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Anyone know anything about torrents?


Paul
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Changed my Internet provider (and speed) yesterday, and ever since the change, any torrents I try to download seem to be going at a very slow speed, I'm lucky if they get over 7kb/s. Anyone know if there's any settings I may need to tweak or anything?

 

Cheers

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Forward your ports if you're using a router. And tell your bittorrent client what port you're using. Some ISPs put blocks on the default ports that the bittorrent clients use so as to slow things up.

 

Something like that anyway. What client are you using?

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I THOUGHT I'd sorted it, but seems not. And now I think I know why...

 

The PlusNet Experience

 

We’ve been back on PlusNet for about a month now, and so I thought I’d write a post about the experience. PlusNet used to be one of the darlings amongst the UK ISPs - charging slightly higher prices for a very good level of service - however, recently they have cut their prices dramatically and altered the way their services work such that a number of their customers have left them.

 

The changes reflect traffic on peer-to-peer networks and newsgroups. During peak times - from around 4pm until midnight - traffic on these services is speed-restricted. They’re usable but very slow - a BitTorrent download will max out at around 10KB/sec, whereas ideally you should be getting 10-20 times that on a standard 2MB broadband connection. At other times, BitTorrent downloads are much faster although still not blazingly fast. I don’t use newsgroups so I cannot vouch for their speed.

 

Other than these restrictions, the system is very fast and, after a patchy period a few weeks ago, seemingly very reliable. Normal downloads from UK servers can go over 200KB/sec. And at £15 per month it seems to be very good value for money.

 

If you use peer-to-peer services and newsgroups a lot, especially in the evenings, then PlusNet is not for you. But if you don’t use these services, or only use them occasionally and are willing to either queue your downloads to happen overnight or download in the mornings then you should find them to be a good ISP.

 

http://www.neilturner.me.uk/2005/Nov/17/th...experience.html

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Tiscali have gone a slightly different route with me. My internet doesnt even connect between 4pm and midnight!

 

:unsure:

 

Pleased I only signed up to a monthly contract, can't see me staying with an ISP which doesn't let me download.

Edited by Paul
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I just download over night. My connection is ridiculously unstable during the day though. It goes off for anywhere betwteen 30mins to 6 hours daily and at all hours. Ive reported it to some bloke in Bangladesh but he doesnt seem to give a fuck tbh.

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Guest Patrokles

I just download over night. My connection is ridiculously unstable during the day though. It goes off for anywhere betwteen 30mins to 6 hours daily and at all hours. Ive reported it to some bloke in Bangladesh but he doesnt seem to give a fuck tbh.

 

Should just let Gemmill have a word.

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How legit are torrents just out of interest? I've been downloading using BitComet since the weekend and some smart arse at work keeps going 'oooo...you'll get in trouble.' I realise they're not totally legit, but you couldn't get done...could you?

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Guest Patrokles

How legit are torrents just out of interest? I've been downloading using BitComet since the weekend and some smart arse at work keeps going 'oooo...you'll get in trouble.' I realise they're not totally legit, but you couldn't get done...could you?

 

It's very unlikely unless you're downloading the latest top 40 on a regular basis. That's the only stuff that gets monitored, really, and even then...

 

So, yeah, you'll be alright. DC++ is preferable to bittorrent in a lot of ways though.

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How legit are torrents just out of interest? I've been downloading using BitComet since the weekend and some smart arse at work keeps going 'oooo...you'll get in trouble.' I realise they're not totally legit, but you couldn't get done...could you?

 

Get Peer Guardian installed on your computer. It's free and blocks IPs of a lot of these places that track who's downloading stuff. I don't imagine for a second that they couldn't find you and bollock you if they really wanted to, but it gives you a bit of piece of mind.

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Guest Patrokles

How legit are torrents just out of interest? I've been downloading using BitComet since the weekend and some smart arse at work keeps going 'oooo...you'll get in trouble.' I realise they're not totally legit, but you couldn't get done...could you?

 

Get Peer Guardian installed on your computer. It's free and blocks IPs of a lot of these places that track who's downloading stuff. I don't imagine for a second that they couldn't find you and bollock you if they really wanted to, but it gives you a bit of piece of mind.

 

Peer Guardian is a government scheme to catch the likes of you. :mellow:

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Guest Patrokles

:mellow: Balls!

 

What's DC++ anyway? Why haven't I been informed about this?

 

DC++ is a terrific client that lets you connect to specific hubs based upon your listening/gaming/viewing preferences. It's superfast, good for hard-to-find and popular files, and unlike bittorrent isn't limited to full albums, etc. It takes a bit of effort to set up and work out the first time you run it, but once you've got past that stage (which shouldn't take long), it's amazing.

 

Revconnect is my favourite client:

 

http://www.revconnect.com/

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How legit are torrents just out of interest? I've been downloading using BitComet since the weekend and some smart arse at work keeps going 'oooo...you'll get in trouble.' I realise they're not totally legit, but you couldn't get done...could you?

 

Get Peer Guardian installed on your computer. It's free and blocks IPs of a lot of these places that track who's downloading stuff. I don't imagine for a second that they couldn't find you and bollock you if they really wanted to, but it gives you a bit of piece of mind.

 

That's smashing, except my computer now runs like a Spectrum someone dropped. GREAT!

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:mellow: Not cos of Peer Guardian, Shirley? I would just uninstall it if that's the case though. I would imagine they're mostly going after the people that are actually putting the torrents up on there in the first place, and the people like Patrokles mentioned. Occasional downloaders won't be getting hit I don't think.
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Guest Patrokles

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat it. The lawsuits are all basically being brought on behalf of the MAJOR record labels, so unless you're downloading all of THEIR top-selling artists, you'll slip by the radar.

 

On the subject of a radar, all you need is to go here:

 

http://www.riaaradar.com/

 

And it'll tell you exactly what you might get fingered for. Outside of the RIAA jurisdiction, you're safe as houses.

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:mellow: Not cos of Peer Guardian, Shirley? I would just uninstall it if that's the case though. I would imagine they're mostly going after the people that are actually putting the torrents up on there in the first place, and the people like Patrokles mentioned. Occasional downloaders won't be getting hit I don't think.

 

Aye, I put it on and my t'internet was slow as shit. Some of the torrent sites then refused to even open. Disabled it and it's all back to normal. Although, the downloading is taking fucking ages, what was it you were saying about forwarding ports again? How in the wide wide world of sport do I do that like?

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:mellow: Not cos of Peer Guardian, Shirley? I would just uninstall it if that's the case though. I would imagine they're mostly going after the people that are actually putting the torrents up on there in the first place, and the people like Patrokles mentioned. Occasional downloaders won't be getting hit I don't think.

 

Aye, I put it on and my t'internet was slow as shit. Some of the torrent sites then refused to even open. Disabled it and it's all back to normal. Although, the downloading is taking fucking ages, what was it you were saying about forwarding ports again? How in the wide wide world of sport do I do that like?

 

Go to www.portforward.com and follow the instructions there for your specific router and bittorrent client. It makes a huge difference - I was getting speeds around 20-30kbps before I did it, and it was sometimes peaking at over 200kbps after I'd done it with the low end being around 80-100 for most decent torrents. It must be canny straightforward if I can do it! Also, what Bittorrent client are you using? I used a few but settled on Azureus cos it was MILES faster than any of the other ones I tried.

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