others simply nothing?

I've added a Ubuntu torrent, and I'm getting nothing. On this same computer and same connection, I've sometimes seen uploads of over 1MB/s. I can't think of anything that's changed. Is it possible the district is regulating this somehow?

Even though I have green arrows on the top window for my completed torrents, some of the tracker statuses are "working" and some are "offline (timed out)".

What I really don't understand is how uT can see hundreds in a swarm and not connect to any of them on the fastest connection I may have ever been on. I've even set the proxy for incoming HTTP requests to be the district proxy server. I don't know what type that is, though, which is to the right of the HTTP proxy server field in the settings. I've also played with the upload speed, but that doesn't seem to affect it.

Blank CD:

At home, I had to find the instructions for my router and forward the ports for certain programs to my computer. As I understand it, forwarding ports is kind of like asking how you adjust the idle speed of a car: it's model specific. Which may be my problem, as I don't have the password to my firewall, because it's really the proxy server run by the school district, I think.

[Cardinal]

Well, per the linked advice, I disabled UPnP and DHT, neither of which mean anything to me. I didn't have to do that at home. Now I finally get something in DL, but it's even worse than at home, when this is over twice the speed of the home connection. Maybe it will take a while and then get really fast. I have no idea why it does that, but it seems to sometimes.

[Switeck]

Yes, you cannot (legally) port forward a router not under your control. The proxy server run by the school district would qualify as such.

Your best bet then is enable UPnP and hope it works...if it doesn't, then you might as well leave UPnP disabled.

It's almost amazing you can download/upload at all.

Do remember to set limits on upload FAR below the max for the connection because that connection is shared with other people. Scheduler might help you adjust µTorrent's speeds based on time of day.

[Cardinal]

Well, what I don't understand is that the port clearly is open. I'm posting this using the same computer, and you can see the uT port test, above. But if I'm using their proxy, my MLB videos don't load, and my uTorrent DLs are killed. Man, I need a good proxy address. That's what we (illicitly) had last year. But what difference would my Firefox proxy make to uTorrent?

[Switeck]

Probably none, µTorrent needs a special kind of proxy that can handle more than just www.com web pages. I don't know enough to really tell you though...

My guess is the school purposefully blocks bittorrent traffic.