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[DON'T USE] Mini-guide to help all of you with your speed problems...


1c3d0g

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Hi !

Let me join your nice discussion :)

I have already read many guides about configuring bittorrent clients. Many of them related directly to uTorrent.

I'd like to talk about two of all available settings:

- Global maximum number of connections and

- Maximum number of connected peers per torrent

I completely agree with:

Don't bother setting extreme values like 1,000,000,000 because it is not going to help you at all, in fact it's going to use up so much bandwidth (if there are many seeds/peers in a swarm to connect to) that there won't much bandwidth left to actually download/upload, hurting the swarm even more. Just don't do it!

But I think it also depends on the number of current active jobs.

If I always have only one active job in a queue then I think I can set Maximum number of connected peers per torrent as high as my Global maximum number of connections.

Am I right ?

Also, how can I understand the recommended value for Maximum number of connected peers per torrent ?

Next is Maximum number of connected peers per torrent. The value that worked best for me is as follows. Take your upload speed (in my situation it's 128 kb/s) and divide it by 8.

What does this value derive from ? Is it just found by experiments and test ?

I use 1024/192 kbps connection.

I always have only one active torrent.

After the downloading is finished I start seeding it with my max. upload speed. I always seed the torrents till the ratio reaches 100%.

So I can't say I don't play fair.

Isn't the recommended Maximum number of connected peers per torrent too low in such case for me ? In my case it is 24 according to the rule (192/8).

With this value I can get max. download speed = 40-50 kB/s for a very well seeded torrent.

When I increase the value to 200 I am able to achieve up to 190 kB/s.

Thanks for all your posts in this great discussion !

Greets !

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Hi, and welcome, dr_Prozac. :)

...

But I think it also depends on the number of current active jobs.

If I always have only one active job in a queue then I think I can set Maximum number of connected peers per torrent as high as my Global maximum number of connections.

Am I right ?

Not necessarily. If you can't maintain a decent upload to all (insert xxxxx of peers here) peers, then it's not advisible to set the Maximum number of connected peers per torrent as high as the Global maximum number of connections. In fact, uploading tiny amounts of data to lots of peers contributes negatively to the swarm as a whole. Even the FAQ doesn't recommend it, so I wouldn't do it. ;)

Also, how can I understand the recommended value for Maximum number of connected peers per torrent ?
Next is Maximum number of connected peers per torrent. The value that worked best for me is as follows. Take your upload speed (in my situation it's 128 kb/s) and divide it by 8.

What does this value derive from ? Is it just found by experiments and test ?

Yes, I experimented until I found the right value for me. Obviously, everyone's situation is different from mine, so consider the values I give only as a guide to help you in the right direction. Think of it like the wind blowing in one direction...only you can say what works best for you. ;)

I use 1024/192 kbps connection.

I always have only one active torrent.

After the downloading is finished I start seeding it with my max. upload speed. I always seed the torrents till the ratio reaches 100%.

So I can't say I don't play fair.

Isn't the recommended Maximum number of connected peers per torrent too low in such case for me ? In my case it is 24 according to the rule (192/8).

With this value I can get max. download speed = 40-50 kB/s for a very well seeded torrent.

When I increase the value to 200 I am able to achieve up to 190 kB/s. ...

I believe this is an interesting observation. If of course you get better speeds that way, then go ahead, use those numbers instead of mine. :P Just keep in mind that not all swarms are very well-seeded, and most of the time lower settings will do nicely as well. Though I should say that my settings are fairly conservative, but that is only to prevent people from uploading < 1 kB/s. ;)

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Thanks for your nice reply and all your explanations !

Just keep in mind that not all swarms are very well-seeded, and most of the time lower settings will do nicely as well

OK, I understand.

Well, one idea has just occurred to me now.

We can make something like the statistics. We can observe and monitor what is the average ratio between all and well-seeded swarms. I think it is fairly recurrent in a net.

We can make several tests to find the best value.

Then we will be able to create a better formula.

For example: (after all our tests) the ratio is 10% (10 well-seeded for 100 peers)

So the formula for the Maximum number of connected peers per torrent would be:

MNOCPPT = (10 * all peers) / 100

Of course we also have to include all seeds as the Maximum number of connected peers per torrent is related not only to peers. It refers to seeds + peers.

We can also modify this value and make it dependent on the max. upload speed.

Do you think it is possible to find such a formula ? :)

Though I should say that my settings are fairly conservative, but that is only to prevent people from uploading < 1 kB/s.

yeah, I see. That IS a good idea. Unfortunately I suppose there are many such people. I call them VULTURES :mad:

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Thanks for your nice reply and all your explanations !
Just keep in mind that not all swarms are very well-seeded, and most of the time lower settings will do nicely as well

OK, I understand.

Well, one idea has just occurred to me now.

We can make something like the statistics. We can observe and monitor what is the average ratio between all and well-seeded swarms. I think it is fairly recurrent in a net.

We can make several tests to find the best value.

Then we will be able to create a better formula.

For example: (after all our tests) the ratio is 10% (10 well-seeded for 100 peers)

So the formula for the Maximum number of connected peers per torrent would be:

MNOCPPT = (10 * all peers) / 100

Of course we also have to include all seeds as the Maximum number of connected peers per torrent is related not only to peers. It refers to seeds + peers.

We can also modify this value and make it dependent on the max. upload speed.

Do you think it is possible to find such a formula ? :)

...

It may be possible, but math is really not one of my strong skills...so I'm clearly not the best person for that job. :| In addition, there are other fairly important variables that will skew the formula's results. Swarms, for instance, are very dynamic in nature. It's incredibly rare that you'll find a swarm that more or less stays roughly the same size and maintains the same seed to peer ratio. You have to take into the equation the relative speed of the whole swarm (this on its own is difficult to establish - if not impossible), the seed to peer ratio as mentioned previously (which constantly changes in most swarms) etc. etc. etc. Plus, you have to deal with the fact that if suddenly the swarm halves in size (maybe a tracker has gone down and xx.x% of peers do not have DHT/PeX enabled), BitTorrent users are going to have to change their formula to reflect this unexpected change, if they want to keep the most optimized settings for that particular torrent. IMHO, the enormous task of finding this formula, either through probability or accurately computing values based on seed to peer ratio and things like that, is really way beyond my scope. Don't get me wrong, I like your idea, but in practice I'm not so certain it'll yield the same satisfactory results as in theory. That's my 0.03¢ (damn inflation). ;)

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I was thinking about it today.

You are right, it is really difficult to find the right ratio as the swarm changes dynamically. So we would have to monitor this continuously and choose the right value. But... it is possible for a programmer (the author of a bittorrent client) to create such a dynamic changing formula depending on the swarms activity. In my opinion it could be a really crucial feature !

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I would also like to add my 0.03$ to this discussion ;)

I'm a mobile person - I move with my notebook between my work and home all the time. At work I've got a symetric connection (VPN university network), the rare gift only few can benefit from :D It's hard to estimate its max up and down speed, but I would rather say that upload is even better than download. My absolute record while seeding is about 700 KB/s :) Usually I have to limit my bandwidth, since I'm not alone there, and I sometimes stay afterhours just to seed. CPU and HDD do a lot of hard work at those speeds. On the other hand, at home I've got some crappy ADSL 1024/128 (however I do manage to get those 128 kbits up). As you can imagine I have to change my network and torrent settings everytime I change my place, what is rather annoying ...

What works best for me: in well seeded swarms I always connect to a very limited number of peers, no matter where I am - I stick to icedog's conservative settings. In badly seeded swarms I almost always connect to a larger number of peers, even at home and it does help me to get better download! Think I'm acting like a leech sometimes, but I always seed back afterwards, depending on a swarm (ratios between 1.5 and 3-4). And I don't connect to more than 50, even at work.

What I always do: I change the max number of connected peers per torrent and upload slots, while only seeding, and limit the number according to my current internet access. I always make sure I don't keep people connected, while giving them some pathetic upload or even nothing (e.g. at home like 10 peers, at work like 20-30). While seeding and downloading I first start the download task, and then the seeding one(s). I connect to more peers in the downloaded torrent and to few in the seeded one(s), since my max number of connected peers is (much) lower than the sum of those "per torrent" (provided I'm not only downloading).

I think the above rules might help someone. For power users all that may sound obvious, but this is a "guide" topic, and most people are just simple users ;)

Hope I'm understandable - it's hard to speak and write two foreign languages all the time and switch between them ;)

cheers/ M

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Hi !

Thank you for sharing your experiences MietmaN !

in well seeded swarms I always connect to a very limited number of peers, no matter where I am - I stick to icedog's conservative settings.

Yeah. In such cases you don't have to worry about your download speed and you can also give a lot more data to every connected peer. That's very honest and sensible.

In badly seeded swarms I almost always connect to a larger number of peers

So, maybe that was the reason I got much better download by increasing the number of peers per torrent (see my first post here). Maybe the torrent was not seeded as well as I thought.

Think I'm acting like a leech sometimes, but I always seed back afterwards, depending on a swarm (ratios between 1.5 and 3-4)

This is exactly what I always do after my downloading is finished. Most often I seed until the ratio is 1.0 (100%) as I always use my crass ADSL :(

I always make sure I don't keep people connected, while giving them some pathetic upload or even nothing

What do you mean by 'pathetic' ?

What is a pathetic upload speed in your opinion ? What is the threshold ? 1 kBps/peer, 2 kBps/peer ?

(1c3d0g mentioned about 1 kBps)

In my opinion the torrent net could work much better if these ADSL connections had not so limited upload speeds. 1024/128 or 2048/192, isn't it a huge disproportion between the speeds ?

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User77: if you mean the one built into µTorrent, then yes, I believe so (never tried it myself though). Make sure you don't have anything downloading/uploading in the background, otherwise that can skew the results of the test. ;)

dr_Prozac:

...

In my opinion the torrent net could work much better if these ADSL connections had not so limited upload speeds. 1024/128 or 2048/192, isn't it a huge disproportion between the speeds ?

That's affirmative. And it's really the reason for our (relatively) low download speeds. :( The more you can give (upload), the more you can expect (download). This is the beauty of BitTorrent. :) Which is why I've been arguing with my ISP to provide a 512/256 kb/s package (instead of my current 640/128 kb/s "deal") for those of us who use BitTorrent heavily. They said "we'll look into it"...I'll see what comes out of it. :/ Anyway, if everyone, and I mean everyone, got on the phone with their ISP, complained about their slow upload speeds (let them know about the huge disproportional ratio of your download speeds), and asked for a better deal - maybe even take a lesser download speed for greater upload speed - I believe that sooner or later someone is going to listen to all those complaints and do something about it. ;) Of course, if you rarely use BitTorrent this may not apply to you, but then again, you wouldn't be reading this on this site, would ya?! :P

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Hi !

Thank you for sharing your experiences MietmaN !

Yeah. In such cases you don't have to worry about your download speed and you can also give a lot more data to every connected peer. That's very honest and sensible.

Thanks :) Glad to hear someone finds it useful ;)

I always find well seeded swarms on private trackers only - I personally think both private and public should exist, but concernig the number of leechers on the latter I try to use the private ones, if I can only find there what I want.

So, maybe that was the reason I got much better download by increasing the number of peers per torrent (see my first post here). Maybe the torrent was not seeded as well as I thought.

Must be - the larger the number (to some rational limit ;)), the better the chance to get a good seeder (or a well uploading peer). You would have to experiment on your own - always depends on a swarm. I never just start downloading and leave it like that. Usually I mess with settings for some time (providing I have enough time).

This is exactly what I always do after my downloading is finished. Most often I seed until the ratio is 1.0 (100%) as I always use my crass ADSL :(

I know, it's much en effort with ADSL. They fixed WLAN at work only a couple of days ago ...

What do you mean by 'pathetic' ?

What is a pathetic upload speed in your opinion ? What is the threshold ? 1 kBps/peer, 2 kBps/peer ?

(1c3d0g mentioned about 1 kBps)

When only seeding I think 2 kB/s is the lowest reasonable speed, while downloading I rarely care, but I don't set the number of slots too high, so let's say 1 kB/s. Talking about ADSL, of course.

In my opinion the torrent net could work much better if these ADSL connections had not so limited upload speeds. 1024/128 or 2048/192, isn't it a huge disproportion between the speeds ?

The second one is almost a robbery, that's why I stick to 1Mbit - I wouldn't have a chance to make use of 2Mbit download speed and seeding would be even more painful. I'm looking for some small ISP with slow, but symetric connection (easier to find in my home country than in Germany).

PS (OT :P) : nice avi tool there! Must try it out some time :)

@ user77 : I would do more tests on many different servers and then count the avr. speeds. You should also limit both up and down beneath your max rates - see the Guide and FAQ section.

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Anyway, if everyone, and I mean everyone, got on the phone with their ISP, complained about their slow upload speeds (let them know about the huge disproportional ratio of your download speeds), and asked for a better deal - maybe even take a lesser download speed for greater upload speed - I believe that sooner or later someone is going to listen to all those complaints and do something about it. Of course, if you rarely use BitTorrent this may not apply to you, but then again, you wouldn't be reading this on this site, would ya?!

Gospel truth !

That made me think - I will call them tomorrow. We will see what they say.

When only seeding I think 2 kB/s is the lowest reasonable speed, while downloading I rarely care, but I don't set the number of slots too high, so let's say 1 kB/s.

I see.

Well, let me concern to 1c3d0g's sticky guide now:

Then we'll continue on to Number of upload slots per torrent. [...] First, look at what number you put at your Global maximum upload rate (in Network Options). In my example it was set to 10 and I divided it with 4

This way we always get the average upload speed per one peer = circa 4 kB

Am I right ?

If so, wouldn't it be a better idea to divide it by 2 ?

If my Global maximum upload rate is for example 16 then I can open 8 slots. So that every uploading peer will get about 2 KB.

PS (OT :P) : nice avi tool there! Must try it out some time :)

:) Thank you MietmaN ;)

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this new encryption technology allowed me to do something I never could the entire time i've lived here... use torrents... and indeed confirmed that that ISP filters torrent traffic down to nothing. (sioux valley wireless)

This guide combined with that has drastically speeded up the upload speed from nothing to a good level, and the download speed to the max.

Thanks much for the good work on the guide... this is just great.

:)

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This guide combined with that has drastically speeded up the upload speed from nothing to a good level, and the download speed to the max.

Glad to hear the encryption works well for you! :)

I had to turn it off just yesterday - got too many Azurues clients causing hash fails due to their wrong implementation of encryption. However it wasn't always that bad - will try it out once more when I've finished the current one.

@ Icedog: for every positive opinion on your speed guide your ISP should give you extra 1 kB/s upload speed ;)

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Hey guys... Want to thank everyone who contributed to this post, excellent work guys. I spent about 2 hours reading the FAQ that started this post, dilligently tweaked all of the reccomended settings (i'm on a linksys WRT54GS) and while my linksys woes were solved, my torrents were still slugging along at ~1-5, occasionally spiking to ~20-40. Alas, when I had almost given up hope... I stumbled upon a forum on dslreports.com talking about the new utorrent beta, and how canadian isp's are capping torrent speeds.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! This new beta now lets me download CONSISTENTLY from at least 100kBps - 300 Kbps, and upload around 60KBps. It's hard to tell how much all of the other tweaking (TCPIP.sys, utorrent settings, DD-WRT, etc) had a big effect, although i suspect they did, but were not unleashed until this final tweak. either way...

THANK YOU !! Keep up the amazing work on these forums and on utorrnet , the best damn client out there in my opinion.

Cheers guys and happy torrenting :D

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