Some fast, some slow

[IJK_Principle]

Hi all,

it might be a really stupid question that has been asked many many times before but still:

While trying the Slackware and Open Office torrents (links provided on Connection Setup Guide of this page) I get ultra-high speeds. (300kB+)

But one torrent is kind of slow (average 10-20kB) although there are many peers and many of them have 100% of the file.

Is it completely the fault of that particular torrent/tracker/whatever or is there a way to tweak it somehow so the speed is similar to the Slackware and Open Office torrents?

Once I got like 250kB on that commonly slow torrent for some time because some guy from Denmark connected and most of the downloading occured from him. But that was once.

Sorry if this post annoys you all.

Thanks.

[Firon]

Once you've configured your stuff properly, your speeds are at the mercy of the swarm.

[Switeck]

The Slackware and Open Office torrents are fast because there are EXTREMELY fast internet connections serving them up. We're talking 100 megabits/sec speeds...and beyond!

Typical torrents may have lots of seeds and peers, but the average upload bandwidths for various ips is probably only around 256 kilobits/sec (32 KB/sec theoretical max)...and they're probably uploading on multiple torrents and may have their upload speed reduced to only 6 KB/sec because they think that gives them "better speeds".

You should get the best download speed results when you're uploading at least 50% of max and no more than about 80% of max upload bandwidth for your connection. HOWEVER, the other settings are important also...so even if you are uploading quickly but below max, your download speeds can suffer slightly to immensely depending on the other settings.

Speed Guide (CTRL+G) *tries* to give the other settings good values based on your UPLOAD speeds...but even it is probably a little less than optimal due to some torrents having special conditions. A torrent with lots of poisoners on it might give better results with different settings than default, as too would a torrent with lots of peers and only 1 seed. And a fake torrent...well just STOP and delete that one!

Torrents with few peers+seeds really depend on the speed+stability+firewall status of each peer/seed for good results, all you can do is use settings that are good for you and hope for the best. DHT and Peer Exchange can sometimes allow you to get lucky and complete an otherwise "dead" torrent...but are more miss than hit.

Your best bet is to use Speed Guide (CTRL+G) though till you really understand how each setting can affect the outcome.

To get noticeably better results than Speed Guide's suggestions, you have to think about what OTHER people see of your connection to get best results. I refer to it as your average upload speed PER person. If it's less than 1 KB/sec, they may not upload back to you. If it's more than 10 KB/sec, then you probably will get back less than what you're giving because other people can't or won't upload that fast back. In my experience, the "sweet spot" seems to be about 3-5 KB/sec average upload speed per person. While SEEDING however, you may want higher average upload speeds just to decrease overhead costs and increase the speed at which you can get complete pieces to other people to share.