bittorrent speed way too low, what possible causes?

[David Timms]

stan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I used torrent to get the F7 live CD and DVD images.  And then let it
> run overnight to seed.  I've tested my system with the online speed
> sites and my upload is ~540 KB/sec.  My service from Cox says 512 -
> 2MB/sec.
> 
> Yet bittorrent-curses maxed out at around 70 KB/sec.  I used the
> max_upload_rate = 0 to let it go at the maximum rate.  

Hi, I'm in Australia, and have found the same thing while downloading 
the fedora 7 dvd iso.

 From past experience, you do need to be careful that:
1. you limit upload rate to about 65-75% of your upload capability. This 
ensures that network packet congestion doesn't cause problems with peer 
requests coming into your machine.
outbound bandwidth: 512 Kbit/sec
usable after adsl overhead: 400 Kbit/sec
usable after adsl overhead:  50 KByte/sec
set outbound torrent to say: 40 KByte/sec

2. Do you use a domestic NAT router ? If it wasn't designed with 
peer2peer in mind, in may have a limited session table of 100 sessions, 
or problems under high port forwarding condtions. In this case you could 
try a router that is known to be better in the peer2peer world.

3. I would imagine that dvd releases to the internet can lead to 
internet bandwidth problems for the ISP. If you are downloading, 
definitely use your own ISPs mirror if they have it, or in country 
mirrors. Also it might be possible to limit your peer locations to 
within your country ? {I don't know how}

Or I might be right of track in your situation ;)

DaveT.