Bandwidth disparity and maintaining ratios.

[s0nuvab|tch]

Couple questions...

1. Is it common for there to be a huge disparity between the upload/download bandwidth allowed by ISPs?

I've been testing my speeds (DSLreports) and they are typically 3000-5000 Kb/sec down and ONLY ~240Kb/sec up.
This is a cable connection and is the 'Premium' package. It's the best available in my area.


2. Is there some way around the upload throttling besides buying an expensive (read that as=unaffordable) commercial business account?

How do all these MFers posting these crazy Mbit upload/download speeds get that kind of bandwidth?
Does Europe/Asia? have equal up/down speeds available? Is this all country dependent or generally the same globally?


3. How the f*ck are members wanting to join a private tracker supposed to maintain some of the high ratios I've seen posted/talked about?

I mean if a movie is typically 4+ Gigs, it could take me a week? or month?!!? to upload it back AND what if there weren't many peers/downloaders wanting to get the movie from me?


I don't want a dozen invites/memberships just one or two? GOOD ones that I can keep permanently. I wouldn't call myself a 'downloading whore', maybe just an occasional 'junkie' :P that needs a fix a couple times a month. Does any of this make any difference?


:unsure:

[AugustoP]

Some people (who said Sweden?) access Internet through Ethernet MAN and can have up to 100 Mbit symmetrical bandwidth.

If you're not ready to seed 24/7 you should consider renting the cheapest VDS box or going with Usenet. If you gonna stick with torrents use TorrentLeech, it's very easy to seedback there.

[znik]

1) ADSL stands for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line", so yes it is not just common but expected to have a much worse upload speed than your download speed.
Some countries, like in Scandinavia have already moved from aDSL to FTTH connections (Fiber To The Home), where speeds like 100/100 or 100/10Mbit are common.

2) Some people rent seedboxes that are dedicated servers with great upload speeds in order to seed on their behalf and buffer their accounts with upload speeds they could never dream using their home connection.

3) It's not impossible to maintain a good ratio even if you don't have a fast home connection.
Many trackers have freebie torrents, where only the upload counts
Many trackers have seeding bonuses (you can exchange your seeding time to upload credit),
Many trackers have frequent freeleech periods, where only upload counts.

As a result you can easily maintain a nice ratio, even if you don't have an ultra fast connection and you cannot seed back everything up to 1:1.

[s0nuvab|tch]

Thanks Augusto for the advice. I'm such a n00b. :rolleyes:
Been working on tweaking my TCP/IP stack and making some headway... woohoo hitting 5000+/415 Kb/sec now :cool:

STILL trying to figure out who/what/where/why? with ALL these bloody private trackers.
It's insane that there's so damn many!

I've ran into Torrent Leech being mentioned favorably and it seems a very good starting point. I think TL will be what I go for first.

I'm looking to avoid any additional bills and monthly expenditures so bittorrent looks like the horse I'll be riding for now.


...curious, do all you guys leave your rigs running 24/7?
It seems to make sense to build a dedicated file server for bittorrenting.
How'bout some advice on that?


:)

[blackbird]

3) It's not impossible to maintain a good ratio even if you don't have a fast home connection.
Many trackers have freebie torrents, where only the upload counts
Many trackers have seeding bonuses (you can exchange your seeding time to upload credit),
Many trackers have frequent freeleech periods, where only upload counts.

As a result you can easily maintain a nice ratio, even if you don't have an ultra fast connection and you cannot seed back everything up to 1:1.

some trackers doesnt have any of those.. one example is oink .. but you can upload there to maintain a ratio ..:)

[s0nuvab|tch]

Thanks a bunch znik!
You snuck in there while I was typing. :P

That's some great news to hear. I've been worried about this for some time now. My biggest problem is trying to get up to speed on all this stuff! I'm really not any kind of techie, but I like to learn...and computers are a never ending process of learning!!


:)

[znik]

blackbird oink had also a freeleech period during the previous Christmas. SO, they may not have frequent freeleech periods but they also have and a lot of people are waiting for these periods to download the stuff they always wanted.

@s0nuvab|tch
TL is easy to seed since there are a lot of members and thus a lot of leechers.
However there are no freebies there, so you either have to seed everything up to 1:1 or become a donor and leech whatever you like not caring about your ratio at all. (which is against the spirit of bittorent sharing of course)
There are other trackers like Acidlounge or DigitalHives that have the same content like TL but also a lot of freebies and frequent freeleech periods without having to pay for donations.

As far as the 24/7 seeding concerned, you also have to take into consideration the electricity bills you will have to pay.
If you keep your PC running 24hours a day and you have a power hungry PC, then you will probably see a noticable difference in your electricity bills...

A lot of people use dedicated PCs with low power consumption as torrent machines 24hours a day, to keep their bills as low as possible.
Personally, I usually shut down my PC during the night.

[AugustoP]

A lot of people use dedicated PCs with low power consumption as torrent machines 24hours a day, to keep their bills as low as possible.
Personally, I usually shut down my PC during the night.

PC in leeching mode draws as much electricity as light bulb.

[Hanz™]

First of all, some sites are almost impossible to survive on unless you've bought a fast seedbox eg. 10/100mbit. Sites such as BitmeTV/FTN/SCT etc...
Most other sites you can survive with a much lower upload speed. You shall be a lot better off than I used to be.
I used to only have a 30Kb/s upload. That's much lower than yours, and I still was able to maintain a ratio of over 1 at all times while on OiNK. The secret is to keep as many torrents open at all times (I had 200+) and I also had my computer on 24/7. This ensured that I always had something uploading - even if I was only uploading at 30Kb/s (at most!).
You won't have to try as hard as me since you have a higher speed connection - and therefore people are more likely to connect to you (as bittorrent favours high speed uploaders).

I'd get TL. It seems pretty easy. If you find it hard just stop downloading and keep uploading!

edit: When you join a website try and download their freebies. Some sites let you pay for upload as well (although that is shittty).

[s0nuvab|tch]

I like the idea of building a dedicated box for filesharing. ;)

My rig has a power hungry p4@ 3.8Ghz and is loaded for bear.
Plus, I don't want to tie it up by running bittorrents 24/7.

The only problem is my internet connection, but the way it sounds, maintaining a good ratio should NOT be a problem if I have a dedicated server running 24/7.

...now I need some help on building a new box. :D




A lot of people use dedicated PCs with low power consumption as torrent machines 24hours a day, to keep their bills as low as possible.
Personally, I usually shut down my PC during the night.


PC in leeching mode draws as much electricity as light bulb.forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is "leeching mode" ?
... and how do I implement it?

<smartass>
Light bulbs come in many varying wattages, ranging from a 1-2 watts all the way up to 1000+watts. It seems a rather vague reference. :P </smartass>

[AugustoP]

I like the idea of building a dedicated box for filesharing. ;)

My rig has a power hungry p4@ 3.8Ghz and is loaded for bear.
Plus, I don't want to tie it up by running bittorrents 24/7.

The only problem is my internet connection, but the way it sounds, maintaining a good ratio should NOT be a problem if I have a dedicated server running 24/7.

...now I need some help on building a new box. :D


Torrents don't need much processing power, but if your main rig is stuffed with fans you gonna have problems with noise at night.
Putting together dedicated fileserver is quite easy - any case with 120mm fans cooling drive cage, 350W PSU (FSP is a good brand), mobo with integrated video, 512 megs of RAM, low-end Intel Core CPU, hardware RAID card and as much HDDs as you can afford in RAID5. You can also buy a NAS or router with bittorent client if you need a silent and compact system, check smallnetbuilder.com

[s0nuvab|tch]

Sorry 'bout all that damn editing!
Having some serious problems figuring out the "quoting" ! :P

[Hanz™]

I don't understand why you'd want to build a dedicated server. If you want a faster connection and an always on connection on a seperate computer then pay for a seedbox!

There's no reason to build a seperate computer in your house just for seeding! Huge waste of money in my opinion!
Edit: and tbh your connection is going to be enough! So why would you want a seperate box?

[s0nuvab|tch]

@ Augusto, you never did explain the "leeching mode".

Were you just speaking in generality or is there some kind of settings that I'm unaware of?

Thanks for the tip on 'smallnetbuilder', I'll be exploring my options.
This is ALL new to me and I appreciate everyone's help.

[Hanz™]

There is no such thing as leeching mode. Switch the screen off? Turn everything else off and try and find ways to decrease processer usage?

[ghurka]

One thing I noticed from your original post....why would you want to download a 4GB movie. I almost always download the xvid copy which is typically about 700MB and then convert it & burn it.

My connection is also slower than yours but I am a power user on most sites. Just got to be clever....take advantage of free leech and download something with tons of leechers....even if its something you don't particularly want. Or find something that's popular, that's rar'd, and just download say 50MB....you'll soon give it back ten times over.

Lots now use seedboxes but if you can afford that you may as well pay for usenet.

[s0nuvab|tch]

I don't understand why you'd want to build a dedicated server. If you want a faster connection and an always on connection on a seperate computer then pay for a seedbox!

There's no reason to build a seperate computer in your house just for seeding! Huge waste of money in my opinion!
Edit: and tbh your connection is going to be enough! So why would you want a seperate box?

I don't know for sure, that's why I'm here. :unsure:
Sorry for the delay, having internet problems.


One thing I noticed from your original post....why would you want to download a 4GB movie. I almost always download the xvid copy which is typically about 700MB and then convert it & burn it.

My connection is also slower than yours but I am a power user on most sites. Just got to be clever....take advantage of free leech and download something with tons of leechers....even if its something you don't particularly want. Or find something that's popular, that's rar'd, and just download say 50MB....you'll soon give it back ten times over.

Lots now use seedboxes but if you can afford that you may as well pay for usenet.

I prefer all my sources to be in native formats if possible.
I don't listen to music at less that 192kbs, prefer 320 and I hate f*cking with all that video conversion nonsense.
I'm trying to learn, but between all the software/hardware and media and DRM issues, my damn head is spinning trying to make it all work.
Remember people, I'm a n00b!
I have mastered burning an .iso :P

[psxcite]

It's not hard to maintain a good ratio if you upload only at first. For instance, one of the most popular torrents is Kayne West's new CD. You can grab that same release off a public tracker *cough mininova cough* and seed it until you build up a nice buffer. Grab a few big elearning DVDs or apps off usenet and seed. You just have to plan on giving for a while. Then when you have a safe buffer, you can grab and seed whatever you like.

[s0nuvab|tch]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I'm understanding things better now.
All the input helped a lot with my google searching.
I thought having a file server would be a good idea because I also plan on building a home theater PC and tying everything together on a network. ;)
Friends and family need WiFi for all the laptops too. :P

[Brenya]

s0nuvab|tch, I feel your pain. I too have a horrible upload speed (32kbps maxed). And it is not so much the actual speed that pains me, but the fact that the bittorrent protocol has leechers download from the seeders with the lowest upload bandwidth last.

It's like capitalism without regulation, and it sucks for people who are completely unable to get a faster bandwidth in their area.

If I may entertain a radical thought - even though it may be just a tad self-serving and affirmative action-esque - I think private trackers should give longer grace periods to people with low upload speeds. I'm not saying to let them (er... us) off-the-hook and relieve us of the responsibility to seed back what has been given; but just to give us a little extra time building our ratio, should we fall below the requirement.

[AugustoP]

There is no such thing as leeching mode. Switch the screen off? Turn everything else off and try and find ways to decrease processer usage?

Seeding requires almost none computing power so CPU will consume smth around 40W (Intel Cores require around 20-30W at idle) and video card (which consumes the most power in modern PC) will be powered off because of no keyboard/mouse activity. HDDs power consumption is laughable.

[kooftspc11]

I mean if a movie is typically 4+ Gigs, it could take me a week? or month?!!? to upload it back AND what if there weren't many peers/downloaders wanting to get the movie from me?

:unsure:

WELL ONE SUGGESTION IS TO FORK OUT 30 BUCKS FOR A DIVX ENABLED DVD PLAYER AT WALMART SO YOU DONT HAVE TO DL THE 4GB DVDR JUST TO WATCH A MOVIE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM. THIS WAY YOU ONLY DL 700MB AT A TIME FOR A MOVIE AND CAN FIT LIKE 5 MOVIES ON ONE DVD

JUST A THOUGHT.....

YOU CAN ALSO DONATE TO SITES. ALOT OF SITES HAVE DONATION PROMOS WHERE THEY GIVE AS MUCH AS 250GB JUST FOR 15 DOLLAR DONATE (BITSOUP)

[kaoblanco]

Don't forget to save a couple of nickels to buy a replacement caps lock key, too. You see what happens when you don't...

/on-topic: Pay2leech ("buying" buffer on sites) is close to the most idiotic idea there is. Why on earth would you pay good money to a site for a bit of DL credit when you could use that same amout of cash on an unlimited DL usenet account and get all the same stuff, much much faster, all month?

And not have to worry about seeding back... Giganews FTW!

I think just about the only excuse for P2L is where you get in *way* over your head on a tracker with really exclusive content (re: none of the 0-day trackers, maybe something like KG, MMA-tracker or something) that you're hard pressed to find elsewhere and need a way out. But then, even an ounce of prevention will avoid that problem as many good "strategy" posts in this thread address.

;)

[s0nuvab|tch]

Thanks again for the input guys.

@kooftspc11, you must have missed my reply earlier, I don't want compressed, CRAP quality video. Please pay attention. :P
(and SHOUTING IS NOT NECESSARY EITHER.)


To all concerned about my choice of an example in my opening post, please forget that I said anything about a movie! It could be any LARGE file download, e.g. 10GB's worth of eBooks.



I've been reading up on 'maintaining ratios' and it seems my initial worries were ill founded. Despite the bandwidth disparity, I really don't think I should have much trouble.
I just need to get my feet wet and give it a try. ;)

[Brenya]

WELL ONE SUGGESTION IS TO FORK OUT 30 BUCKS FOR A DIVX ENABLED DVD PLAYER AT WALMART SO YOU DONT HAVE TO DL THE 4GB DVDR JUST TO WATCH A MOVIE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM. THIS WAY YOU ONLY DL 700MB AT A TIME FOR A MOVIE AND CAN FIT LIKE 5 MOVIES ON ONE DVD
Your right. 700MB divx rips are, in my experience, just as high in quality as a 4GB iso - at least to the naked eye. In s0nuvab|tch's case, it would be more reasonable to just stick with the divx rips.


@kooftspc11, you must have missed my reply earlier, I don't want compressed, CRAP quality video. Please pay attention. :P
That's an exaggeration. The reason axxo prefers divx (he uploads many on public trackers) is because there really is not observable quality loss when compressing a dvd.

There is another option, however. You could get the Hockney releases on demonoid, which are in .bin/.cue format. There are also small enough to fit on a CD. I personally have never tried them, but Hockney claims that .bin/.cue has a higher quality than divx rips when played on from a CD. However, when played from a computer, divx is superior, so your choice of which really depends on how and where you are going to play your movies.

[s0nuvab|tch]

Thanks for adding your .02 Brenya, but all the 700Mb movie rips I ever downloaded looked like crap once I burned them and tried watching them on my TV.

What I don't know is whether they were CRAP to start with ? :unsure:
or whether I f*cked them up trying to burn them? :unsure:

I never watch movies on my computer so it's a big deal to me to have a source that is easy to burn and has DVD quality.
I admitted earlier that I'm a n00b when it comes to video, but it's something I'm seriously trying to get good/better at.
All my previous skills centered around using Nero, but I've long since kicked that bloated crap to the curb!
In Nero's defense, it was rather simple and worked decent/OK when it worked, but I need batter results.
I did notice a good looking tutorial in the help section that I plan on giving a try once I get some other projects out of the way.

I still fail to see how compressing/encoding?/transcoding? 4.3 GBs of video down to 700MBs is NOT going to seriously effect quality. I have issues with compressed music too. I would always prefer the original source material and then I can do with it what I please. Space is not an issue with HDDs being so cheap. Hell, my external portable USB drive is a 750GB Seagate 7200.10.
and my rig has 2 x 750GB 7200.10 in RAID and a 160GB Raptor for my C:\ drive. I'll be building a file server before too long. lol Quality man! that's what I'm after. Bollocks to digital noise and lack of fidelity.
You youngsters have let those iPods ruin your hearing. :P

[game1283]

First of all, some sites are almost impossible to survive on unless you've bought a fast seedbox eg. 10/100mbit. Sites such as BitmeTV/FTN/SCT etc...

I'm a member of bitmetv and ftn, I have a much slower speed than you, I use the cheapest connection in my area, still I am able to upload and maintain ratio:)

though, I don't use ScT(not a member)

peace

[Brenya]

I would always prefer the original source material and then I can do with it what I please. Space is not an issue with HDDs being so cheap. Hell, my external portable USB drive is a 750GB Seagate 7200.10.
and my rig has 2 x 750GB 7200.10 in RAID and a 160GB Raptor for my C:\ drive. I'll be building a file server before too long. lol Quality man! that's what I'm after. Bollocks to digital noise and lack of fidelity.
I assume you won't fork out the cash and the time to download and burn a 35 GB Blueray image, so you have your limits when you want to download the copy of a movie with the highest quality. Then again, maybe you will. I have limits as well, and they are at the divx level, what with my little laptop and my 500GB XHDD that I affectionately call "My Archive". But what I'm trying to say is that I guess I was just trying to justify my situation by saying that getting divx rips isn't such a big deal. :dabs: What I said before was just second-hand knowledge anyway, so I could be wrong.

[kooftspc11]

I would always prefer the original source material and then I can do with it what I please. Space is not an issue with HDDs being so cheap. Hell, my external portable USB drive is a 750GB Seagate 7200.10.
and my rig has 2 x 750GB 7200.10 in RAID and a 160GB Raptor for my C:\ drive. I'll be building a file server before too long. lol Quality man! that's what I'm after. Bollocks to digital noise and lack of fidelity.
I assume you won't fork out the cash and the time to download and burn a 35 GB Blueray image, so you have your limits when you want to download the copy of a movie with the highest quality. Then again, maybe you will. I have limits as well, and they are at the divx level, what with my little laptop and my 500GB XHDD that I affectionately call "My Archive". But what I'm trying to say is that I guess I was just trying to justify my situation by saying that getting divx rips isn't such a big deal. :dabs: What I said before was just second-hand knowledge anyway, so I could be wrong.


great point about the blue ray. I have the $34 magnavox divx/xvid player and use it to watch all of my divx/xvid movies. I have never seen enough of a compromise in quality to make me want to start burning dvdr instead...in fact i have never seen much difference in quality at all

[Brenya]

First of all, some sites are almost impossible to survive on unless you've bought a fast seedbox eg. 10/100mbit. Sites such as BitmeTV/FTN/SCT etc...

I'm a member of bitmetv and ftn, I have a much slower speed than you, I use the cheapest connection in my area, still I am able to upload and maintain ratio:)

though, I don't use ScT(not a member)

peace

I commend you, brother. May you provide hope for us all.

[whiteboy]

My 2 cents is that a scene released xvid is the same quality as the dvd-r. Waste of time to dload the 4 giger. Like stated before, 30 bucks on a divx player at walmart. Stoked

[haydeno]

I disagree 700mb looks like shit on a tv bigger than 30 or so inches.(even my 22" widescreen) however 1.4gb(2x 700mb) look great(personally i play off htpc via dvi to hdmi cable to 50" and its = to dvd)

[s0nuvab|tch]

Hey guys, I'm not trying to beat you guys up on your choice of format you like to download. ;) and I appreciate all the advice given. I does seem like I'm getting a lot of flack for choosing DVDR5/9. And to answer your question about blueray/HDDVD, YES that's what I'm looking for too. So if the file sizes are 35 GB?, then so be it. What am I paying all this money for premium bandwidth for anyway? :P

I think this really boils down to what your final display size is and what kind of resolution it's at. Heydeno hit the nail on the head.
Think about it, it's one thing to view something on your laptop/20" desktop monitor and it's another matter all together if you're trying to fill up a 50" plasma. :P Every pixel counts.

After studying the vast sea of private trackers, with their corresponding 'status level', I fear that I will be sorely disappointed once I get in the door to some 'low' level tracker. It really seems to me that all the good stuff is up in the elite levels. Lossless FLAC is my music format of choice and after a recent giveaway I was unaware that that stuff seems as rare as hens teeth. Maybe I'm wrong?... I hope so.

Torrent Leech has been suggested as a starting point.
Any other suggestions for trackers?

Thanks

[Brenya]

And to answer your question about blueray/HDDVD, YES that's what I'm looking for too.
All the more power to you, then.


After studying the vast sea of private trackers, with their corresponding 'status level', I fear that I will be sorely disappointed once I get in the door to some 'low' level tracker. It really seems to me that all the good stuff is up in the elite levels.
You're right that you will be disappointed. The speed on public/semi-private trackers really sucks compared to private trackers like TL and O*nk. However, there are some quality uploads on sites like demonoid and thepiratebay. I for one have seen some bluerays on thepiratebay and some flacs on demonoid, so it's not like the public trackers are barren of quality - just speed (although that is relative depending on your connection).


Any other suggestions for trackers?
You definitely want to get into O*nk if you want lossless copies of albums. Uploaders there rip with EAC and provide cuesheets and logs - it's great. I find everything I need there.

[AugustoP]

@s0nuvab|tch (http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/../../members/s0nuvabtch-173226)
Oink (kinda hard to get invite if you're new to private trackers, though you can try) and BTMusic (that should be easier) for lossless music, HDBits (full at the moment) and BitHDTV (easy to get) for HD-video. For 30 Gb you can get 3 or 4 1080p movies, difference between Blu-ray and x264 rips is minimal. And its waaaay better than DVD.
TorrentLeech is good but everyone (myself included) seem to forget that new users can't download new torrents right away until they have uploaded 10 Gb on older ones.

[s0nuvab|tch]

Thanks guys, I definitely want to get an O*nk membership!

*an update* Got my first membership! Torrent Leech. :)

OMG the download speeds are insane! Totally saturated my bandwidth. Never had that happen before. My initial concern about uploading appears to be what I suspected. The problem is there's too damn many seeders! and I picked a movie that had the highest seed/peer ratio so maybe it'll be OK. I'll keep it seeding but I doubt there's anyway I will be able to get it 100%, dammit! A rookie n00b mistake picking that movie torrent for my first download. What really sucks is that damn 48hr n00b waiting period AND the 10GB upload to earn non-n00b status. ughhhh a double whammy for a new member. I'll be damn careful from now on.

I have much to learn...(go ahead and laugh lol )

[kaoblanco]

Do what's been suggested and grap just a *few* RAR parts of a high-leecher torrent regardless of whether you care about the content. Seed that up until it goes dead, then repeat with another high-leecher torrent. There will always be a few that are hot even after 24-48 hours to work with (like Manhunt 2 PAL)

Absolute no. 1 rookie mistake is to grab what you want first, or an entire torrent if more than 700-1000mb. You'll get the hang of it.

Better yet, get a full release from thepiratebay or isohunt (or any other public tracker) and then seed that on TL. Just make sure you use PeerGuardian or the like on public trackers unless you want to get served (or better yet, stay off public sites and just get releases off of usenet to seed on BT, just go to a.b.movies.divx or a.b.movies.DVDR).

[s0nuvab|tch]

*still seeding* :whistling and will continue ad infinitum...(sloooowly crawling it's way up :cry: )

I've been reading through the suggestions and have a new appreciation for all the info given.

Have been really searching & reading the forums hard!
Still kicking myself for jumping on that movie so quick, but I'll be fixing things very shortly.

Got some new questions...

@kaoblanco, or anybody that knows,
How do I grab 'just a few pieces/parts' of a torrent?
How do I find the ~.torrent file (the one that has the tracking info) when I only partially download the torrent?
What I'm trying to do is get a file from another tracker and start uploading it to my new TL account to help with my ratio.
I know they have to be identical, but I'm not sure how to add the information to the folder to make TL recognize it and start uploading it?


How the f*ck do these people get these huge 'buffers' and have such large ratios?
Sometimes even relatively new members have upped some insane GBs! in a short time.
Is that why there's so much talk about the cheating?
I mean obviously if you've got some killer upload bandwidth that helps, but how the f*ck can you get the LEECHERS to all grab your uploads? hmmm....



I'll be googlin' the 'cheating' issue, but for the sake of others searching and reading FST, could someone explain the methodology used and what cheating actually entails?

Thanks again...

[kaoblanco]

When you open a torrent file in utorrent, you're presented with a list of all the files in that torrent. Uncheck all but a few and only those will be downloaded.

To seed a torrent's content on another tracker, just DL the new .torrent file from tracker no. 2, open it, and point its download location to the same folder as the files DL'd from tracker no. 1. Provided they're identical, utorrent will verify the pieces and start to upload on the new tracker.

As for buffers, with a seedbox it's really, really easy to upload 40 or 50 gigs in a single day. These seedboxes also have very good, high level connections to the "backbone" of the net, so they appear highly desirable to leecher clients (re: a seedbox seeder client is going to get chosen over your 150 kBps line almost every single time).

That's one reason why you cannnot connect to all leechers (the two main reasons being that they either have the pieces you're offering already, or need them but can get them from a faster peer).

The other way to get leechers is to be on the torrent as soon as it goes up. If you're second or third in line on the torrent, with a wicked fast box (re: 5-6 mBps avg), then everyone joining up after you is going to need the pieces you have. Sometimes with a seedbox one can get several gigs on a tiny (re: 200 MB) torrent even before the uploader has completed 100% (this happens on Oink alot, and is sometimes considered rude when abused).

You needn't be the uploader of anything provided you're fast and quick. Just dishing around the pieces is sufficient.

Cheating is a problem, true. It's done by using hacked torrent clients that fake their UL stats (like to a factor of 10 or something). I've never used, but that's what I understand.

[Brenya]

*edit*:oops:

[s0nuvab|tch]

*update*

Been busy working, but haven't forgot you guys.
Wanted to thank everybody once again for all the help. (this includes the MODS too, and you know who you are :P )
Though I stumbled out of the gate, thanks to finally figuring out how to seed a .torrent, I've been able to max out my bandwidth and get my ratio up. That damn movie will likely never see 100% i.e. 1:1 ratio, but it's still sloooowly creeping its way up towards .60 and I'll let it keep going, but the leeches are few.

Thought I'd try my hand at posting a screenshot to show how I've been doing. I really hate the fact that I can download over 4 gigs in 1.25 hrs. yet it takes 96+hrs. of constant seeding to get ~.60! Still much to learn I'm sure.



http://img103.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/09/12/1sttlratio-47t3hy371.png


s.

[whiteboy]

Dude 240 kb/s up from your house is great!

[sear]

Dude 240 kb/s up from your house is great!

Agreed, that's about twice my speed :cry:

[dbmp]

Good job, you're doing just fine. :)

[s0nuvab|tch]

Dude 240 kb/s up from your house is great!

It's actually 365kb/s :P and supposed to be 512 :angry:




Agreed, that's about twice my speed :cry:

Very sorry to hear that Sear. I hope one day you can improve your situation. I should be grateful (?) I guess? lol
I've just got my knickers in a twist because of reading about all those basturds in Sweden with the friggin Fiber to Home!
Lucky sods! 100Mb for the 'premium' and 10Mb for the 'poor man' package. OMG, that's some insane bandwidth. :w00t:



When I chose the title for this thread, this is why...


http://www.speedtest.net/result/182570277.png


It seems that here in the US, having very little upload speed is a good way to discourage bittorrenting. :dabs:
Nobody seemed to mention this... :P


s.

[kaoblanco]

Ouch. I get about 240 kBps from my home and bemoan that fact.

Granted, I have to cross large spans of water or land-of-rusting-infrastructure to get to other torrenters by which time that's about halved.

Still, with wise torrenting practices you can still make out with good ratios. You'll just not get them as easy as others. There's always usenet (and, no, I'm not trying to rub salt in the wound or something :().

[sear]

Very sorry to hear that Sear. I hope one day you can improve your situation. I should be grateful (?) I guess? lol
I've just got my knickers in a twist because of reading about all those basturds in Sweden with the friggin Fiber to Home!
Lucky sods! 100Mb for the 'premium' and 10Mb for the 'poor man' package. OMG, that's some insane bandwidth. :w00t:

I do fine on about 80-150 KBps which is just under 1Mbps. Don't feel too sorry for me I got the upper case and lower case mixed up :wacko:

btw if anyone has some advice on increasing my upload speed...well I would like to hear it :)

[shazzar]

I am in the same boat as you with an upload speed of around 240 Kps. Also thinking of using one of my pc's as a torrent server or getting a seedbox.

Have been on sct, bitmetv and oink, The three hardest sites to keep a good ratios since it seems like almost everyone there has a seedbox or a very fast internet connection. You be lucky to manage a 1-1 ratio on them sites if you download regularly.

Howere its not impossible. I tend to keep my pc on 24/7 and download the following:

1. latest (oday) torrents to up my ratios. Small size torrents like x rated porn are ideal since your not taking too much of a risk.

2. Popular complete Tv series as they will always have leechers for a very long time. you dont need to download the whole series if your not going to watch them but a few chapters will do. However need to be careful as alot of other people might do the same and you will find then most of the downloaders showing are only partial seeders like you and you wont get any uploading. Its best to either get in early or go for smaller size and less popular series where there might be less partial seeders like you and more people actullay downloading the whole seires.

3. Divx movies. I find downloading only dvd quality movies take up too much space and some are hard to seed back. so i only tend to download dvd quality movies if i really like to watch a particular movie in dvd quality (as divx seems just fine to for me and i have a divx player with usb hard drive input).

Also dont give up on ones that aint uploading even with leechers as you will find that on other days they will start uploading, especially the popular movies/drama series.

[Brenya]

http://img103.mytextgraphics.com/photolava/2007/09/12/1sttlratio-47t3hy371.png


Nice ratio. I have found that OiNK is the only site I really need :D (Besides demonoid... of course) A site founded on music is a good site indeed. It's also really easy to seed back, even with my sh*tty upload speed (243kbps)

[Alkameno]

that is 240 kbps...I guess thats not enough...But still you can work with it on trackers which are easy to seed but prepare to keep your system awake for days.