uTorrent tweaking is meaningless

Here's a super important and sobering article explaining why uTorrent speed optimization is meaningless through a real-life inconsistent download & upload speed scenario analyzed and resolved using statistical engineering component search, by examining program settings, additional BitTorrent software and P2P programs, Windows vs. Linux and system configurations, multiple router testing and flashing, ISP change, overall performance, throughput, capacity, and flexibility estimate of the network stack, general suggestions, and more. The best guide on P2P you will ever read.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/utorrent-tweaking.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Didn't read the article, but when I used uTorrent I forced UDP (uTP) only and it made a big difference, which makes sense considering the overheads of TCP.

 

If you read, you would find the overhead is 4-5KB/sec max.
Mrk

 

Here's a sad fact: I've had problems with torrent speeds (with or without tweaks) and I didn't know what was wrong but unlke Mrkvoniic, I didn't bother to figure out what exactly was the cause. I managed to use torrent2exe on a few occassions and that worked about twice or thrice.

Here's my sad little conclusion: I gave up on the idea of torrenting. I guess I might belong to the 2% group.

 

Hardly meaningless. The quick version of the story is that the person writing the article had an ISP that throttled bittorrent.

Back on a 1.5Mb connection I had to tweak utorrent to get it to work well. Using a popular Linux distro, I patiently worked out the sweet spot of upload speed that would give me the best DL. Too low, and DL would suffer, too high and DL would also suffer. This was repeatable: removing the tweak would immediately wreck speeds, and re-applying it would immediately fix it.

On another ISP that secretly throttled overseas P2P to 20kb/sec, after weeks of this I worked around it by using custom list of IP addresses belonging to that ISP. This meant that I was selectively getting the torrent from other bittorrent users on the same ISP - which on popular torrents let me get 30-120kb/sec. Also it didn't count towards my download limit - so I only spent my quota on less popular torrents by temporarily disabling the list.

 

I've never been a great proponent of P2P, generally due to inherent risks of file sharing.

However, for those that choose to Torrent, there is support, I don't believe a Security Based Forum would be one of them, but that's just me.

 

Moral of the story. Your ISP throttles torrent downloads. Did you ever try downloading a torrent via the .txt file many torrent trackers offer the ability to do? Did you ever force encryption through uTorrent?

 

Currently i rarely use P2P but if i do use it, if it's a good torrent, i get max speeds. So for me i "feel" my ISP is not throttling my P2P downloads. However i do "feel" my ISP is throttling video streaming (Youtube specifically) even though i have a 3Mbps connection which is not that much but more than enough 95% of the time i cannot load a 360P quality video smoothly. WTF?

It all happened when my ISP router stopped working and they sent me a new one . . .

 

Mrk,

"Moar testing" should be "More testing" unless its a deliberate typo

There is also another side to P2P configuration - setting up your router and P2P client to work harmonously with the rest of your internet traffic.

Problem is there are so many factors to getting it working that most guides are not universal and usually is a balancing act of compromise, especially as we have very little control over our inbound traffic from our ISPs.

 

Moar is a deliberate typo
It's kind of more than just more. It's morer.
Mrk

 

No tweaking, µTorrent 2.2.1, 40/8 Mbps line. At best I get 4,5 MB/s in and 900 kB/s out. So I've got to the same conclusion.

 

Humility - a virtue for all seasons!

Given the continuing popularity of landmark vintage µTorrent versions 1.8.5 and 2.2.1, are they still safe to use?

 

Humility ≠ Mrk