have i set this up right? (and other questions)

[GenghisChris]

Hi all I just want to run through my setup for BitComet (v0.76) to make sure I haven't missed anything important (I'm a total torrent noob)

first of all I downloaded Bitcomet

checked my connection speed 2000kbps downstream and 240 upstream so i set my max download rate to 246 kB/s and max upload to 24 B/s (I figure this is correct)

I set the port im using for BitComet to open via my router

set my IPs to static

alowed access through my firewall

Disabled UPnP

max downloads to 3 and I think thats it

My download speeds still haven't increased much since I made the changes. I can get upto about 40kB/s sometimes a little higher.

I feel like I should be able to get more, any suggestions?

EDIT #2 Ok I've tried losing a couple of torrents so I'm downloading 3 now and have pretty much the same speeds, I'm about to try the office thingy test to see if i can max my speed, I'll post the reslts here.

EDIT: I'd like to point out that my upload speed stops about at 26kB/s (higher than i set my max) and stays there. and I'm using a wireless contection, should I use my wire?

I'm currently downloading 5 torrents and my speed ranges from 5 kB/s to 40 kB/s

I think I should cut down on the amount of torents im downloading other than that I can't think that I'm doing much wrong, any help is much apreciated

Thanks for taking the time to go through this info. :)

EDIT: I tried open office as a single download and it hit my max of 250 kB/s so I guess my settings are as good as they can be. I still dont understand how some things can have health of 2500% and still only hover around 1kB/s guess I never will... oh well

one other thing, how come if i'm downloading torrents and i only hit 20kB/s why does my conection act slower than a 56k modem if i surf at the same time?

also it seems torrentplanet and tracker2.bt-net fail to connect so i'm not getting mximum seeds/peers any help on this also?

thanks again

[GenghisChris]

1 more question, what is considered a good torrent (one i'll get over 100kB/s) what sort of seed/peer ratio and numbers should i look for (i'm downloading one now that has seed/peer of 9/35[9/581] u/d ratio is 1.0 health is 2500% im downlaoding at 13/16 kB/s

thanks for any advice

[kluelos]

First thing is that v 0.76 is not stable, and not recommended unless you're feeling very experimental. Install the latest stable version, 0.70, and stay with it until a later stable version comes along.

The speed you will get is overwhelmingly dependent on factors outside your control. But if your bittorrent client is interfering with normal web surfing, then you have it misconfigured and it's probably slowing itself down as well.

This means adjusting your global maximum upload speed. And it means keeping your units straight. If you get feet vs inches crossed up, you'll get the settings wrong. There are bits, and there are bytes, and they are not the same at all. 1 B = 8 b. So when you do your speed test, check three times about the units it gave you, and make sure you've converted correctly. Then limit your max upload speed to about 80% of the correctly converted, measured upstream line speed.

When you've got it right, your download speed will pick up (because it's no longer stumbling over itself) and you will be able to perform normal, non-intensive tasks like web surfing and emailing, and not really notice that Bittorrent is running.