[geeks] Background on Bit Torrent???

[Bill Bradford]

On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 08:06:46PM +0000, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Hello all,
> I'm trying to download a 900 meg video (from http://tv.seattlewireless.net/ ) using Bit Torrent, and am in awe of the slow speed...
> As I understand it, when I run Bit Torrent, I am both client *and* server, using my uplink to service other folks download requests for pieces of the file I've already downloaded, right? What amazes me is that while my download speed fluctuates between 1 and 5 KiloBytes/second, the upload speed is between 5 and 20 KiloBytes...
> Why such a huge disparity? AM I downloading form one particular user or a collection of users? Will it really take over 55 hours to download this file?
> I can stream the file in near real-time if I choose either Real Audio or Windows Media formats, but real-time vs 2+ days for the .mpeg file? Really?
> Seems odd to me... Anyone got some insight?

What client are you using?  How many "seeds" and "peers" are on the torrent?  

Download speed with BT varies depending on how many other clients have 
pieces of the file that you don't have, and how many "seeds" (people with
complete copies, who are ONLY uploading) are on the torrent at the 
same time.

Also, with BT, you're *only* downloading from other people on BitTorrent, 
versus a real-time stream that comes from a single source.

If you're maxing out your upload, that can also affect your download speeds.
I use Azureus (azureus.sourceforge.net) which lets me "cap" my global upload
speeds.  Download speeds improve if you cap your upload somewhere *below* 
your maximum upload speeds, to allow room for TCP overhead.

Bill

-- 
bill bradford
austin texas