Just can't get speeds above 100 anymore!

[Gino_34]

This is what I own:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3600+ 1.9 GHz PC. My OS is Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1. I have 1 GB of memory with a nice 250 GB HD with Hyper DMA enabled.

After conducting numerous tests, my download speed is roughly 3572 kb/s and my upload speed clocked in around 408 kb/s. My ISP is Velcom and I know that they don't throttle their downloads. When I do those tests (openoffice) my speeds are above 200! But my problem is that whenever I try and download a torrent (movie) from BT Junkie, I get speeds between 40-50 kb/s (regardless of how many seeders there are). Currently, I'm trying to download a movie which has well over 5000 seeders and just under 3000 leechers. With numbers that high, why can't I connect at wicked high speeds? I pay for 5MB service with Velcom and I'm using a 2wire router (2700HG- and I have forwarded port 39116 correctly because I tested it and I got a green "OK".

I have tried changing all those settings in preferences (I've read numerous posts which are all very well written btw) but I just can't get speeds over 100 anymore. Can someone tell me what they suggest I should have my settings at with my specs?

Thanks in advance for any help or tips.

PS> I haven't download that TCP file which needs to be patched.....should I do it? I don't know if it's compatible with Vista or not. I really hope that someone can give some advice here.

[thelittlefire]

If you get 200 on the test torrent it means your swarms just suck. What Ctrl-G settings are you using?

[Gino_34]

I've selected 384k for connection type. My upload speed is closest to that number. I haven't altered any settings....I'm using the default ones.

I tried using 512k but I noticed that my speed just got worse.

What do you suggest I change in the speed guide page? Please be specific.

Thanks.

[Ultima]

Whatever the Speed Guide's instructions recommend. AKA test your connection's speed and select the closest upload rate.

[Gino_34]

What does "your swarms suck" mean? Sorry...I'm sort of new at this and don't understand all the lingo yet. The mod suggested I "AKA test"....what does that mean?

I'll stick with my default settings....but is there anything else I'm doing wrong? If there are alot of seeders, why isn't my speed faster than 40k? I use BT junkie because I read what people have to say about the torrent before I waste my time on a crappy version...especially new movies that are shot with cameras. Those are definitely a waste of time because they always look washed out and you hear everything going on in the theater (people laughing, talking etc).

I don't download a torrent that has more leechers than seeders because the speeds are usually slow. I've been reading about private trackers....are those better than BT junkie or mininova? I'm just so frustrated about all this. I used to get amazing speeds...what's going on? I've also read that torrents take time (30 mins) to get to full speed...is that true? If I don't get close to 100k, I usually give up...should I be waiting it out?

Edit: Nobody's going to help me out eh? I've waited patiently for 3 days and no responses. Oh well.

I did try something completely different and I think it has made a difference. I decided to disable auto tuning through the command prompt and rebooted. I'm now hitting speeds of 100-120! Any other tips?