Another dumb question? (actually I'm, looking for opinions)

[jaekriel]

Ok ...please forgive me once again if you're all tempted to roll your eyes and/or hurdle stones at me....

Because of the fact that any given torrent that I try to download has download speeds (KBS) fluctuate so dramatically (and consistently at that) , it makes me wonder:

Is it better to download one torrent at a time, or does it really matter?

Considering that it really comes down to when or if Seeders decide to Seed, and the fact that my ISP is (arguably) pure crap....Im not sure what is relevant or not

The point being, Im worried that eventually the files / torrents that I really really want ... basically have a shelf life, and eventually will stop being seeded at all....

Thus my rationale for attempting to downlaod several at once......

And again, any given File, regardless of how many or few seeds, can have a fluctuating KBS Downlaod speed from .04 to 85.6 ....

...or to put it another way... an ETA anywhere between a couple hours to a few weeks....

So basically - I'm looking for opinions....

One at a time? Would that be quicker/better?

Or does it really matter.......and I can go ahead and continue to have 20-30 files in my queue.....all with varying file sizes and (respective or not) number of seeds/peers.....

Thanks in advance

....and please don't hate me....er...or at least if you do ...feel terribly compelled to express it....(sniff..)

Jaek

[Firon]

The max number of torrents you should download at once really depends on your upload speed. Too many torrents, and you spread your upload thin, resulting in reduced overall speeds.

[jaekriel]

Now Im confused

I thought I was SUPPOSED to keep my upload low, and have fewer connections - to increase downlaod speed...

That is what has been reccomended...

Jaek

[Switeck]

Your upload speed needs to be set lower than your upload MAX for your line, yes.

The upload speed setting that nets the fastest download speed varies a little from line-to-line, but it is almost always 50-90% of the line's max upload speed. (50% for really low upload max, 90% for really high)

[Lord Alderaan]

Its a balancing act. The higher your upload speed the more chance of a faster download speed but above a certain upload speed you might start chocking your connection which directly results in reduced download speeds (and hampering of other internet activities).

Pick your connection from the list in the Speedguide (ctrl+G) and you usually have close to optimal settings for your connection.

[jaekriel]

Jeeeeeez.... why can't it be easy....

Ok cool

Thx guys for the help/advice/opinions

Jaek

[pingubenji]

If you really really want one specific torrent you shuld concentrate on only that one. This way your upload speed is at maximum and you get more back down from that torrent. You never know, after 3 minutes you may connect to a peer that has a 100Mbps and if you dedicate your full upload on this torrent you can download the files in no time...

Think like this: Upload at max in order to get download at max....

[Switeck]

Upload at max = lowers download.

Unless you mean "max sustained upload speed that doesn't (seriously) impact download speed"

Some internet connections are to a degree half duplex -- they cannot max out both download and upload at the same time.

Others just start randomly dropping upload and/or download packets if either upload OR download is ever totally maxed out.

[jewelisheaven]

If your download fluctuates so much, you can try encryption and 1.8 ... they seem to work for people and allow the generic shaping to be bypassed. As far as the tuning.. of course it's involved People who go through the trouble of tuning for their connection start with the defaults and then customize-to-fit. If it was all set by the program (think ONLY using the Ctrl-G drop down options) uT would lose like 90% of their userbase right there. Many people use uT so differently one-size-does-NOT-fit-all

I would agree that many people overload their uT with too many active torrents. If you find that you're connecting to a majority of users on this one torrent but are still slow you can run another torrent simultaneously, but with any upload lower than 1Mbit it's usually not THAT smart to run more than 2 torrents if you're expecting "faster" versus "eventually".

[Switeck]

Someone who is after old torrents that seldom have more than 10 peers+seeds can get slightly better results using settings different than someone who downloads torrents that have 1000's of peers+seeds. So it's not even JUST your line speed that affects what settings you should use!