Only 4 downloads at a time.... Why?

[ajcoalter]

Only 4 downloads at a time.... Why?

[Switeck]

Any torrent that is downloading and uploading <1 KB/sec does not count as active even if started.

As for why so "few" active torrents, look at it from the other side of the equation -- people you upload to.

For instance, if you have 100 KB/sec upload speed.

Running 5 torrents splits that 100 KB/sec into 20 KB/sec per torrent.

But on each torrent you're uploading to 4 peers at a time (4 upload slots per torrent).

So from those peers point of view, you're only uploading at an average of 5 KB/sec. (20 / 4)

But that's not enough, you're probably not uploading to many of the peers you're connected to. If you allow 50 connections per torrent and 40 of them are peers, then you're only uploading to a peer about 1/10th of the time.

So another peer on the same torrent downloads from you about 1/10th of the time and at about 5 KB/sec speed. Or another way of looking at that...0.5 KB/sec over many hours.

Peers are programmed to upload the most to other peers that give them the most.

Starting more torrents or increasing the number of connections per torrent often just means far more peers ignore you...and worse even the ones you are uploading to get so little over time that they may also give little back.