Bits On Wheels - insanely slow!

[slim tim slide]

OK, im using bits on wheels to download a torrent. my first time out with this so please be patient! i use this as it was recommended (on this forum) due to the limitations of my Mac G4 running OSX10.3.9 - the best OS it will handle. i am downloading a very very large file (2.7 gigs!) and the torrent has been up for over a year so im guessing not that many people will still be accessing it. i presume this means it's likely to be slower anyway (?) there appear to be only around 5 or six seeders out there (i think this is the right term, i mean other computers im downloading from) and these seem to come and go, presumably when they are offline.(??) due to the lack of instructions im not sure im using bits on wheels quite right anyway so advice as to settings would be helpful...

download speeds go from nil to 3kb/ps maximum and the ETA is often in hundreds of days... crazy, BUT i don't want to stop now unless i have to, can i speed it up? would a different programme (not bits on wheels) help? perhaps i should look for a different, more popular torrent link for the same data?

advice for this newbie would be more than welcome!

cheers

 

[charlesbronsen]

you could try utorrent.

 

[slim tim slide]

you could try utorrent.

ive just googled that and it seems to be a windows application? my Mac G4 does not run windows... what gives?

 

[charlesbronsen]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/607160/

 

[Grey Mouser]

uTorrent for mac is Intel only, Leopard only. Your best bet is Transmission. Good luck!

 

[drichards]

uTorrent for mac is Intel only, Leopard only. Your best bet is Transmission. Good luck!

uTorrent does work on PPC architecture, the guys at macthemes tested it last week, despite the uTorrent team saying its Intel only. It blows Transmission out of the water on speed.

 

[Grey Mouser]

uTorrent does work on PPC architecture, the guys at macthemes tested it last week, despite the uTorrent team saying its Intel only. It blows Transmission out of the water on speed.

I've yet to test it out, but my quick observation that when you associate a .torrent file with uTorrent and try and double click it, uTorrent doesn't open and all it seems to successfully do is make my finder restart itself.

With Transmission, at least I can tell FireFox to open the torrent file and transmission starts right up. With uTorrent in it's current incarnation I have to paste the torrent URL into uTorrent's "open" dialog. It's not a HUGE hassle, but that functionality should already be there to just OPEN torrent files via double click (or an open dialogue in the browser).

FWIW: I've nearly capped out my broadband connection with a single torrent with Transmission before.

 

[slim tim slide]

i'm very grateful to you guys taking the time to answer, but i have to admit i'm still somewhat confused - would these bits of software - transmission, utorrent etc - be compatible with my G4 running panther anyway? whichever i went for...

 

[drichards]

i'm very grateful to you guys taking the time to answer, but i have to admit i'm still somewhat confused - would these bits of software - transmission, utorrent etc - be compatible with my G4 running panther anyway? whichever i went for...

Transmission 0.6.1 is panther compatible, utorrent isn't. Sorry for cluttering your topic with utorrent. Tomato torrent also supports panther. There was limited discussion here recently too.