New Torrent User. Slow Download Speed. Takes a long time to download

[small_noddy`]

I am a new user to bittorrent. So, kindly excuse me if I have made mistakes in setting up or am not able to put my problems to you in proper words. BUT I DO HAVE A BIG SPEED PROBLEM.

I have set up bittorrent and as per the manual, the port connection says "OK". Mine is a broadband internet connection (256 kbps - 1:4) (i.e 64 kbps for upload and 256 kbps for download, therefore 1:4 - at least this is what the technical person from my ISP says).

The result from the speed test from the recommended site is 50 kbps for download and 6 kbps for upload.

When I tried to download open office torrent file from the recommended site, the download speed is never beyond 25 kbps (i.e practically half of the speed test result of 50 kbps)..

When I try to download any other torrent, the speed is always between 3 kbps to 20 kbps. More of the time (approx 70%) it is less that 10 kbps (i.e between 3 kbps and 10 kbps) and other time (30%) it is between 10 kbps and 20 kbps). I don't seen to be close to 50 kbps as per the result of the speed test or even 25 kbps as per the open office file download torrent file.

Kindly guide me as to what I should additionally check and what values need to be changed to which value and where it needs to be changed.

I will be looking at my post everyday so kindly help me with my download speed. If you need any additional information regarding my setup, kindly keep a message for me here.

[jewelisheaven]

If you also experience the same slowdown on http://slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php i.e. not reaching near your theoretical maximum it is your ISP shaping traffic :/ There is nothing you can do except ensure that you are configured for your upload. You also may want to reduce the Ctrl-P -> BitTorrent connections a bit, every little bit helps on low bandwidth connections.

[small_noddy`]

I have started the download from slackware as you directed, but it is very slow. Don't know how to deal with it. Can you help ?

[Switeck]

256 kilobits/sec is only 32 KiloBYTES/sec theoretical max on an impossibly fast day.

You won't get 50 KiloBYTES/sec with a 256 kilobits/sec connection.

25 KiloBYTES/sec for OpenOffice is a tiny bit slow, but still that's within 75% of your theoretical max.

[small_noddy`]

My download which originally started with 12 kbps speed spprox on an average, has now come down to approx 7 kbps approx after running for 8 hrs approx. The average speed seems to be going down on continuous running.

NEED HELP.

[Switeck]

Very large torrents (over 1 GB in size) tend to fall in speed to roughly whatever your upload speed is.

So it may go even lower if there's not (a few) fast seeds to pump the speed up.

Is your upload speed falling equally as well or holding constant?

Do note if you are being "passed" by other peers, then you may reach a point where you're so far behind them percent-wise that you have little if any of the torrent that they don't already have.

[jewelisheaven]

If you are running multiple torrents, try only running the one. Also keeping only one slot may help. Limiting connected peers more may also help. Unfortunately on such a limited line, Switeck is right in that even though you are uploading at your maximum it is probable the other peers are skipping you over when they cannot get to you in a timely fashion. So If you try cutting total peer connections to 25 the same for per torrent since you should only be running one at a time ma help you out with that. You won't be constantly trying to reconnect to peers because you timed-out and became snubbed. I remember when I had to suffer on dialup, and I pray I never have to again.

[small_noddy`]

First of all I would like to thank "jewelisheaven" and "Switeck" for taking an interest in my problem and trying to help me. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Answering "Switeck" question - "Is your upload speed falling equally as well or holding constant?". As per the speed test it showed that my upload speed is 6 kbps, so I have set it up as 6 kbps. My upload is constantly between 4 kbps to 6.5 kbps. But my download speed is as low as 0.1 also and up to 10 kbps sometimes. It seldom reaches 20 kbps. (My speed test result showed that it was 50 kbps). Secondly, I just wanted to know as to "what is being "passed" by other peer" mean?

jewelisheaven - how do I limit connected peers to 25 ? Which parameter do I change and where ? Do I need to restart torrent again after making the changes ?

Like I said I am new to this bittorrent and I have only installed it. I am still not comfortable with it. It will take some time, but from what I see of it, it is something which is very nice and useful. I have not configured it properly, I know. If you'll could just guide me with the parameters and their values, that would help a great deal. I was just going through the Preferences - Advanced options and I found that there are a lot of parameters here with their default values. Can we try to change some of that to improve my performance ?.

Where can I get from the internet a explanation of the parameters that are available in the Preferences - Advanced options ?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH - SWITECK and JEWELISHEAVEN. - Kindly help me in getting my download speed faster.

[jewelisheaven]

Sorry about that. OK so you set it up right? Well defaults don't suit everyone, so you can customize your default settings in Ctrl-G under Ctrl-P (Options -> Preferences in the menus) -> BitTorrent and Connection. The options under Advanced are not recommended to change unless you understand the impact they have on you. Have you read utorrent's help file? It was compiled by Ultima and is on the Guides page or under µManual below.

The thing with having such a restricted upload is you want to squeeze the most out of it and so limiting the number of peers can only help you. You also may want to disable the Additional bittorrent features below since you are on such a low upload speed. Try those changes with the torrents you were running before and see if that helps you maintain a more consistent download speed. You're welcome. Also feel free to thank the dedicated staff in the official appreciation thread.

[small_noddy`]

Thank you Jewelisheaven. My download speed has suddenly gone up to 23 kbps - 25 kbps. It downloaded on that speed the whole night. I think that is the maximum download speed that I can get on the connection that I have. (Correct me if I am wrong here).

All I did was that I changed the upload limit from 6 kbps to 4 kbps keeping the rest of the values as it is. I was going through all the speed related problems and their solutions given in this forum and came across a statement wherein it was mentioned that you can cap up the upload limit to approx 80 % of your upload value. Therefore I brought down the upload limit value from 6 kbps to 4 kbps and the download speed went up to 23 kbps.

For the time being, since I have already reached > 20 kbps, would you suggest that I keep my changes for another 8 hrs to see if it hold the same download speed holds throughout. If it does not, then I will make the changes you recommended and try that also. Kindly reply at the earliest.

I will also go through the Guides and the µManuals you have suggested that I should read. Another thing - where can I get an explanation or a write-up of all the parameters that are available in the Preferences - Advanced options ?

[Ultima]

The descriptions of everything in the interface can be found in the manual (as I'm sure you've already noticed by now).

[small_noddy`]

I am in a real deep problem. My PC went into a hang state and I was forced to reboot the system. When the system rebooted, I restarted µTorrent and I found out that I had lost all my torrents. How do I get them back ? There were a lot of torrents which I had registered for downloading. KINDLY HELP.

[moogly]

@small_noddy`: look at migration guide on homepage and use auto-load procedure.

[small_noddy`]

Hello, Thanks for the prompt reply. All my torrents are categorized in different folders (they are all in different locations and the downloads were also planned to be saved in specific different folders). How do I load the torrents from different locations and have them save the files in the folders that I had chosen initially (at the time of the first load of the torrents). It must be saving this information in some configuration file somewhere.

[moogly]

Your history is saved in file resume.dat in folder %appdata%\utorrent.

So if this file has not been "reset" after your reboot (look at the filesize), you can use it to reload your torrents with your previous settings (dwl locations etc...)

But in your case, I guess you have erased resume.dat because you opened uT and it was blank (so uT has saved blank history)... :/

You will probabily need to reload each torrent and reset the download location.

So check folder %appdata%\utorrent.

[small_noddy`]

Hello Moogly,

Thank you vry much for your prompt reply. I have the following four files in %appdata%/utorrent directory.

01/30/2009 11:16 PM 58 resume.dat

04/13/2008 06:29 PM 501,776 resume.dat.1.bad

05/26/2008 04:43 PM 509,309 resume.dat.2.bad

01/30/2009 11:01 PM 58 resume.dat.old

4 File(s) 1,011,201 bytes

0 Dir(s) 7,811,182,592 bytes free

I think the file "resume.dat.1.bad" which is of size 501,776 may be the one. how can I load this file please ?

[bigdaddyarmy22]

Can I ask a dumb question? I am not a computer literate person compared to you folks, but I've been told that the higher the number of seeders, the greater the download speed, right? Sometimes I can download anywhere from 25kb-100kb on a torrent that has 400 seeders and sometimes I can download a torrent with 5000 seeders getting a max of maybe 4-8kb. What am I missing here? I have read and mostly understood about changing my settings thru previous threads and I can't seem to understand some aspects of peer to peer stuff. My settings are as follows: max upload rate=1...max dowload=unlimited...global max=100...max connected peers per=25...number of upload slots per=3...box unchecked for use add. upload slots. Now, I'm deployed to Kuwait and we have 1 wireless router for about 40-50 laptops so take that into consideration. Please help if you have the time.

[moogly]

@small_noddy:

1st step: back up these files (all resume.dat) before testing.

2nd step: rename resume.dat.2.bad (or .1.bad, try both ones) in resume.dat and a second copy of resume.dat.2.bad in resume.dat.old.

3rd step: erase the other resume files to keep only new resume.dat & resume.dat.old. Restart uT.

If that fails, use back up copies.

[ranran80]

what are you talking about?

where can i find these resume files?

and what good will it do to erase the resume.dat?

[small_noddy`]

I am writing into this forum after approx. more than 3 years using the same thread again as the same issue has turned up again (i.e. SPEED PROBLEM). The details are as follows :-

1) I am using the same version of utorrent (i.e. utorrent v.1.8.2) which I was using when I started with torrents approx. 3 years ago.

2) Currently, I have a total of 4,376 torrents loaded in the "All" group. 876 torrents are in the "Downloaded" group and 3,500 are in the "Completed" group.

3) My internet package is of 2 MB/s and my internet speed throughput on a average when tested in internet speed testing site (i.e. http://www.speedtest.net/index.php) is 248.8 kB/s for downloads and 225.5 kB/s for uploads.

4) Currently, I get a utorrent throughput speed of approx 125 kB/s to 150 kB/s for downloading for which my current settings are (a) Maximum Upload rate (kB/s) is "3" ( Global maximum number of connection is "195" © Maximum number of connected peers per torrent is "85" (d) Number of upload slots per torrent is "2" (e) Maximum number of active torrents (upload of download) is "5" (f) Maximum number of active downloads is "5".

I know that according to my actual internet speed's throughput of 248.8 kB/s for downloads and 225.5 kB/s for uploads, the actual utorrents throughput of approx 125 kB/s to 150 kB/s for downloading which I am getting, is low and I wish to increase that. I do not know what settings/parameters to change to increase my downloading speed for utorrent. I have tried to use the settings in the speed guides available in this forum but they do not seem to work for me. As far as my ISP throttling the speed for utorrent, I don't think so it that is being done by my ISP. Kindly guide as to what settings/parameters to change to increase my downloading speed in utorrent as I know I can touch a download speed of approx. 215 kB/s to 230 kB/s as the torrents which are being downloaded have a lot of seeders, but I somehow do not seem to get the parameter settings right in utorrent to get the download speed of approx. 215 kB/s to 230 kB/s in utorrents.

Secondly, if I have to upgrade the version of utorrent of from v.1.8.2 to a latest version of utorrent, how do I import all my existing utorrent (i.e. approx 4,376 torrents. Out of which 876 torrents are in the "Downloaded" group and 3,500 are in the "Completed" group) in the newer version of utorrent ?

Please guide me.

[small_noddy`]

Hello Everybody,

Sorry, writing the same information again which I had written a few minutes earlier plus my systems information :-

The system is Intel Core 2 duo, 2 GB RAM, OS is Windows XP Professional, service pack 3.

I am writing into this forum after approx. more than 3 years using the same thread again as the same issue has turned up again (i.e. SPEED PROBLEM). The details are as follows :-

1) I am using the same version of utorrent (i.e. utorrent v.1.8.2) which I was using when I started with torrents approx. 3 years ago.

2) Currently, I have a total of 4,376 torrents loaded in the "All" group. 876 torrents are in the "Downloaded" group and 3,500 are in the "Completed" group.

3) My internet package is of 2 MB/s and my internet speed throughput on a average when tested in internet speed testing site (i.e. http://www.speedtest.net/index.php) is 248.8 kB/s for downloads and 225.5 kB/s for uploads.

4) Currently, I get a utorrent throughput speed of approx 125 kB/s to 150 kB/s for downloading for which my current settings are (a) Maximum Upload rate (kB/s) is "3" ( Global maximum number of connection is "195" © Maximum number of connected peers per torrent is "85" (d) Number of upload slots per torrent is "2" (e) Maximum number of active torrents (upload of download) is "5" (f) Maximum number of active downloads is "5".

I know that according to my actual internet speed's throughput of 248.8 kB/s for downloads and 225.5 kB/s for uploads, the actual utorrents throughput of approx 125 kB/s to 150 kB/s for downloading which I am getting, is low and I wish to increase that. I do not know what settings/parameters to change to increase my downloading speed for utorrent. I have tried to use the settings in the speed guides available in this forum but they do not seem to work for me. As far as my ISP throttling the speed for utorrent, I don't think so it that is being done by my ISP. Kindly guide as to what settings/parameters to change to increase my downloading speed in utorrent as I know I can touch a download speed of approx. 215 kB/s to 230 kB/s as the torrents which are being downloaded have a lot of seeders, but I somehow do not seem to get the parameter settings right in utorrent to get the download speed of approx. 215 kB/s to 230 kB/s in utorrents.

Secondly, if I have to upgrade the version of utorrent of from v.1.8.2 to a latest version of utorrent, how do I import all my existing utorrent (i.e. approx 4,376 torrents. Out of which 876 torrents are in the "Downloaded" group and 3,500 are in the "Completed" group) in the newer version of utorrent ?

Please guide me.

[ciaobaby]

1: Read the pinned thread in this section.

2: with version 1.8.2 your client is either NOT supported (Windows) or your question should be in the Mac section.

Currently, I have a total of 4,376 torrents loaded in the "All" group.

You are using the WRONG client totally.

Secondly, if I have to upgrade the version of utorrent of from v.1.8.2 to a latest version of utorrent

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=718118#p718118