Why is Torrent so slow? Not sure where to post this one!

[retroz]

Metro girl, when I try to post something on the front page I get this message "Sorry, you do not have permission to start a topic in this forum"

 

Anyway, not sure where this should be posted, Bit Torrent running on OS X 10.3 for 10.4.4 with patch is at 14kbps.......you would think it would be much faster........

[Metrogirl]

Hi,

 

I think this should go in Installation, since that's what you're trying to do.

 

The 'front page' of the Forum is dedicated to sub-forums and it's not possible to create a topic there, but I think that you are referring to "Front Page News". That subsection is for breaking news and press coverage of topical events, and I believe that posting in that area is restricted to forum staff although we will move topics into FPN if they are newsworthy.

 

Most of the restrictions on this board (and there are not many) are designed to keep things well-organised rather than hinder users, though some of them have been created to deal with abuse. If you have a need to post in Front Page News, post somewhere else and PM a mod to suggest that it's moved.

 

The final part of your question - why is a Torrent slow - that is really dependent on a lot of things. Your own system and your internet link is the first place to look. Your own router and/or firewall may be slowing things down. Some ISPs intermittently block known torrent ports or throttle them so you might have problems there. The ratio you have can impact your maximum download speed. The location of the peers and seeds and their internet speeds makes a big difference. Load on the tracker is also relevant when the client searches for peers. The fact is that a torrent can have truly awful download speeds at times, yet pick up dramatically at others. If you're sure your system is fine and all the ports are getting through whatever firewall you have, all you can do is be patient.

[retroz]

Thanks Metro...

 

Not sure about the Torrent though....

 

my download speeds say via normal channels are almost 400K per second whereas Bit Tor is about 30kbps thats a few times faster than a modem!

 

Also, when the BT is opened it drags everything to a crawl as the upload (even though about 30K or something) is working, it somehow interferes with the basic web surfing....

[StickyDigits]

If I can suggest trying Trasmission Transmission Web site. This is a work in progress (current version .05). Universal binaries and the speed is great -- better then ABC off my windows system. Nice clean interface.

 

I noticed the same problems using BitTorrent (slow PPC code using rosetta) and started trying diffrent softwares to see the diffrence. At this point it's been running for about 4 days straight with no hitch.

 

Let me know if you like it.

[bofors]

Not sure about the Torrent though....

 

my download speeds say via normal channels are almost 400K per second whereas Bit Tor is about 30kbps thats a few times faster than a modem!

 

Are you running a FireWall? If so you need to open up the ports for BT. Likewise, if you are behind a router, you need to set-up "port-forwarding".

 

Finally, to fine tune a bit, cap your upload bandwidth at about 80% of your capacity (I know this is somewhat counter intuitive but there are good reasons why this works and it will solve your surfing problem) and then cut the number of uploads slots to the minimum which saturates your bandwidth cap. Otherwise, the number of connections per se should be unlimited.

 

I am sure if you search a little you can find more detailed information about BT performance issues. Remember, Google is your friend.

[Freaky Chokra]

Hi MetroGirl.

 

Same Issue here. I have a measely 72kbps (72000 bits) line. Although here its called a broadband. Well, I am from India, and quite a techie addict you may say. Am a writer for a tech magazine. Although thats the line I can afford. So to say.

 

Well I have downloaded the first Deadmoo image (compressed rar of the 6GB vmvare image) at a very nice speed as well as time period (5 days). After which I downloaded the first Tiger_for_x86pc_(by_Viper).iso in 11 Days. With stop gap days. :-(

 

Yet, this torrent is almost complete at 3.90Gb done. And 4.24 Gb uploaded. Out of 4.38GB. It just shows 52.3% completed.

 

Well, the fact here is that my ISP allows better upload than download as the former isn't capped but the latter is. D-uh?. Anyways, Using Bitcomet. Tweaked too. You have any ideas?

 

Also, I downloaded the torrent from TPB. and another from demonoid. But the TPB torrent was running for 9 days and yet only 14% was completed. and I mean 9 complete days(24x9). and when I replaced the demonoid torrent (as there were more seeds than peers compared to TPB) with the same hash check to the myzar.iso file, it shot upto 32% during the hash check.

 

Since then I switched back to TPB as peers and seeds to demonoid switched to TPB torrent, or so I think as there was no data flow down towards here :-( . Still stuck at 52.3%. Since 14-march-2006. And my connection is to be renewed at 1-April.

 

What I am thinking, is that If I somehow get a 256kbps line for a month although that would set me back financially significantly. But I need to do some underground / hands-on research (write for this latest apple offering) to post articles for my magazine and our national daily column of tech. It's my living you c.

 

But then I used to get 30MB per hour, roughly. with tweaks and all. but if its a torrent problem, I would rather not switch, or maybe switch ISPs whoare bloodsuckers over here in India.

 

Awaiting your reply soon.

 

Freaky-Chokra.

[retroz]

Are you running a FireWall? If so you need to open up the ports for BT. Likewise, if you are behind a router, you need to set-up "port-forwarding".

 

Finally, to fine tune a bit, cap your upload bandwidth at about 80% of your capacity (I know this is somewhat counter intuitive but their are good reasons why this works and it will solve your surfing problem) and then cut the number of uploads slots to the minimum which saturates your bandwidth cap. Otherwise, the number of connections per se should be unlimited.

 

I am sure if you search a little you can find more detailed information about BT performance issues. Remember, Google is your friend.

 

 

Thanks! How do I configure the router? I have 4 PC's on it (one a laser color printer) and see the ports, just not sure what to set it to.

 

StickyDigits, am trying it now and it's just as slow.........I have them both open and combined am looking at 15kbps....very very slow!

[Metrogirl]

Hey guys, thanks for all the messages and PMs ... I'm not sure why I'm now considered the 'expert' on torrents

 

The interplay between your client, your ISP and the swarm is rather complex and each variable can affect the others.

 

As Bofors says, your firewall or router is also a key component. Remember that some routers, particularly with older firmware, benefit from a power-off-power-on cycle regularly because they get their NAT tables clogged up after a lot of concurrent connections. Older consumer Netgear units are terrible for this and some D-Link units just get slow after a few days' use. Rebooting can work wonders. Sometimes forcing a new DHCP address on your cable modem can have surprising benefits but sometimes that works the other way and you get a slower connection. Not sure why this should have any effect, but maybe the upstream routing changes according to the IP block you get.

 

Freakychokra - in some configurations a torrent will reserve the full file size on your disk and fill the empty file with data as they arrive. This makes sense because you may get a 'late' piece before the preceding pieces arrive. The fact that you have a 3GB file doesn't mean that you have 3GB of data.

 

It is excellent advice to cap your upload below your maximum capacity. Remember that your ISP tells you the max. value, but you will almost certainly never get it because of many factors. I cap at around 30% of my outbound value which seems fine.

 

Torrents can be frustrating. If a torrent is really popular you might get it quickly but your ratio is slaughtered with a tracker which records it because you never upload much, there are too many seeds and peers. With Demonoid that's a real pain. Often you get failed hash checks on the same few parts for days on end, while the whole world and his wife uploads from you. That seems to happen with non-ratio trackers so you don't benefit (Sod's Law). On occasion I've been one of many people with 98% of a file and all the seeds have gone, so each of us is just feeding another bunch of suckers who won't ever complete.

 

I find that the best way to use torrents is to set-and-forget. Assume everything will take days to arrive, and that maybe all the seeds will vanish before you get it. Like many things in life, it's nice if it works, but it might not, and it's a gift, not a right, so enjoy it when it works but don't moan if it doesn't.

 

One of the best guides to all things torrent is HERE - scroll down to read the sections. It's written for BitTornado but the principles apply to most clients.

[Freaky Chokra]

HI MetroGirl.

 

Thanks for such a prompt reply. It's good to know some one who knows the workings of P2P and Networking. However, What I meant to convey was, I know the file is 4.38 GB and that is an empty sectored area on HDD by bitcomet to store bits received part by part. So I know that the file is yet incomplete. But the question remains is that even with my overall seeding till date is 12.68 GB and the download is 9.31 GB.

 

Howz that you must be wondering, right? That too at 72 kbitsps / 9kBytesps down and 72kbitsps up / which goes beyond 43 kBytesps for days. That's my upload uncapped by my ISP. and how do I know that?

 

Well, firstly, from DUMETER. Second, BitComet does hell of a job for uploading. I just wonder why am 'I' not getting the 10.4.5. Which I want at the earliest as - Oh, I forgot to mention = I AM A MAC FANATIC.

 

I simply LOVE it. And guess what, I recovered a hell lot of data when my Win-'SuXP' got bugged due to some jerk hacker(s) on my local LAN of my broadband service provider. It's India.

 

And yet it isn't that bad as thanks to me at least 50 people now have deadmoo running on their PC instead of 'Lean'-ux. And many of them actually got an 865gbf mobo along with the PGA 478 celeron with dual core at rock bottom prices. At 8500/- which is roughly $185 !!!. Which is quite cheap for my region. That has the most success rate ever. Yes, 10.4.1 X86 flies with 512 MB DDR and 15GB HDD devoted to it.

 

Sigh, I guess it's just one of those things in life which you got to enjoy for a while. Well, coz if you were meant to enjoy some beautiful things from GOD forever, others would never get to know the what it felt like to be there and do that. And as with life's biggest motto - it's a circle of life, you gotta go down to reach on top and savour the flavour of victory.

 

Thank you for the BitTornado guide. Wish you a good night's sleep, I know it must be night time there. And have a nice day tomorrow.

 

- FreakyChokra.

[bofors]

Thanks! How do I configure the router?

 

Check this out:

http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

[Colonel]

i didn't know that bit torrents go that fast. mine usually go at 5K if im lucky. how can I know which port is open for azureus to use. I always get Nat Error everytime I try a different port.