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Bittorrent slows my internet

S

Spartacus

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 28, 2004
81
0
Hey folks. When I have Bittorrent running (Azureus/Bittornado/any of them) my entire Internet slows down to a crawl - like 2Kb/s when my cable service can obtain upwards of 2Mb/s. Within Bittorrent I'm fine, but everything else (Safari, downloads, etc...) slows waaay down. Yes, I have no NAT errors and no, I don't have any firewall issues. Has anyone else experienced this? It happens on my iBook, iMac, and new Macbook Pro. What's the deal?

Thanks!

Edit: I have forwarded all ports used by Azureus through my router, too.
 
Spartacus said:
Hey folks. When I have Bittorrent running (Azureus/Bittornado/any of them) my entire Internet slows down to a crawl - like 2Kb/s when my cable service can obtain upwards of 2Mb/s. Yes, I have no NAT errors and no, I don't have any firewall issues. Has anyone else experienced this? It happens on my iBook, iMac, and new Macbook Pro. What's the deal?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Its probably because you are uploading too. If you are not uploading then you need to forward some ports to get better speeds. Not sure how you do it though.
 
The same thing happens to me (although I rarely use bittorrent so it doesn't bother me too much). I'd try to explain it but I know somebody else will explain it better.

It's normal on a cable connection though.
 
MacboobsPro said:
Its probably because you are uploading too. If you are not uploading then you need to forward some ports to get better speeds. Not sure how you do it though.
Click to expand...

Thanks booby :eek: but I've forwarded every port Azureus is using through my router already. Hmm...anything else?
 
04440 said:
Stop bittorrenting.. It's illegal.. :mad: Okay.. I know everybody's doing it.. ha
Click to expand...

That depends on the type of files I'm downloading/sharing. Bittorrenting isn't illegal outright. (But really, who uses Bittorrent to share home movies and baby pictures, anyway? :rolleyes: )
 
As already said, you are uploading as well. Propably your bittorrent client is configured to upload data without any bandwith-limit.

If you surf around the internet, you also need upload bandwith (send requests, confirm you recieved the data (TCP ACK)). Although you doesn't need to upload that much to surf around the web, you bittorrents upload is slowingg it down very much.

The solution: limit the upload speed in you bittorrent client. But be careful, if you limit it too much, your bittorrent download speed will suffer as other bittorrents prefer uploading to clients that have already uploaded data to them.

Find out how much upload speed you provider offers and configure bittorrent to upload 5 kb/s less than that. This should increase your surfing speed while you will propably note performance issues.
 
Speed Schedular

There is a great plugin for Azureus called "Speed Schedular" that lets you set a maximum upload/download speed for different times of the day. Thus, I have mine set to limit my upload speed during the afternoon when I know i will be surfing the web / checking email / etc, but during the night and morning when I am asleep / at work I have it set to unlimited up/down. Hope that helps!
 
You can use a speed test, like this one, to test your upload bandwidth. You might do a few tests, and average them, to get the best idea what your upload capacity is.
 
Many internet providers are slowing the connection speed of many people who run torrent programs as well. I'd encrypt my connection if I were you, just in case.
 
Actually I know exactly what Spartacus means and it has nothing to do with capping the upload.

I have the same exact problem. Theres no explainable reason why you can get 250kb down and upload at capped at 20-80% of your up in a torrent program and then try to surf a website with such little content as google.com and have it take up to 30 seconds for it to finish loading. Some sites will just straight up time out. Even setting 50-300 connections, same problem. I have 42kb/s upload and even setting it to 10-15k the problem still persists. Even trying different torrent programs. I'm starting to think it to be a compatibility with routers and the way it's handling the internet connectivity between ports giving all priority to whatever is using it most.

It's sort of like downloading 2 big files from rapidshare, each one takes a turn for a while. Sort of like how torrent programs and port 80 are acting.

Im using a Linksys WRT54G Firmware Version : v4.20.7 I've tried both wireless and wired, same result.

I guess what we really need here is an internet engineer for an explanation. :(
 
I'm no expert, but from what I know is if you left everything default you need to tweak some settings to limit speed and how many files can download at once. Unlike edonkey network torrents are made to just tag a couple get in and get out fast. That means max downloadinf speed and bandwidth use. So you need to slow it down.

On the other hand edonky, like amule is better suited to tagging like 20 files and sittin back and waiting a few days for them to finish.
 
04440 said:
Stop bittorrenting.. It's illegal.. :mad: Okay.. I know everybody's doing it.. ha
Click to expand...

Bittorrenting is not illegal. You are generalising....why not try being specific and correctly state that the trading of copyright material in any form, over any medium may be illegal dependant upon your local laws, and the laws that apply to the copyrighted material.
 
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