Bit torrent download help

[phillai]

What should my maximum upload speed be for my 2mb ADSL Nildram line whilst using Azureus bit torrent client?

My download speeds vary and I really need help on this.

Thank in advance to all replies in advance

[superkully]

It all depends on who you're downloading from, how many you're downloading from and your network hardware.

If you're downloading a popular Bittorrent and connected to people with fast uplinks you'll be fine. Otherwise you're not.

Take it as it comes, I'd downloading a 6.3 Gb torrent at the moment, and the speed has varied from 4Kb/s to maxing out my 512k line as I connect to different people.

[phillai]

In my settings though, what should my maximum upload speed typically be set at though?
I have it at 10k with various results but some of my mates have it set at 5k and 20k for a 2mb ADSL line...
Or are you saying that I should freely change my upload speed according to how popular the actual torrent link is?

[superkully]

Sorry, I misunderstood your email.

I have my uplink speed set to '0' (max). Because I want to help out the people helping me. As a rule of thumb, try to upload as much as possible, otherwise Bittorrent will die.

Some people have said they they keep the uplink speed down because it 'throttles the download speed' this doesn't apply to me and my Netgear DG814 - perhaps it's because they have a crap router which can't handle all the ports that get opened...?

But setting your uplink to 5 is disgusting, it shows your friends for the leeches they are

[Kotatsu Neko]

I read that letting bittorrent take all the bandwidth it wants for uploading isn't actually that productive. It just opens too many connections and swamps the connection, and so runs slower.

You need to balance the upload speed for your line speed. I'm on 2meg cable and have it limited to 4 uploads at once and a cap of 16k/sec. I get download rates of up to 200k/sec, but mostly around the 40-60k/sec mark.

Best advice with bittorrent is to get a new torrent early, when it's popular. If you arrive late you might be left with only a few seeders and you'll be downloading for days.

[Magnakai]

You should set the upload to 80% of your line speed for maximum productivity, with your download speed at unlimited.
Adjust these to your flavour, but that's a rough guide to getting the best speeds.

[babs]

Limit the number of upload slots as well, you'll get far more incoming requests and it can really throttle and affect your download speeds.

[t-dog]

You need to balance the upload speed for your line speed. I'm on 2meg cable and have it limited to 4 uploads at once and a cap of 16k/sec. I get download rates of up to 200k/sec, but mostly around the 40-60k/sec mark.

i did that, and my bt download speed immediatly doubled.
thanks for the tip!

[FreelancePolice]

i limit mine to 20k/s if im not browsing or 18 if i want to do other things and it works pretty well but of course the torrent needs lots of seeds to be the most effective

[SubparMario]

I limit my upload to 5k and can happily max out to 240k download on a good torrent. I've read that limiting your upload like this will stop you from getting good speeds but it doesn't seem to be the case in my experience.

I know it's not good practice, but in the case of 'normal' bit torrent usage, screw honour among thieves - I'm here to smash and grab!

[randombs]

I have my uplink speed set to '0' (max). Because I want to help out the people helping me. As a rule of thumb, try to upload as much as possible, otherwise Bittorrent will die.

Some people have said they they keep the uplink speed down because it 'throttles the download speed' this doesn't apply to me and my Netgear DG814 - perhaps it's because they have a crap router which can't handle all the ports that get opened...?

throttling your upload speed to 80% of it's value is hardly going to kill 'Bittorrent', is it? at the rate it's going, the MPAA would probably do that before throttling even got a chance to cause problems anyway.

as for 'crap routers', it's actually a limitation (if you can call it that) of the whole packets system - the pc needs to reply when packets are sent to say 'yup, i got it'. maxing out your upload means the pc can't reply as quickly and this is where the problem lies.

my upload is 288k which in real terms is 36kB/s, but in practice it is more like 32kB/s, so i set my upload to 20-25kB/s which usually does the trick.

i'm on 2mb too, and i've never downloaded anything that has come close to maxing out my connection (i only use bittorrent for some jap dramas, otherwise i use easynews for everything else), but when i had 1mb and i downloaded 'just-seeded' or otherwise popular stuff it would usually max out (or at least reach around 90-100kB/s). nonetheless, i still throttle the upload to make simultaneous web browsing somewhat bearable (i find the whole bandwidth gets sucked up when using azureus, even if the download is only 60kB/s or something). i tend to just download torrents when i'm away from the machine as a result

[Len]

May be of help:

http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/index.php/OptimiseSpeed