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jockney
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bit torrents

Post by jockney » Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:30 pm

is there anyone who would give me a few tips about this bit torrent idea.
i tried to download a soap programme for the wife and it took hours...
I would not have a problem in being charged for someone to set up my laptop to enable quicker downloads. :???:

Jeppo
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Post by Jeppo » Thu, 26 Jul 2007 2:54 pm

An easy solution may be to just lower your upload speed but it may be because of a lack of seeders. What prog are you using? How many seeds are there? There could be any number of reasons for the slow speed and an equal or greater number of solutions.

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jpatokal
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Post by jpatokal » Thu, 26 Jul 2007 2:55 pm

Nothing to do with your laptop. BitTorrent speed depends entirely on how many other people have the file you're looking for: the more the faster.
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jockney
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Post by jockney » Thu, 26 Jul 2007 3:04 pm

someone mentioned www.portforward.com
what will that do for me?

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Splatted
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Post by Splatted » Thu, 26 Jul 2007 4:31 pm

There is also the issue that some clients are banned by trackers, thus you don't get the traffic you expect.

Refer to this table of which clients are better than others:

http://forums.torrentspy.com/showthread.php?t=24621

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Post by luxiana » Thu, 26 Jul 2007 6:31 pm

well, there are a few things here:

- you BitTorrent client
- how many sources are uploading what you are looking for
- your portforwarding
- your ISP that throttle your connexion

in short: you need to declare the ports your BT client is using so that your router allocates them to the BT Client only. On top of that it reduces the risks of your router rebooting randomly

+

you need to use an encryption method (somewhere in the menu of your BT client) so that your connexion is not throttled by your ISP (singnet, starhub etcetc)

I recall I was using azureus in the good old days ;)
It was great for getting unlicensed mp3 from unknown artists! (shame that some are still unknown today... :( )
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Post by bigfilsing » Fri, 27 Jul 2007 1:32 am

jockney wrote:someone mentioned www.portforward.com
what will that do for me?
well. bit tricky to answer.
basically portforward.com is a web site that explains how to forward the ports of your firewall.
Not sure what you do and don't know about modems, routers and firewalls
so i'll keep it simple.
A fire wall ( albeit it in your computer (win xp) or in your modem/ router) is a barrier that protects you from unwanted attacks via the internet.
The wall itself is split into chunks ( bricks) known as ports. if you do want to allow access to other people then you have to open a port or ports in order for them to "see" your computer. There are some ports that always need to be open...for example port 80 is for http ( the internet) if this was closed you wouldn't be able to surf the net.

port forward means that if a call or request comes in to a port you direct it to the PC and piece of software running and "looking" at that port.

Example.
I have 2 PC's at home. one of them runs an FTP server. ( a file transfer program) I have set up a port for FTP. 1001. If somebody that knows my IP try to log into that port with an FTP program, my router goes "Heh thats an FTP program trying to gain access on port 1001 so i'll direct it( forward it) to the PC thats running the FTP server.

Now, as is the case with torrents you need to allow people to download "from" you at the same time you download the file you want.
Thats why it's called sharing.
So depending on whether you have a modem/router with firewall or are using windows firewall you need to "allow" this to happen. by opening the port of your torrent program.
People who upload as well as download are always treated better. better speed.
Now if you use for example utorrent1.6 or later you need to open the port it uses. In the preferences of utorrent you can specify which port it should use. You now have to make sure the same port is open in your firewall. Otherwise other P2P users can't "see " you.
In windows firewall it's called exceptions. In Netgear routers it's called services.
Go to portforward.com to find insructions on how to set up your router/modem to open a port.

If you get stuck just let me know and i'll try to help. i will need to know what modem router you have and if you have windows firewall running or not.

Good luck

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Dobski
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Post by Dobski » Fri, 27 Jul 2007 1:00 pm

As a general rule, the newer, more popular files will downlaod faster as there are more seeders.

Also, as Jeppo mentioned above, try lowering your upload speed - I suggest to around 30k.

The speed of torrents varies soooo much - I've had a steady 4 or 5k on some files, while on others I've had up to 4 Meg !!!!
(it's great to see a 30 minute TV show download in about 3 minutes :D)

PS, great description of port forward bigfilsing.

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Post by jockney » Fri, 27 Jul 2007 2:00 pm

ok i will look into some of the comments and try and get back to you all.
it would be a darn sight easier if they showed the soaps over here! :)

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Post by bigfilsing » Fri, 27 Jul 2007 4:15 pm

Thanks Dobski.... i try to explain it how i'd like it written.

I forgot to remember that you also have to account for the quality of seeders of a file.
Of course you can only ever download as fast as the seeder(s) is uploading.
Thats why the statement and concept of "more seeders" is faster isn;t true.

1 seeder on a T1 connection is better than 5 seeders on domestic dsl connections.
Example i'm a member of a race video forum. The main hoster posts TV coverage of race events on a T1 connection. I can donwload about 10 mb a minute from him!!

Also remember that sometimes stopping the downlaod and restarting it can make it quicker because you dont always connect to the same seeders every time !!!! This is a gamble and i'd only recommend this when the download is really slow and there's more than 10 seeders.

Good luck

jockney
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Post by jockney » Mon, 30 Jul 2007 4:13 pm

tried again over the weekend and it is down to an hour now!!
great stuff, thanks for the help, all.

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