bittorrent slow

[Elliot Lee]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006, Ian Pilcher wrote:

> My download started off quite slow (~20 Kb/s), but it was running at up
> to 300 Kb/s around midnight (CST).  IIRC, the last couple of test
> releases showed the same pattern.  It *could* just be the swarm ramping
> up, but Comcast might also be taking the governor off late at night.

I believe part of that 'curve' may be due to characteristics of
BitTorrent's design more than anything else... At the 50% mark, you will
have more chunks of data (compared to the 0% mark) that are valuable to
others (which allows you to get more content back from them, since
BitTorrent requires you to give in order to receive). At the same time,
others are more likely to have a piece that you are missing at the 50%
mark than at the 99% mark, so your chances of being able to retrieve a
useful chunk are higher.

Then again, it could just be my imagination. :-)

Best,
-- Elliot