Download Speed

[the mask]

hi, i used to get download speeds of upto 50kb/s on Bt when downloading movies, but now my speeds have changed and averaging 5 kb/s. what could this mean?

[NotoriousBIC]

Could be a few things:

1. Installed a firewall or router.
2. Bad luck with torrents being seeded badly.
3. Perhaps your ISP limited your traffic on the Bittorrent ports.

Look in the Tips section to solve possibility 1.
For 2 you need to look for torrents that are better seeded.
And 3, change ISP.

[ZaZu]

Could also mean that your in a "swarm" that has more pieces than you therefore do not need to connect to you which will also decrease your download speed ;)

[senttonull0]

I don't understand what you mean by a swarm? Could you pls explain it in greater detail.

I've also noticed speed problems with BT. Sometimes, I can get downloads of 25kbs. and other times I'm not downloading at all. Even when there are like 5 peers and 15 seeders.

I can't figure that out. I've got like 15% when my peers got something like 50-75% done. Regardless, with 15 seeders I should at least get 5kbs right?

[Maximus359]

Talking about firewalls, is there anyway to get round the drop in speed with a firewall?

[NotoriousBIC]

Yep, open the ports that BT uses.
If you use Azureus you can set it to only use 1 port. Making it simpler to configure your firewall.