[lug] Bittorrent getting lots of bits, but the file fills up slowly

[Nate Duehr]

On Fri, Apr 29, 2005 at 06:27:33PM -0500, John Karns wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, Michael Hirsch wrote:
> 
> >I'm having a very strange problem.  I'm using bittorrent
> >(btdownloadxxx.py) to get the latest mandriva distribution.  I have
> >comcast so I'm getting over 300 KB/s.  Great huh?  Nooooo.
> >
> >The rate at which the file is growing is no where close to that.  It
> >is at least 10 times slower.  Although btdownload said it would take
> >about an hour and a half, it has taken over 10 hours so far.  It says
> >that there is only 6 minutes left, but an hour ago it said 15 minutes.
> >This is crazy.
> 
> IIRC, DL bw is also dependent on your UL bw.  Also, check your router / fw 
> for port forwarding settings.  You should have a number of ports open 
> starting at 6881.  E.g., 6881 - 6889.

Since BT creates traffic both directions (when things are set up
correctly) and since most residential connections are asymmetrical [sp],
make sure your upload rate is limited to something below what you really
see in the real world for a reasonable upload speed on your Internet
pipe of choice.

If you don't, your upstream pipe becomes congested with uploads and your
ACK packets telling others that you've received their packets have to be
retransmitted with resulting slowdowns in your true download speed.

-- 
Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>