Speed question, just looking for explanation

[Rekrul]

Using uTorrent 1.7.5 under Windows 98SE with a 3Mb DSL connection. I've applied the registry tweak to increase the max global connections to 512. Followed the setup guide, correctly set the speed, and I have a green check in the status bar at the bottom indicating that my connection is working properly. I tested the Open Office torrent and it went to over 200K/s within a few seconds of starting it. I didn't let it finish, but I assume this means I have everything correctly configured.

Right now, I'm downloading a 349MB file. I'm currently connected to 43 of 5449 seeds (19705 in swarm) and 37 of 19418 peers (55023 in swarm). Availability is listed as 38.999 and there have been 0 hashfails. I've been downloading for 40 minutes now and it's at 36%. After a slow start, my download speed is only up to 70K/s.

Looking at the Peers tab, I see that only a few are actually transferring anything, many just seem to be sitting idle. When I tested the Open Office torrent, the peers were very active, with various ones uploading to me and none idle for more than a few seconds at a time. With this torrent, they don't seem to switch very much. In other words, the UL & DL columns don't change all that much. Occasionally, I'll see one of the idle ones upload to me for a couple seconds, or one of the active ones go idle, but there's not that much variation other than the fluctuation of the transfer speeds. Note that most are listed as using uTorrent 1.7.5.

I figured that with that many seeds & peers, my connections would be maxed out in no time, but it's running at less than a third of what my connection is capable of.

What would cause a torrent to be so slow? I mean, I thought the whole idea of BT was that the more people who were sharing a particular file, the faster it would go? Open Office has a fraction of the seeds & peers, but it went to over 3 times faster in just a few seconds.

[Switeck]

Just changing the max allowed connections with a registry tweak doesn't make Win 98SE able to continuously handle 100+ connections.

Did you disable DHT, Resolve IPs, Local Peer Discovery, UPnP?

Your upload side of your connection is probably overloaded, thus crippling your download speeds.

What settings are you using, as shown by Speed Guide (CTRL+G)?

How many upload slots did you allow, and is µTorrent normally using that number at once per torrent?

How fast are you uploading to each peer while they have the "U" flag?

[Rekrul]

Just changing the max allowed connections with a registry tweak doesn't make Win 98SE able to continuously handle 100+ connections. sad

The FAQ doesn't mention any problems with using more than 100.

Did you disable DHT, Resolve IPs, Local Peer Discovery, UPnP?

Yes. Unchecking those didn't make a difference in the speed, so I re-enabled them after a few minutes.

Your upload side of your connection is probably overloaded, thus crippling your download speeds.

What settings are you using, as shown by Speed Guide (CTRL+G)?

Connection type: xx/384k (speed tests averaged around 400kbs)

Upload Limit: 35kB/s

Upload slots: 4

Connections: 80

Connections Global: 230

Max active torrents: 3

Max active downloads: 2

Note that I also tried lowering the upload limit to 20, but it made no difference.

How many upload slots did you allow, and is µTorrent normally using that number at once per torrent?

According to the prefs, it's set to 4, which is what uTorrent set it at when I selected the xx/384k speed in the speed guide. As to whether it's using them or not, I don't know. I didn't count them while downloading the torrent that I started this thread about and when I try the test torrents, the data changes so fast that I don't have time to check.

How fast are you uploading to each peer while they have the "U" flag?

Again, I don't know. I believe I recall seeing values in the 1-3K range, but I'm not positive.

Just to verify that everything here is working as it should, I just tried the Open Office torrent again, and before the file was even 25% done, the speed was up to 294K, which is what it should be.

[Switeck]

There are many hidden limitations with marginal networking software and hardware.

And I don't know exactly what yours is...though I've seen numerous cases where even "good" products have the occasional lemons.

Speed Guide tries for a "decent" balance, not specialized for your exact connection.

Many internet connections can't handle 100+ connections at once.