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druber · Mar 2, 2005, 12:36 AM

I download and share a lot of music from EasyTree.org, a great source for live, legal shows. We've just got basic broadband, so the upload speed isn't great. Past around 30kps the downstream starts to joke. No big deal, except I have a housemate who might actually like to use the net while I'm sharing.

I know you can set the upload cap for each torrent, but sometimes days go by without action on one certain file. So I try to leave several torrents open. But maybe the torrent I cap at 3k will be requested instead of the torrent I cap at 20k, you get the picture? Is there a BT app out there that will let you set a cap for the total upload speed, but let open torrents use all the bandwidth that's allotted to them?

nbn22385 · Mar 2, 2005, 02:12 AM

Have you tried Tomato Torrent? I think they have that setting.

Millennium · Mar 2, 2005, 09:28 AM

Some BitTorrent clients allow you to do this. Be aware, however, that because of the way BitTorrent is designed, capping your upload speed will by extension cap your download speed. If this is OK with you then that's fine, but it's something you should be aware of.

Visnaut · Mar 2, 2005, 09:33 AM

Azureus lets you do this quite effectively, on a global basis, as well as a per-torrent basis.

druber · Mar 2, 2005, 10:44 AM

I did try Tomato Torrent for a couple weeks. Had to dig too deep for basic settings like uploads, connections. When I saw that the official BT had moved to a one-window setup, I went back.

Millennium, I sure haven't seen any evidence of capped uploads capping downloads. Is there a documented ratio on this? It's sure not 1:1. 10:1?

I'll give Azureus a try. Not a huge fan of Java apps (Furthur, for example), but this is a feature worth having.

Millennium · Mar 2, 2005, 11:47 AM

Originally posted by druber:
Millennium, I sure haven't seen any evidence of capped uploads capping downloads. Is there a documented ratio on this? It's sure not 1:1. 10:1?

It's not a set ratio; it's the way that BitTorrent is designed. People who upload more packets are given packets more quickly, in what the protocol's designer calls a tit-for-tat system. The more you upload, the more you are allowed to download.

This is not a literal cap on downloads, of course, and if you are already downloading as fast as your connection will allow then you may be able to cap uploads somewhat and not even feel the difference. But it effectively acts as a cap, because by uploading less you will be given download packets less quickly.

Twilly Spree · Mar 2, 2005, 12:39 PM

In my experience:

When I upload 8 kB per sec I get 4 to 12 kB download.
When I upload 20 kB per sec I get 18 to 70 kB download.

YMMV

For controlling things like total u/l speed etc use Azureus. It has all the features.

druber · Mar 2, 2005, 06:17 PM

That's real interesting. Is this common knowledge and I just missed out? I wonder if it looks at each torrent or at the total in/out. I've had torrent A at 20k up, going full tilt, while torrent B is 4k up, getting 50k down. Make sense?

Millennium · Mar 2, 2005, 06:20 PM

Originally posted by druber:
That's real interesting. Is this common knowledge and I just missed out? I wonder if it looks at each torrent or at the total in/out. I've had torrent A at 20k up, going full tilt, while torrent B is 4k up, getting 50k down. Make sense?

It's not common knowledge, but it's not a secret either. The official BitTorrent FAQ mentions it.

This said, I don't know whether it goes for individual torrents, total upload/download speed, or some hybrid of the two (for example, counting all torrents on the same tracker).

PubGuy · Mar 3, 2005, 03:43 PM

When you bring up the BitTorrent window, there is a disclosure icon in the upper right side of the toolbar. Click on that and you will see the Max U/L and Num Uploads. You can change this globally or highlight an individual torrent and set it separetly per torrent. The only thing is that it will not save these settings betweem sessions.