Confused?

[Dave 2000]

Hi, I am new to utorrent and fairly new to torrents in general. I used to use Vuze and found that after downloading via Vuze my Internet run very slow even after I had exited Vuze, I had to reboot the computer to get my normal Internet speed back. So I decided a change was in order, I downloaded Utorrent and whilst watching my downloads I noticed that 'exit' meant exit and my Internet speed was ok, now after having utorrent a couple of days the same thing it starting to happen? My ISP software shows real time traffic and it in no way compares with what is showing on the utorrent page.

For example, if I am downloading a film and showing 21kb/s download and perhaps 15kb/s upload my theroretical traffic should be more or less 36kb and yet myISP software is showing perhaps 150 - 250kb/s or more?

If I pause utorrent the ISP traffic indicator comes down to 1 or even 0kb/s so what gives?

I have also think my ISP is picking up these faster speeds and 'throttling my download, this only starts to happen when the 'behind the scenes' speed goes up.

Any help here would be good, I have looked in the FAQ's and no luck there.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I use Moviestar in Spain but I doubt that is any help? ALL my utorrent settings are as per default, I saw no reason to alter them other than limiting my download speed so I did not wake the ISP throttle monster, up until a couple of days ago all was well.

Dave

[Switeck]

bits versus BYTES confusion?

uTorrent shows speeds in KiloBYTES/second, while most bandwidth monitoring programs show speeds in kilobits/second. There's almost an order-of-magnitude difference between the 2!

[Dave 2000]

Got it, you are right my ISP shows 'Kbits' as the speed and if Utorrent is using 'Kbytes' then this would certainly explain the discrepancy.

many thanks

Dave

[Switeck]

Considering not every bandwidth bit can be used for file transfers, it's possible that on average it takes about 9-10 bandwidth bits per BYTE of the file...which makes the problem even worse.

Having LOTS of connections increases overheads further...possibly needing 11-20 bits per file BYTE.

[Dave 2000]

TBH I reall do not understand the way it works and perhaps there is an 'idiots' guide? I tend to just find whatever I want download and return the ratio to 1 so the 'debt' is paid and having watched the film or series I just delete it. As I am not into DVD copying (as if someone would do that!) ect so my overal usage is IMHO quite low and I would not be considered a 'serious' torrent user, having said that I am of the (non expert) opinion that utorrent appears easier to use and is a little easier on my machine overall.

Thanks to whoever for what appears to be a nice piece of software,

Dave