First time user

[Haijo]

Hey, it's not a *real* speed problem but I was just curious.

When I download OpenOffice I get like 200 kb/s per second download, and it had only like 60 seeders and a coupe leechers.

Now when I download this other thing(...ahum...) with like 100 seeders and 1300 leechers, I het like 10-15 kb/s. Is this normal? Is there some setting I don't know anything about? And if I've done everything normally, how is this possible? Does that particular torrent have like *no* uploaders or something?

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Your torrent has a seed:leech ratio of 1:13. This is not a particularly good ratio. Still, with so many leechers, generally you should be getting something more than 15KB/s (if your connection is capable of 200KB/s as proven by the OpenOffice torrent) by trading pieces with fellow leechers.

Confirm you've set things up according to the Speed Guide - it ain't perfect but it is a place to start. If your speeds still don't improve, check the peer list to check out the guys you are connected to.

If most of them have low completion percentages themselves, there's nothing to do but wait - they are also lining up for the relatively few seeders to give them information. Things should improve as everyone gets more.

If the list is dominated by BitComet users, there's also little you can do. You can DL and fire up BC and transfer your torrent. Back before say v1.4, this has a very high possibility of getting you better results. After that, uT gets better at handling BC and connections in general, and the chances this will bring you results fall. Still, worth a try if you have the time to burn.

Otherwise, you can try and get a "redeal". Stop the torrent, wait a few minutes - perhaps do a hash check to pass the time, and start it again. You will draw at least some different peers and maybe you'd have better luck this time. If that doesn't work, well, I'm out of ideas.

[Switeck]

If you're firewalled, the number of peers and seeds you can connect to drops immensely. Roughly 70% of every peer/seed is firewalled according to estimates I've seen.

[Ultima]

Though it's possible for such a large swarm to run that slowly, it's more likely that the torrent's fake...

[Haijo]

No, I *always* get such downloads, no matter the numbers. At peeks I get 20 but mostly like 5-10. Ah, well, looks like it's the speed guide for me.

[Ultima]

Eh I was assuming your configurations were set. Anyhow, since the OpenOffice.org torrent is running fast, the only explanation left is the swarm. Or maybe your firewall, as Switeck mentioned.

[Haijo]

Nope, no firewall here, I've got a modem, and no firewall installed. And I doubt the torrents fake, usually I do get them, and they're always real. No, I'm just unlucky.

[Switeck]

Then it may be your settings.

What settings are you using?

Up/down speeds, upload slots, # torrents at once, max # connections, max # connections per torrent, half-open slots limit, etc.

How fast is your connection down AND up?

[Haijo]

Then it may be your settings.

What settings are you using?

Up/down speeds 4/2(matched my upload the most)

upload slots 30

# torrents at once, max 15

# connections 850

max # connections per torrent 125

half-open slots limit, etc.

How fast is your connection down AND up? 8 mbit down/2mbit up

Thanks for your help by the way.

[µtorrent-Guest]

your values are lightyaers TOO HIGH for 2 Mbit upload.

Go use the values the speedguide recommends!

CTRL+G

[Haijo]

Thought so, told you I was going to use the speed guide. ;-) thanks anyway

[laimanl]

Hi Haijo, from what you said, I think there is something that you are misunderstanding about BT. A torrent (torrent A) with more seeders than another torrent (torrent doesn't mean you will get faster d/l speed on torrent A then torrent B. Like what Kazuaki Shimazaki said, seed:leech ratio is quite a major factor.

Acturally, your case is a very good example:

Case 1 : 60 seeders and a coupe leechers (let's say 5 including yourself) in the swarm. Let's also say each peer (seeder and leecher) is willing to give out 50 kB/s for the upload. It means the total bandwidth available for the leechers to get is around (50 kB/s * 65 peers) 3250 kB/s. Since there are only 5 leechers, most likely you can get quite a high d/l speed. (3250/5 = 650 kB/s)

Case 2 : 100 seeders and 1300 leechers. From the similiar calculation above, total bandwidth available is around (50 * 1400) 70000 kB/s. It is quite large however, there are 1300 leechers are fighting to get. (70000/1300 = 54 kB/s)

There are lots of factor will affect your d/l speed in BT. Like client setup, # of seeder connected, # of leecher connected, what BT client the peer is using, the ISP the peer is using, they are good or bad (in term of their upload speed), your upload speed.. etc. And each torrent may have different situlation. You cannot just compare one torrent to another torrent. Maybe on one torrent is fast but another torrent is slow with similiar number of peers connected.

[Switeck]

Haijo said: Up/down speeds 4/2

That right there is a problem. I'm asking what upload/download speeds you're using in KB/sec. If you're using 4 KB/sec up and 2 KB/sec down...yeah, it's going to be VERY slow!

Upload speeds should be about 150-220 KB/sec and Download speeds should be about 800-900 KB/sec, if you've actually got the 8mbps down/2mbps up connection you're claiming.

You definitely have more upload slots than your connection can handle too. It'd run smoother+faster with fewer active torrents at once and fewer upload slots per torrent.

[Haijo]

Fixed, seems to run a bit smoother.

Thanks, laimanl, I hadn't thought of it that way.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I used the speed guide, and now I looked at my upload rather than my download, so I put it at 2 mbit instead of 4 mbit, and now it's run twice as fast!