bittorrent slow

[Kevin J. Cummings]

sean wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:11:45 -0700
> Tony Heaton <theaton at lanl.gov> wrote:
> 
>> I have to agree with all these bittorrent complaints.  It took me 22
>> hours to get the FC5 i386 DVD from bittorrent.  It took me 35 minutes to
>> get the FC5 x86_64 DVD from a mirror.  32 minutes to get the FC5 ppc DVD
>> from a mirror.
> 
> The biggest problem is usually that your upstream speed is limited which 
> will severely reduce your download speed (1).  One common cause is having 
> local firewall (iptables) rules active.  Another is having a router 
> (linksys etc.) which hasn't been configured to allow bittorrent 
> connections (2).
> 
> Once your environment is configured properly (which isn't always easy) 
> bittorrent download speeds are usually respectable.
> 
> Sean
> 
> 
> 1 bittorrent has fairness algorithms that cause your download speed to be
>   based on how fast you upload to others.
> 
> 2 http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm gives a pretty decent walk through
>   to help you configure your router properly
> 

I started my bittorrents yesterday around 1:30PM EST.  I was getting
about 30-40 kB/s on both the binary and DVD torrents for most of the
afternoon.  (I use RCN as my ISP, and I have their 10Mb cable modem
service, 10Mb down, 1Mb up.)  During the day (until 5 or 6PM or so) I
was getting only 30-40 kB/s down while sending 15-20 kB/s up on both
torrents.  After 5-6PM, the speeds on the binary torrent jumped to 120
kB/s (upload speeds remained the same).  The binary torrent finished
about 11:45 PM, but the speed on the DVD torrent didn't pickup until
after midnight, my time, at which time it jumped to > 300 kB/s!  The DVD
torrent finished before 1AM.

YMMV  Especially if your ISP is limiting your bandwidth during the day
and evening hours like mine seems to be.  I'm pretty sure RCN is, so
that their business customers (who pay more for their serivce) get more
bandwidth during their business day.

If you don't like it, do what sean did, and find a faster way to get the
images.  Me, I'm leaving my torrents open for everyone else.  I'm
currently seeding 3 different torrents (KNOPPIX 4.0 and the 2 FC5 ones)
and I'm feeding upstream about 87 kB/s combined even now....

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)