Importance Of The Particular Torrent You Are Downloading.

[abrogard]

After a long time asking questions, reading FAQ's and other things and trying this, that and the other I have finally decided my connection is okay and my utorrent configuration is okay and the whole problem I have is related to whichever particular torrent I am downloading at the time.

I came to this conclusion after finally running across the advice to try the Open office torrent and the Slackware Torrent.

When I tried them sure enough my download speeds immediately went up to the max.

Which proved, right there, that my connection is okay and my config is okay, didn't it?

I think so.

So then I paid more attention to the 'Peers' tab on utorrent and I noticed - I think I noticed - that the download speed I was getting was always the sum of the download speeds listed there.

So I figured that as long as I didn't configure anything to restrict the number of peers I could download from, then I was simply at the mercy of the speeds they offered and the number of them I could find. End of Story.

Now if the experts agree that this right then may I suggest that a bigger point be made of trying out the OpenOffice and Slackware torrents? In my experience and a quick check I just made of the speed problem sticky here there's virtually no mention made of the importance of benchmarking yourself by checking with a known good Torrent.

In fact in one of the threads I had started and in which I was complaining of poor speeds I asked if anyone knew of a Torrent somewhere that I could use for testing.... and no one did. Or at least no one replied. Maybe because they thought it a stupid question not worth answering and to which I should have known the answer.

But maybe because, like me, they just didn't know.

Seems to me it is almost the First Big Important Step to take after initial setup.

regards,

ab

[schnurlos]

Or people don't like to post again and again: please search the forums before posting?

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=15992

[Switeck]

It is possible to get decent or even great speeds from the test torrents and still be BitTorrent-throttled by your ISP.

The test torrents aren't good for testing your uTorrent UPLOAD speed, which is where some 'bad' ISPs throttle the hardest.

[abrogard]

Hi schnurlos,

I think you miss the point. Perhaps English isn't your first language and that might make it difficult for you. But what I'm trying to say is that testing with a known good Torrent should be the FIRST thing after setup on any set of instructions or trouble-shooting guides or whatever, such as your link for instance.

That was why I said:

" Seems to me it is almost the First Big Important Step to take after initial setup. "

Because I wanted to convey that I thought the First Big Important Step you should take after setting up would be to benchmark yourself against a known good Torrent.

This is equivalent to calibrating instruments.

That's what I was trying to say.

Only that.

No more.

As Switek says ... " It is possible..." etc., etc.....

But that doesn't detract one bit from the value of the information gained by having 'benchmarked' yourself.

I'm sure there'll be someone you know can explain this to you if you have difficulties with it.

regards,

ab

[Switeck]

It is important to do the speed tests with servers near you with low latency.

Even distant servers are unlikely to give you speeds greater than what you really have.

Different times of day, your ISP may be overloaded...so test a couple times of day + days of the week.

Some of the test torrents use web seeds that are likely NOT throttled by your ISP even if your ISP throttles regular BitTorrent traffic.

[Ultima]

http://www.utorrent.com/setup_guide.php

Look at the step after the 5th (final) step: "Trying it out." If that's not conveying its importance immediately after the setup phase, I don't know what is. As for the sticky not mentioning it... well, for one thing, it does link to the setup guide (which does give speed testing some prominence). Beyond that, I do reiterate that point in the checklist. Not sure how else it needs to be emphasized.