[voodoo]

See I am downloading a file that is relatively popular and I am getting a very unstable connection. Max speed I get is about 5K and down to 0K it just grinds to a halt sometimes. It says I am connected to 20 peers. Another file - much less popular that I am downloading and gives me a connection with ca 15 peers is downloading at 30K to 40K/s.

This is so strange. I'm totally new to this BitTorrent thing so I'm not sure what is normal and what is freaky. Can someone explain this behavior? Would it be better to try and restart the download? Ideas? (on 1K on average like this is I'll be 30 days to download this file!!)

I got a 1.5 MBit ADSL. Thanks

[RevEvs]

BitTorrent takes a while to start, always starts very slow (1 or 2k/sec), but after a while gets up to steady 40k/ + speeds).

The more popular a file, the faster it should download, as more people will be uploading and downloading the file at once.

Basically you just have to leave a download on for a while, it gets faster and faster, a lot of files start off with huge estimated times, say a few days, but in the end only take a few hours.

Restarting the download wont really make much difference, if not making things worse.
Leave it on, make sure you are uploading as well, and that any router/firewall has the ports opened/forwarded.

revs

[voodoo]

Thanks revs, it isn't that I haven't been patient-ish - see I started to download this file some 15 hours ago and it hasn't gained any speed since then. Still 2K +/- and grinding to a halt every now and then. The other files I downloaded behaved exactly as you described they should, starting out slow and then gaining considerable speed. They are all done now but this one still has 300+ hours left and chugs along at 0.7 to 1 K now. Jumps up a bit every now and then and then 0K/s for a while.

Perhaps there are fewer than I think downloading this file? It has ca 50 seeders and 600 leeches. Is that good or bad?

[jasong]

This whole Bit Torrent thing pisses me off. I am currently DLing the 2nd Season of Scrubs, and yesterday I was Uploading at 106 Kbs, and Downloading at 2! This was for 6 hours.

One thing that sometimes helps is to make sure an upload can't take all of your outgoing bandwidth. If it does, you won't be able to receive. Also setting your outgoing bandwidth too low will negatively affect your incoming speed, as BT favors people who can serve.

-- Jason

[voodoo]

Well the Uploading traffic here maxes out at about 35KB/s and BT is consuming it all. I am getting about 10K totally inbound and 35K outbound. Hm. I'm doing my fair share I'd say.

Do you get allocated better peers if you upload a lot?

[Mediaman_12]

In theory It should get quicker, but in the real world. Lets say someone seeds file a.img This is very popular and 100's of people start as almost the same time. This is where the system gets slow, because only one person has got anything close to the entire file the download can't get spread about, so everybody is really only getting it from one source. The other problem is people not keeping connected once they have the file (like with a certain OS upgrade), so it's difficult for it to reach a point where the BitTorrent network can work efficiently like it's supposed to.

[solitere]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Well the Uploading traffic here maxes out at about 35KB/s and BT is consuming it all. I am getting about 10K totally inbound and 35K outbound. Hm. I'm doing my fair share I'd say.

Do you get allocated better peers if you upload a lot?

A hint!
You can set restrictions to upload and shared connections by clicking on the Right windows widget...

[voodoo]

Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
(like with a certain OS upgrade)

Got me there!

Looks like my Panther CDs will arrive sooner than the BT download. I just can't wait!!!

Thanks for the explanation Mediaman_12

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by voodoo:


Got me there!

Looks like my Panther CDs will arrive sooner than the BT download. I just can't wait!!!

Thanks for the explanation Mediaman_12

I have the same problem... er, I mean my friend does. The CDs will arrive before I have 10 MB downloaded.

[Krypton]

I found that if you are connected over Airport to the internet, download speeds will suck. Use a computer with a direct connection for max speeds.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by Krypton:
I found that if you are connected over Airport to the internet, download speeds will suck. Use a computer with a direct connection for max speeds.

Generally I got OK speeds (even if I am d/l through Airport) ranging from 10 to 50 K per sec.

Its just these ****-****-********-**** that don't upload the file they download that are ruining things.

[Hop Pocket]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Its just these ****-****-********-**** that don't upload the file they download that are ruining things.

Agreed. Unfortunately there are lot a lot of good solutions to the problem, unless you could always uniquely identify each client on the server.

If that were true, then one could track the amount uploaded by a client across multiple sessions (frequent disconnects anyone?). That would prevent false bannings from servers.

Also, if someone came in, with an upload of 5 bytes / sec, downloaded 23 gigs, and then disconnected, he would be gratefully banished to the land of direct downloading, wherever that may be.

[OwlBoy]

Ok, I think you guys are also forgetting that people can limit how fast they upload. [edit: sorry I just read the thread, I jumped to reply to quick, I see that some of you understand what is goind on]

Some do it because if they max their upstream, it kills their downstream.

Also, remember that if you are behind a firewall, you may not get as many connections.

And, if someone IS uploading, that they are probly uploading to not just you, but also others, thus lowering the ammount they can upload.

Be patient it takes a bit of time to connect, and find all the sources a torrent needs to, it first connects to the tracker, then the tracker tells it who is downloading/uploading the file, then Bittorrent seeks out all of them and waits for parts of the file you need.

Bittorrent does not download in order, so instead of downloading like this:

Code:
a
ab
abc
abcd
abcde
abcdef
abcdefg

It downloads like this:

Code:
   d
a  d
a  d f
ab d fg
abcd fg
abcdefg

And if you need part e, and only a few people have that part, it will take longer to get that part. If a lot of people happen to have part a, then that part will download faster. This is one reason the download speed fluctuates while the download is going, also due to people stopping or starting their .torrent.

Rember that sure, a lot of people maybe downloading a file, but if only 1 or 2 people have the WHOLE file, thendownloads will not go too fast. (again, short on sources for parts, and those who have everything, are uploading to a large number of people, dividing the upload between them)

Once you do download something, think of the troubles you had, and leave the window open so you help someone else out (by uploading).


You have to think about all these things before you can complain. Specialy if you consider that you may be downloading something you should not be .

People often refer to Bittorrent as a bridge buring type of thing, people download (cross the bridge) then close the torrent (burn the bridge). A file sharing community is only as "good" as its members, don't just assume others will share.

-Owl

[edit: sorry I just read the thread, I jumped to reply to quick, I see that some of you understand what is goind on]

[Arkham_c]

Another issue is port forwarding. You have to make sure that if you have a firewall that you open up the ports that you specified in the preferences. Also, if you're behind a NAT router, you should set your IP to your external IP, not your internal.

BitTorrent completely maxes out my upband (41KB.sec) and downband (144KB/sec) for hours at a stretch, whether wired or on wireless.

I can get a popular disk image in a very short time, but I leave it open at least until I have uploaded as much as I downloaded.

[sanity assassin]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:


BitTorrent completely maxes out my upband (41KB.sec) and downband (144KB/sec) for hours at a stretch, whether wired or on wireless.

Slightly off-topic, but how does one work out the Kbps, and K/Bps sizes?

Say I have a 512Kbps adsl connection, how would that translate into download sizes in KBps?


Thanks

[benb]

Originally posted by sanity assassin:
Slightly off-topic, but how does one work out the Kbps, and K/Bps sizes?

Say I have a 512Kbps adsl connection, how would that translate into download sizes in KBps?


Thanks

You divide by 8. There are 8 bits in a Byte and 8 Kilobits in a Kilobyte.

So your max download speed is 512/8 or 64KB/s.

[sanity assassin]

Originally posted by benb:
You divide by 8. There are 8 bits in a Byte and 8 Kilobits in a Kilobyte.

So your max download speed is 512/8 or 64KB/s.

Thanks for the breakdown.

[voodoo]

OwlBoy a thousand thanks!

After that explaination I feel like I know BitTorrent a lot better!

BT is a pretty neat app all in all. It's just that I am on a 600 MHz G3 => if I am d/l more than 4 torrents my computer is unusable really.

I solved this temporarily by borrowing my mom's 12" PB and let it do the downloading (she's in Barcelona right now). Perhaps a certain OS upgrade will be in my hands during this weekend. <here's hopin'>

[Grrr]

Arkham_c hit the nail on the head..
I had exactly the same problem as many of you guys.. Really slow downloads.. Usually between 0 and 5k with an occasional higher burst.
Open up ports 6881 to 6889, and your downloads will fly. With the ports open, BT should easily be able to max out the bandwidth of even the fastest connections in either direction.

[leeeo]

How do you do that?

[MusicalTone]

Leeo go to Airport Setup and use the Port Forwarding tab,

[Jim_MDP]

Oh, what the hell... hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot.

1. Open about a hundred ports both in BT and Sharing pref. Make sure they're the same ones... heh.

2. When you start a torrent, quick as it will let you, set your max u/l to about 85% of your maximum possible. If you don't know yours try:
http://sfo.speakeasy.net/
It gives both up and down. There are others, if you got a better one, please share so people don't load down any single speed test site. THX.

3. Set your max upload connections to something around ten. Four is the default, ten works for me, YMMV.

You will get 30, 40, 100 peer connections going (if there are at least that many sharing that is), and still be able to do light browsing and check your mail.

When d/l is completed, open that u/l pipe back to max (put 0 back in) unless you're still browsing the web etc.
And let it run several hours if you can.

I'm on a powerbook, so It's harder for me. I try to do them while I sleep and actualy set an alarm for shortly after d//l is done so I can reset the u/l to max. This step is optional.

I'm on ~ 1.1m/128k ADSL and I truly wish I could upload faster, so this is the best compromise I've come up with.

Any errors in my thinking... please correct me.

[RooneyX]

Could you please give me detailed step by step instructions about which panes I should open and which settings I should adjust to what? I also get terrible DL speeds and my system, 17inch Alubook, just gets very bogged down.

[Jim_MDP]

This really bugged me becaus I never use it myself, but... the little rounded rect. widget in the top right of the BT window will open a pref pane to set max u/l in K per sec and number of u/l connections to allow.

Silly place for it since if I'm not fast enough, the u/l will jump to the max (default for EVERY NEW TORRENT, grrr) and it can be almost impossible to get it to back down again no matter what I put in the max speed setting.

[Jim_MDP]

now you want to know how to open the port numbers too, right?

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by Jim_MDP:
now you want to know how to open the port numbers too, right?

Yeah. Like, the BT prefs have the ports listed Low Port 6881 and 6889. On my Airport I created public ports 6881-6889. Don't know what else to do or how to do it.

[Jim_MDP]

I can't say what Airport has to do with it, but...

In System Prefs -> Sharing, select 'Firewall... click 'New", name it whatever you want (BT or BitTorrent maybe :-) ), type in the port numbers you want open, make sure its box is checked and save changes if it asks. You DO have the firewall enabled, right?

I'm on Panther so I hope it's close to that for you.

[Jim_MDP]

I do wish some experienced BT users would critique my longwinded screed above. If there are errors or items that actually make the community worse as a whole... I'd like to edit it before any misinformation spreads too far.

[memento]

Originally posted by Krypton:
I found that if you are connected over Airport to the internet, download speeds will suck. Use a computer with a direct connection for max speeds.

I have not found that at all. With my airport (not extreme) I can still saturate my cable download at 380KB/s.

What *I* have found is that uploads will impact downloads. Carrafix is a program that prioritizes incoming and outgoing packets so that this slowdown does not happen. Using Carrafix, I can saturate both my uploads and downloads simultaneously.

[ryju]

Look around in the BT documents for ports to open on your firewall. I download around 200kbs steadily on most files.

[voodoo]

But if you don't have a firewall, do you then have to open any ports?

[RooneyX]

Man, this is nagging me.

I've got a 1.5MBs DSL connection.

I've enabled the firewall and opened public ports from 6880-6900 which should be 20 ports.

In BT prefs I've enabled the ports to. Low Port 6880, High Port 6900.

I'm using the latest release.

Result, nothing better than before. My uploads are about 10-20KBs. My downloads hardly budge and are less than a kilobit most of the time even though I'm connected to over 10 peers.

[Jim_MDP]

Rooney, if your DSL is like mine, your u/l max is around 128k/sec. So when BT u/ls anything over about 15k/sec it's saturating your pipe and d/l error correction (hash check) slows to a crawl.

Set the u/l max in BTs window to 12 or 13 and see what happens. If you already have, ignore me... I'm an idjit.

Those with higher speed uploads, calculate your own higher number. You just need 2-3 k/sec d/l free for error corr. and light browsing. I'm doing it now.

And choose torrents carefully. Even one with few seeds will run fine if the ratio to peers is maybe 8 or lower. Even one with hundreds of seeds but a ratio of like 15 will run slow. There's just not enough 'full copies' to go around.

As always, YMMV. But I'd like to see everyone happy with their connections. I think it encourages people to u/l more if they've been getting the d/ls they want.

[iDriveX]

F*cking Pirates

(Obligatory Post)

[Jim_MDP]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
F*cking Pirates

(Obligatory Post)

Absolutely, I understand.

Memento, I'll check Carrafix and report back tomorrow on it (if I grab something tonight).

I think it might help a lot of people if config is easier than the instructions I and others are giving. I'm still assuming I'm not that far off. I still want knowledgeable feedback on that.

If we all play nice (max useable u/l depending on connection), we're all better off.

[sushiism]

" This whole Bit Torrent thing pisses me off. I am currently DLing the 2nd Season of Scrubs"
yeah id be pissed off too if that garbage was filling up my hard drive

[Ratm]

If you don't have a firewall (which all OS X users do, check in System preferences under sharing >firewall) or if its turn off then don't worry about it. The ports I use are 6881, 6889 and these are the specific ports BitTorrent uses so use them!. If you have a router then forward the ports. If you change the default of sharing from 4 to 7 or higher, then your downloads will be slower both up/down and if you limit to few connections the same will happen, this is a sharing community so don't be a f**king freeloader and just leech, contribute and give others the same bits/bandwidth/time they give you. I usually get around 150-200ks down (depending on how many users are seeding a file 100 or more then the speed increases to 300ks) and 90-100ks up. A little neat trick I found is if you turn off your firewall for a few minutes (then on again) you'll speed up the connect to users process and the downloads will begin quicker.

check out http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
F*cking Pirates

(Obligatory Post)

]


I'm against piracy so I hope that wasn't to towards me.

[Grrr]

Originally posted by leeeo:
How do you do that?

Sorry, I didn't explain exactly how to do this, because opening ports is a very different process depending on the type of router/firewall you have. And the possible combinations people might have are endless.
I have a Mk 1 Graphite AirPort base station which I believe has no FireWall like newer base stations do. So that gave me 1 less thing to worry about (and my OS X firewall is turned off, so another thing not to worry about). My Alcatel 510 ADSL Modem/4 port router does have a FireWall in it however. So it is this that I had to mess around with in order to give me decent download speeds from BT.

[MusicalTone]

There are 2 separate issues:

1) Port forwarding

2) Firewall

You need to use 1) port forwarding if you are behind a NAT server (i.e. Airport base station).

You need to tinker with your firewall 2) to open up the ports listed in BT prefs, OR turn of the firewall.

To check if your ports are open use Network Utility for ports 6881-6889 (the default BT ports).

To see what IP addresses you are connected to open Terminal and type in <netstat -an>
Your address is on the left - 10.0.2.2, etc if you are using Airport DHCP. Should have 6881 after it for established connections, etc.

BitTorrent has wider uses than DL illegal copies of software.

ps. The BT dl window shows KiB/s - that is KiloBytes, or KB as usually abbreviated. Typically you will see about 20-30 KiB/s for a 256Kb (Kilobits) ADSL downstream. Some people confuse Bytes for Bits and wonder why its so slow.

[RooneyX]

I just gave up on the Airport and stuck the DSL modem right into my Mac. Everything is zippy now but when BT is DLing at fullblast nothing loads in my browsers.

[King Bob On The Cob]

Originally posted by Krypton:
I found that if you are connected over Airport to the internet, download speeds will suck. Use a computer with a direct connection for max speeds.

Are you implying that everyone here is on an T3? That's about what it would take to max out the 22 (or 54 depending on who you ask) Mbps that Airport provides. (Average Broadband speeds are still below 1 Mbps in most areas)