Topic: BitTorrent Issues

[dmonterisi]

Hey all, I'm having some issues when running BitTorrents on my PC.  Speeds are okay, not great on the BT session (I'm not complaining about this at all) I generally pull between 15 KB/s and 30 KB/s, every once in a while, it will get up to 60 or 70, i've tested my b/w to max out at about 140KB/s.  I usually upload 15-18 KB/s...I am capped at about 20KB/s.

The real problem is that all other internet based applications get incredibly slow when there is a BT session open.  it probably takes 5 times as long to open up a web page than when there is no BT session.  I have tried shutting down my firewall (ZoneAlarmPro) completely to see if that is somehow causing a bottleneck and it doesn't help at all.  When i try to load a web page, it takes a while to get started and it also takes a while to download once it starts.  seems like some kind of memory conflict.

I'm running a P4, 2.0Ghz, 512 MB Ram w/DSL.

Does anyone know of a software conflict that could be causing this?  Anything?  There are a ton of processes running on my PC at all times and I'm gonna try to start taking some of them off.  However, CPU commitment never gets above 40% and memory used total never exceeds 25%, so I can't figure out where the problem is...any help?

thanks

-damon

[plucks]

BT does seem to slow down my computers as well. I think some of the newer versions are more efficient.

Phil

[dmonterisi]

i just installed the most recent version and it's not much better.

[plucks]

hmmm...
It would make sense that it slows down a computer since it is trying to download file bits from different computers.  It has to think a lot to do it.  If your CPU usage is at around 40%, then it would make sense that your computer slows down.

Does anyone not have their computer slowed down from BT?
Phil

[Wes]

BT bogs down my 1.4GHz Dell with 512MB of Ram.  It doesn't really affect internet speeds, but that is probably due to being on a T1.

[dmonterisi]

yeah i recognize it should slow down some, it's the degree to which it is slowing down that is surprising.  people who also BT on their machines have commented on how much slower mine is compared with theirs when both are running BT and mine is usually a machine with a faster processor and more memory.  I am beginning to think it's all of the random background processes i have running.  I am going to try to eliminate a bunch of them tonight and see if it improves.

[Wes]

I don't know much about computers, but i know that there is a setting in Windows in which it optimizes the computer for background functions.  Anybody know how to turn it on?  This really helps my vaio picturebook keep up when I record onto it in 24/96.

[RRobar]

up on digitalpanic.org there is a link to an experimental version of the BT program, It's supposed to stop alot of the system bogging down. I have it on my laptop and the normal BT client on the desktop. I have not really noticed much draw. I did however just netowrk my 2 computers here at home and I got a cable router from compUSA and have been getting pretty dismal speeds since doing so. I read the optinization tips but can't seem to get it with this cheap router (It was $30).

[dmonterisi]

I've figured out a way to set up the bittorrent client to minimize the drain on my internet connection while d/l'ing a show.  I think the bottleneck that is created is in the upload b/w.  The last bandwidth test I did showed my connection as just over 2 Mbit/s down and 200 Kbit/s up or about 265KB/s down and 26 KB/s up.  When the client uses all of the upload bandwidth, it creates a bottleneck for my browser.  Even though most of the b/w used when browsing is for d/l, my understanding (and correct if i'm wrong please) is that you still have to send some data upstream.  so to eliminate the upstrem bottleneck, i've limited the bt client to about 15 KB/s upload (using the experimental version 3.2.1b that you can download here http://ei.kefro.st/projects/btclient/).  My theory is that by limiting the BT client to about 2/3 of the full u/l bandwidth i have, there is enough headroom left for more efficient browsing.  This has certainly improved the performance of browsing while d/l'ing a show and it really hasn't limited the d/l speed of the BT session all that much despite the bt client limiting my d/l speed to a multiple of the u/l speed.   yesterday i was downloading the wsp2003-06-29 off of Keith's server.  by limiting the u/l speed to 14KB/s, I was still pulling between 35-70 KB/s down.  It varied a bit more than usual, but not too bad.  so now when i want to browse while d/l'ing, i can change the settings to make it more efficient and then ramp the settings back up when i finish browsing.

sorry for the long rambling post, i'd be curious to know if my understanding of how this all works is correct or if this idea works for others.  If you need to check your b/w to figure out what the best settings are, go here http://www.dslreports.com/stest

hope everyone is having a great weekend.

-damon

[Kevin]

how do you change the bitorrents to wav files?  and how do you get the bitorrents to play on your pc?

[F.O.Bean]

how do you change the bitorrents to wav files?  and how do you get the bitorrents to play on your pc?

go into flac frontend and hit 'add files'......bring up yer files in the window and hit 'decode'.this will decode to wav and can now listen on yer pc......

[Kevin]

into flac frontend and hit 'add files'......bring up yer files in the window and hit 'decode'.this will decode to wav and can now listen on yer pc......  
for some reason it doesnt work just says "error" after dos opens and runs through the decoding

[F.O.Bean]

into flac frontend and hit 'add files'......bring up yer files in the window and hit 'decode'.this will decode to wav and can now listen on yer pc......  
for some reason it doesnt work just says "error" after dos opens and runs through the decoding

i dunno....sorry d00d......

[Kevin]

thanks for the help though, hey what are the tickets all about

[Joe w.]

i know that there is a setting in Windows in which it optimizes the computer for background functions.  Anybody know how to turn it on?  

Go to Start > Run > type 'msconfig' > go to the startup tap and you can choose what will run in the background and what will not. be careful not to turn off important applications.

how do you change the bitorrents to wav files?  and how do you get the bitorrents to play on your pc?

Bit torrent is a method of downloading, not a file type. You will either be downloading shn of flac files. use mkwact for shn and flac frontend for flac.

The real problem is that all other internet based applications get incredibly slow when there is a BT session open.

that is because BT is sharing the bandwidth. other applications should not be affected.

[Kevin]

right i meant flac but frontend wont work is there another method? (and I did install the exe fil for frontend, bty)

[F.O.Bean]

right i meant flac but frontend wont work is there another method? (and I did install the exe fil for frontend, bty)

try reinstalling winamp3 and a newer version of frontend.....is that persists, i dunno, hope that helps......and i tweaked my frontend a lil, that might be what it takes....

[Kevin]

what/how did you tweak it?