Download Speed

[phishcrow]

Hi All.
I have been downloading a DVD and it is averaging about 8-10 KiB/s down and 23-29 KiB/s up. Is this a normal speed for new DVD torrents? It seems VERY slow. I've been on for almost 2 days and only have 1 Gig of 4.36 Gigs downloaded. It says it has 4 days left.

I am on a Mac using BitTorrent 4.0.2

Thanks

[diggrd]

many factors to consider ie: your isp connection speed, how many seeds and peers and their isp connection speeds. What show is it you are D/Ling?

[wazoo2u]

Originally Posted by phishcrow

Hi All.
I have been downloading a DVD and it is averaging about 8-10 KiB/s down and 23-29 KiB/s up. Is this a normal speed for new DVD torrents? It seems VERY slow. I've been on for almost 2 days and only have 1 Gig of 4.36 Gigs downloaded. It says it has 4 days left.

I am on a Mac using BitTorrent 4.0.2

Thanks

Like Diggard said.. optimizing Bit Torrent performance is a balance of many factors. How many seeds AND peers are active in the swarm, and what is their upload cap. Are they firewalled ?? Is the torrent fully seeded, or is the oniginal seeder only upping one connection ? Are they SuperSeeding ?? How many torrents do you have running simultaneously, and how much bandwidth are you allocating to each one ? Are you oversaturating your OWN upload cap and slowing your download in the process (your client's upload cap should be set to 80% of your ISP's upload limit maximum speed)

All of these factors (and probably more) come into play, and while they might not ALL be active at one time, they all have to be considered. Also... download speeds can vary greatly during the course of completing a torrent, depending on when you join the swarm, and the generation of new seeds when the swarm matures.

Short answer... 8-10Kb down isn't unheard of. I often get speeds like that. I only worry when a 4gig DVD is trickling in at 2 or 3 Kb.. then it's gonna tie up a client slot for a real long time, and I'm not very happy with that.

[U2Lynne]

Are you throttleing your upload speed to about 80% or the max or do you have it set to the default '0' (unlimited)? Do you know what your max upload speed is?

[phishcrow]

Sorry I forgot to mention I am on a DSL connection. i am downloading the Trey 5-6-05 Atlanta DVD and I have only 1 torrent running. My upload is set to 200 KiB/s. It seems to be going a little faster now (around 15-19 KiB/s) since their are more seeders now. But I would like to be one of the seeders rather than a leech

[phishcrow]

Now it's back to around 10-12 KiB/s with 19 seeds and 40 peers (according to my client). I'm not complaining, I just want to know if that seems right?
Thanks

[wazoo2u]

OK.. lets use the proper terms here. We're talking about kiloBITS (represented as Kbs) and kiloBYTES (represented as KBs) Small "k" or large "K" doesn't matter, small "b" versus large "B" does matter....

I'll assume your client upstream cap is set at 200 Kbs, that translates to roughly 25 KBs. You're saying your client is set for a maximum upload of 200 KiloBYTES per second, which would be wrong. Whatever your ISP's upstream cap is, your bit torrent client should be capped at 80% of that total.

All things considered, as I said before, it's not unusual to see these download speeds on some torrents. You will see as the torrent progresses, the speeds will vary. I'm downloading an REM show at DaD that had 18 seeds a couple hours ago, and was only getting 20KBs, and I just noticed that with 20 seeds I'm pulling between 80 - 130 KBs, so you see, it can change.

I've also found that if you're on a torrent like this fairly early, it really doesn't matter, because your downstream exceeds your upstream by so much, it will take a good amount of time to seed it back to a 1.00 ratio, so how long it takes to download is mostly a moot point.

[phishcrow]

Thank you wazoo2u. I think you helped me figure out my problem. I used the lettering KiB/s because that is what my client says.

I think the problem was that I was oversaturating my upload cap. I've uploaded over 3 gigs and only downloaded 1 gig.

Thanks for your help!

[wazoo2u]

The aggregate AMOUNT of data you upload isn't the problem, it's the rate of your upload speed. If it's too high (more than 80% of your total upload capability) you'll choke the downstream ability of your client. Uploading a LOT of data is good, just not too fast.

If you don't know your ISP's upload cap, you can run a speed test. Google "DSL Speed Test" to find a free service to check your connection limits. Stop your client temporarily and run the test. Then you'll know where to set your client upload speed limit.