Tweaking has not much helped the speed

[oao]

Having tried all the optimization suggestions in various guides, my download speeds range from 0-18 kB/s, mostly they are in the <10 area. I've seen people mention 100 and 200 rates, but I never even touched those. Is it my hardware?

1. I have a yellow triangle in the status bar (hovering over it gets "unless it turns green there may be a network problem)

2. DSL download: 1287 kbps upload: 307 kbps

3. Windows 2000s, VIA Rhine II Fast ethernet adapter

4. Zone Alarm (free version). Port forwarding test issues an error, but the free version of ZA does not allow to set this up. Various sources say it's enough to set up utorrent in program control, but is it enough?

5. Don't know if ATT throttles, but it's not on the list of throttlers.

[Ultima]

Have you checked the first link in my signature for other suggestions (and other pieces of information that might be useful to us)? Also, ZA isn't exactly the best firewall around -- it's been known to be problematic with P2P. You might want to consider another firewall, like Comodo (it's free too, and I wrote detailed guide for setting it up).

[jewelisheaven]

If you setup your Speed Guide (Ctrl-G) for xx/256 you should be able to put out 22 KiBps upload no problem. If http://slackware.com/torrents/ run @ your expected download speed of ~120-150 then you're going as best as you can. If now check Ultima's Speed Tweaking Checklist post #2 for settings to change.

[oao]

thanks for responding.

you mean the Speed Tweaking Checklist? I'll work with it tonight.

I am aware of the ZA problems. Unfortunately, the Win2000 older version of Comodo (2.4) does not work for me. It issues errors about DLL problems which I can't decipher. what is more, i uninstalled it and now it has a problem with

reinstallation: it still sees itself installed and won't install. yuckh.

I am talking about download speed not upload. It is usually less than 5 kB/s and rarely reaches over 10.

I have no idea what Ultima is.

[Ultima]

I have no idea what Ultima is.

...? Me? My checklist?

[oao]

ok, I tried the slackware and download speed went to 110-120. does this mean that there is nothing further I can do and it's up to the net and the torrents? 110+ vs 10+ is a big diff

[Ultima]

Well, you might want to consider forwarding the port properly.

[oao]

That's the problem I can't resolve!!!!

ZA free does not have a facility for port specification and Comodo does not work on my system. so i am stuck

[Firon]

Try Outpost, then?

[oao]

as far as i can tell it's not free.

I've done some more testing and got some weird results:

1. I deactivated ZA and the speed went up to over 110; when I recativated it it went back to <5.

2. When I did it a 2nd time, it had no effect: speed remained at <5.

3. This morning I started uTorrent and it went to 130 with ZA active.

I checked with ATT and they say they're supplying the stated bandwidth all the time, without limiting it.

What is more, now the status is green and I have not done anything since it was yellow.