temperamental download rates

[ivicrusaderivi]

I have BitComet set to stop at 135kB/s, and when I start a new .torrent it will do just that. But after a while it just flat out drops to 0kB/s! This is really frustrating. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with BitComet. Am I just downloading bad .torrents or do I need to change a router setting? I've followed all the instructions on creating a static IP address and enabling port forwarding on my router, but this is just freaking me out...

I'm trying to download Borat, but I've been getting this same problem with nearly all torrents that are larger than like 300MB. ahh insanity

[kluelos]

BC will download as fast as it can, for as long as it can find new pieces to download. It slows down or stops because it can't find any new pieces.

Why not? Several reasons are possible. One is simply spoilers, partial torrents that are not intended to ever complete, only to waste your time on something that will never finish. These are called poisoned torrents. You find these mostly with new material.

Another reason is that there is one seeder, who has a relatively slow connection. If he's been at it a while, the rest of the swarm has shared the material they have pretty widely. That part you will get quickly, from other leechers, but then you "catch up" with the rest, and you have everything that's been sent so far. Now you, like everyone else, are waiting for the seeder to distribute new pieces, and that simply takes time. Later, when there are more seeders, this torrent will be much faster.

[ivicrusaderivi]

It's nuts...100kB/s+ until around 68% and now it's sitting at less than 1. I'm still uploading 20kB/s+ but download is dead.

If the torrent is poisoned, is there anything I can do about it? Are torrents poisoned for the same reason that LimeWire is full of fake content, to try to prevent copyright infringement? Or did some a****** just want to be a pain? Is it caused by a client that connects to the network, like involuntarily?

Oooh, and why does it say on isoHunt that there are thousands of seeds and thousands of leechers, but I am currently connected to 0 seeds and the leechers are giving me nothing...are all their slots taken and I am waiting in line? Or is the information isoHunt provides false/misleading?

Thanks for the speedy response.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I would look at the peers list, and if everyone is stuck at the same spot, and no seeders are present, then it could be a "bad torrent", or just needs a seeder.

Here is some details about "bad torrents"

http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_torrents

if it is because of a very slow seeder, you can simply stop the torrent for a day or so, then restart it when there are seeders.

Suspect

[kluelos]

The information from Isohunt, or almost any other torrent site, regarding the status of the swarm is always some variation of out-of-date. That might be hours, or it might be months. You basically can't place any reliance on what the site says about it. Your client will tell you what's actually out there now.