Request: Download Optimization

[ZeroTruths]

I often find that torrents that I use don't use much bandwidth at all.

I'd like to see something implemented, so that of uTorrent is doing all of it's operations (downloading, seeding) and there's still bandwidth available, that the download/upload limit be temporarily raised, until all avaliable bandwidth is being used.

Right now, I have uTorrent set up so that I download 2 torrents and seed 1 at any given time. However, I'm frequently seeing that, with both downloading and seeding happening, uTorrent's bandwidth usage is only about 50% of the limit that I put. I'd like uTorrent to detect whenever this is happening, and when it does, to go above the predetermined limit and start another torrent, continuously, until bandwidth usage is at it's limit.

Any thoughts?

[jewelisheaven]

The problem probably lies at your ISP where you are not getting maximum throughput advertised for your connection due traffic shaping specific to bittorrent traffic or based upon the volume of traffic. To verify this, stop all downloads and other ineternet activity and run a torrent from http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/ or http://slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php . If you are seeing similar speed results this is the case. If not, and you haven't gone through Ultima's extensive How-To, it is likely you can tweak your settings under the Speed Guide to help with your connection a bit. It is a sad fact that most clients come broken or do not allow easy customization of options for all computer types. Remember to torrent is to rely on upload, so that is why uTorrent's configuration is based upon upload speed of your connection. When you are downloading much faster than you are uploading it means someone else isn't. This is not a problem for peers in countries/locations where they have ample bandwidth and you are being recognized for contributing to the swarm in a beneficial way. But it may also indicate you should try changing up your settings. What kind of connection do you have? Posting a Speedtest banner or copied results from another speed testing site would be sufficient. For your upload there is a combination of the two factors of NUMBER of torrents combined with UPLOAD SLOTS which in uTorrent governs your upload throughput. Many people overload their client in the belief the more you download the less you have to upload, which is untrue because generally speaking, the longer you keep a torrent running when simultaneously running it with others leads inevitably to MORE upload over a longer period of time than if you ran fewer torrents and devoted more upload NOW to them. A rule-of-thumb is 3-5 KiBps per peer is fair minimum (Changing # of peers connected and upload slots is under Ctrl-P -> BitTorrent). But I personally have noticed bandwidth jumping quite a bit when I changed available bandwidth from 10 KiBps to 20 KiBps on the same swarm. So it is both a configuration game and luck. The luck part comes in if you are expecting to find some nice friendly peers on high upload connections (which doesn't always happen).

Did I address your question well enough?

Also, NB there is an option uT already has which allows it to help you manage the upload better under Ctrl-P -> BitTorrent under the number of UPLOAD SLOTS called "use additional upload slots for under 90%". Also you can find a more thorough explanation of terms and use in the official uTorrent Help Manual available through the Guides page or the µManual link below.

[ZeroTruths]

Let's see, "Network OK", green check, Peer Guardian configured, etc...

I'm sure that I'm doing everything outside of uTorrent to optimize my speed. Oh, and I have DSL (usually top 80 KBps)

My problem is probably just with the quality of the torrents that I use. The max number of seeders won't be over 20, maybe even 10, and even though there are plenty of seeders, I still usually top 20KBps (download).

My configuration is fine, it's just the torrents.

My problem is probably just a personal preference anyways, I doubt many people would actually care to see this implemented (too bad uTorrent is closed source...)

Oh, and here's what I got from speedtest:

[Firon]

Your upload's too low to run more than like 2 torrents anyway.