Speed up your torrents II
Written by Ernesto on February 05, 2006BitTorrent is the best tool for sharing files but you need to configure your client and your network the right way to get the best out of it. I will list some tips, tricks and guidelines in addition to the “speed up your torrents” and the “speed up bitcomet and uTorrent” posts.
In order to apply these tips you need to know your maximum up- and download speed. You can test your bandwidth over here (stop all download activity while testing). Also make sure that you applied the tips provided in our previous posts.
Note that there’s a difference between kb/s (kilobits/second) and kB/s (kilobytes/second). To be precise, kb/s = kB/s divided by 8. In this tutorial we use kB/s (like most torrent clients do). This means that you might need to calculate your max speed in kB/s yourself if the speedtest only gives you the results in kb\s (so divide by 8 then).
Settings 1-4 can be found in the options, settings or preference tab of most torrent clients.
1. Maximum upload speed
Probably one of the most important setting there is. Your connection is (sort of) like a pipeline, if you use you maximum upload speed there’s not enough space left for the files you are downloading. So you have to cap your upload speed.
Use the following formula to determine your optimal upload speed…
for relatively fast connections (upload >20 kB/s)
upload speed * 85%
so if your maximum upload speed is 40 kB/s, the optimal upload rate is
40 * 85% = 34
Slower connections (upload <20 kB/s) need a little more space so I use this formula
upload speed * 75%
so if your maximum upload speed is 12 kB/s, the optimal upload rate is
12 * 75% = 9
2. Maximum download speed
Although setting your maximum download speed to unlimited may sound interesting, in reality it will only hurt your connection.
Use the following formula to determine your optimal download speed…
for relatively fast connections (download >60 kB/s)
download speed * 95%
so if your maximum download speed is 200 kB/s, the optimal download rate is
200 * 95% = 190
And again I experienced that Slower connections (upload <60 kB/s) need a little more space so I use this formula
(download speed * 85%
so if your maximum upload speed is 40 kB/s, the optimal upload rate is
40 * 85% = 34
3. Maximum connected peers per torrent
Yet another setting that you don’t want to max out. I experimented quite a lot with the max connected peers settings and came to the conclusion that both high and low number hurt the download speed of a torrent. The following setting worked best for me.
upload speed * 1.3
so if your maximum upload speed is 40 kB/s, the optimal amount of connected peers per torrent is
40 * 1.3 = 52
I didn’t noticed a difference for fast or slow connections here.
4. Maximum upload slots
1 + (upload speed / 6)
so if your maximum upload speed is 30 kB/s, the optimal number of upload slots is
1 + (30 / 6) = 6
5. Maximum half-open tcp connections
This tweak was mentioned in previous post and I noticed some debate about the optimal settings. So I played around with this tweak on different machines and came to the conclusion that the best setting is
for relatively fast connections (download >60 kB/s)
upload speed * 2 (I will advise to never go higher than 1000)
And for Slower connections (download <60 kB/s) can have a little extra.
upload speed * 4
These numbers are not as holy as the other tips, but they are a good guideline. For more info on the max half-open tcp tweak read our previous post.
6. Optimize your internet connection
The TCP optimizer is a freeware utility that optimizes your internet connection. I found it very useful and it helped speeding up my connection for regular internet activity and for downloading torrents. Just download it, and move the slidebar to your maximum download rate (note that it’s in kb/s). Don’t try to set it higher because that will hurt your download speeds!
I hope these tips are useful and help you to get the most out of BitTorrent. Note that these these tips are the result of extensive “trial and erroring” but still very subjective. For the uTorrent users out there, 1c3d0g wrote a great tutorial, the numbers might slightly differ from the ones I found though.
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If everyone followed this advice, everyone would be a leecher and never keep a one-to-one ratio.
FALAFELBOY is right. REAL torrenters should care more about sharing than d/l speeds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SEEDMAN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Falafelboy and S33dman, I think the terms were a little confusing. Upload rate is not the ratio but the speed.
This has NOTHING to do with leeching. But anyway, thanks for the comment. I changed rate to speed to avoid misunderstandings.
In fact, these tips will probably speed up the total swarm speed
Maybe I don’t understand.
For ex:
“so if your maximum upload speed is 128 kb/s, the optimal upload rate is
128 / 8 * 85% = 13.6″
In other words, if people have a capacity to seed at 128 kb/s, then they are expected lower their upload to 13.6.
That’s the why I understood it.
Most people set up the client so badly or do not set up it at all. Such setting means no seed and thankfully according to torrent math model no leech. The less they seed to individuals, the less they (mostly) leech. Helping non-tech users is only good for the whole thing. And rationaly limited upload is actually better for the swarm AFAIK I studied the torrent convergence models.
“The following setting worked best for me.
upload speed / 10
so if your maximum upload speed is 256 kb/s, the optimal upload rate is
256 / 6 = 42.6″
Sorry I don’t understand this; is there a typo or did I skip something?
Ah, you included the percentage, don’t you?
Sorry, I think I rushed this post. I will rewrite it to clear things up asap
Falafelboy.. The settings in the torrent clients are in kB/s, so I’m basically saying that you need to use 85%.
Unfortunately I had too much beers while writing it. ;)
just did a quick rewrite, you guys were right the post didn’t make any sense and was full of (copy / paste) typo’s.
I hope it’s a little more understandable now.
In regards to your information on TCP configuration, http://www.broadbandreports.com has extensive FAQs on the subject, an entire forum, and a myriad of tools to aid in the proper configuration of TCP.
goood
Sorry about that.
That makes more sense!
thx.
When I do the speed tests, my down-speed results vary wildly. My advertised speed is 4000 kbs, but my results range from 2500-6000 in the tests. Should I base my max dowload speed on my advertsied speed, my highest rating, or an average of all my results?
Oddly, my Up-speed tests fairly consistently in the 688 range.
I would advise to take the average speed, but there are not a lot torrents out there where you will reach that speed.
Note that the UPLOAD speed is far more important. Is the upload varying too?
Ernesto- My upload speed seems to consistantly test at about 688 kbs. It varies slightly (from about 600-700) but for the most part they seem solidly grouped around about 88 kBs.
As for the down-speed, you’re right; my actual download rate in Azareus has never even come close to 95% of even the lowest of my speed test scores. SO I suppose it doesn’t matter much.
Thanks!
If you limit the upload to 80/85% of 88 you should be fine
this actually works in a strange way my downloads went from 20kbs to 60kbs welll some of them did anyways……. Thanx for the advice god help it was.!
well mabye not godly help either but it as pretty good at saving my downloadins some time.
Why is’nt there any download or add-on which you can download,and that will make it faster??? If there is,can someone PLEASE e-mail it to me at Sascha.albany@webmail.co.za and PLEASE zip it first,thanks!
because you can’t go faster than the bandwidth you’re alotted, no matter what the pop-ups and software people trying to cheat you will say
results said i was 4858 down and 748 up. wat should i do now?
i put in the half open tcp patch and that workde out pretty good!
like most people, i would like to had a highest download speed, but i always keep my upload speed unlimited because i believe that share is the most important thing in the “torrent philosophy”
-vesaliuz
capping your upload doesn’t mean you can’t share. Just leave it open a bit longer then. People actually benefit more if you try to get the most out of your connection because there will be less “rare” bits. So the best torrent philosophy will be “get the most out of your connection and keep sharing”
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