Why is BitTorrent slow?

[DuffMan]

My subscription to usenet just expired and was going to try BitTorrent since that seems like the most popular way to exchange files now days. After downloading some files, I don't understand how it can be so popular. It is incredibly slow, which is contrary to what I hear. Some of my friends use it and they have blazing fast speeds, but anything I try is less than 100/KBs. Is there something I'm missing? I'm used to constant 1MB+ speeds with usenet, should I just resubscribe?

[Roofus]

Files need to be incredibly popular (like new-Ubuntu-release popular) to reliably get over 100KB/s. The reason BitTorrent is popular is because it's easy and most people, myself included, don't mind the slowness. I had a Usenet subscription for a month and found it unusable. But hey, if that's what you like, resubscribe.

[Code-Red]

Re-subscribe. I've always found direct downloading (which I assume UseNet is...I haven't used a BBS since about '94) the most suitable form of getting what you need - fast. Personally, I hate torrents. If I can stand waiting a couple of days/weeks to watch/play something I'll start it up, but if a DD is available, I'll be all over it.

Plus the fact if you're not with a syndicated site, most jerk-offs just leech and don't bother seeding. Oh, and you've got to leave the PC on day and night to finish anything in a reasonable amount of time.

[Specially Cork]

I direct download and wouldn't have it any other way.

The only fast torrents I ever got were from private trackers, but the fact I always have to give back what I take just doesn't work out too well for me. It's not that I'm selfish, I just don't see the point in fast downloads if after <x> amount of data transferred, I need to stop downloading and re-upload it all again.

[emptythought]

µTorrent works fairly good.

[Quzar]

Files need to be incredibly popular (like new-Ubuntu-release popular) to reliably get over 100KB/s. The reason BitTorrent is popular is because it's easy and most people, myself included, don't mind the slowness. I had a Usenet subscription for a month and found it unusable. But hey, if that's what you like, resubscribe.

Or be shared by a small number of people with high upload.

[DuffMan]

Or if there are a lot of leechers, put your upload speed up as BitTorrent will serve files to people with high upload.

Ah I see. Well BitTorrent just isn't for me I guess, IRC/Usenet seem to be the best options.

[Luriden]

I've tried newsgroups but I can't figure the shit out. Torrents are much, much easier.

[Lartrak]

Anyone can put them up and they're reliable.

On a side note, is anything under 100k really considered "incredibly slow" these days? I don't get it. I just let torrents run over night. Not a big deal really.

And yeah, private torrent sites and sites with required memberships, people with decent connections CAN often get in the 300k+ range. I do know people who sometimes get in the MB a second range. Me, I'm pretty happy if I can maintain 20k+, and I have a torrent of something right now going at 292 bytes per second. But what I'm getting is pretty obscure.

[Specially Cork]

On a side note, is anything under 100k really considered "incredibly slow" these days? I don't get it. I just let torrents run over night. Not a big deal really.

I see that as wasting power and wasting money, so it is a big deal to me.

I've tried newsgroups but I can't figure the shit out. Torrents are much, much easier.

I use newsgroups. I search for what I want on a website, click the link, and it downloads via an additional application. No different from torrents. I admit that having newsgroups setup like that isn't made to obvious by the providers, but once you realise you can do it - it's fantastic.

[Wagh]

On a side note, is anything under 100k really considered "incredibly slow" these days? I don't get it. I just let torrents run over night. Not a big deal really.

I see that as wasting power and wasting money, so it is a big deal to me.

I've tried newsgroups but I can't figure the shit out. Torrents are much, much easier.

I use newsgroups. I search for what I want on a website, click the link, and it downloads via an additional application. No different from torrents. I admit that having newsgroups setup like that isn't made to obvious by the providers, but once you realise you can do it - it's fantastic.

exactly.. I used to look through heaps and heaps of news posts in xnews to find anything. Now I just download the nzb and it starts downloading at a constat 1mb/s.

[Nico0020]

Most things that give you fast speeds are new releases of things. Like Ubuntu distros, which I will see like 500kb/s. When new episodes of shows like southpark or SNL or something I normally see over 300 k/bs. Also make sure in your preferences that you dont allow many hundreds of connections that are not doing much of anything connected to you. That will help you out a lot.

[MulletMan13]

Are there any Mac users out there that use newsgroups?

Like Luriden, I'm completely oblivious to what they are, but apparently through Time Warner I automatically get a subscription.

I have no idea what a subscription means, where to go, or how to use it, so it's essentially worthless. I have absolutely no idea where or how to get started. I'd appreciate any help.

Edit: From what I gather, I subscribe to a service-- login and browse, and then a newsreader will download the items for me? I'll try to figure this out.

[Ex-Cyber]

Are there any Mac users out there that use newsgroups?

Like Luriden, I'm completely oblivious to what they are, but apparently through Time Warner I automatically get a subscription.

I have no idea what a subscription means, where to go, or how to use it, so it's essentially worthless. I have absolutely no idea where or how to get started. I'd appreciate any help.

Edit: From what I gather, I subscribe to a service-- login and browse, and then a newsreader will download the items for me? I'll try to figure this out.

Newsgroups are similar to email, except designed for shared discussion groups. The traditional way of doing things is that you run a news client and it downloads the list of new messages from all groups that you subscribe to, then shows you the list and you read the messages you're interested in. However, file posts are routinely split up into hundreds or thousands of messages, so this is not a good way to look for files. The new way of doing files is to browse websites that keep track of posted files and provide .nzb files for each "release" posted. The .nzb file contains all of the message IDs needed to download a particular set of files, so there is no need to manually browse the newsgroups trying to figure out which bundles of messages you need to download; you just feed the .nzb file to a program that knows how to use them, and it will download and reconstruct the files.

Keep in mind that many news providers (even news servers "from your ISP", which are often outsourced) have usage caps.

[MulletMan13]

Are there any Mac users out there that use newsgroups?

Like Luriden, I'm completely oblivious to what they are, but apparently through Time Warner I automatically get a subscription.

I have no idea what a subscription means, where to go, or how to use it, so it's essentially worthless. I have absolutely no idea where or how to get started. I'd appreciate any help.

Edit: From what I gather, I subscribe to a service-- login and browse, and then a newsreader will download the items for me? I'll try to figure this out.

Newsgroups are similar to email, except designed for shared discussion groups. The traditional way of doing things is that you run a news client and it downloads the list of new messages from all groups that you subscribe to, then shows you the list and you read the messages you're interested in. However, file posts are routinely split up into hundreds or thousands of messages, so this is not a good way to look for files. The new way of doing files is to browse websites that keep track of posted files and provide .nzb files for each "release" posted. The .nzb file contains all of the message IDs needed to download a particular set of files, so there is no need to manually browse the newsgroups trying to figure out which bundles of messages you need to download; you just feed the .nzb file to a program that knows how to use them, and it will download and reconstruct the files.

Keep in mind that many news providers (even news servers "from your ISP", which are often outsourced) have usage caps.

Thanks a LOT for that description. It turns out Time Warner offered a pretty awesome deal for subscribers, but in June they discontinued the service. I found a great program for these (Unison) , and I'm going to sign up with one come pay day.

Thanks again!

[Thomas]

Mulletman, Time Warner did away with free usenet in July. I used to use it a ton, and it had a decent retention (30 days) for being free. I usually get great speeds with torrents, unless they are super old.