hi,

i get a lot of unreliable downloads also and i am often wondering why all my uploads go with >100kbps while my downloads rarely come to that speed (had 1,5mbps once though). there are two things i think:

a) misconfiguration
the thing you mentioned: someone allows 10 downloads per connection and 20 connections at once. nothing you can do but hope to find a time there no one else is downloading.

b) general internet traffic
i often have slow connections stating an ETA of 30, 50 or even >100 hours. the next morning the files are completed. i guess this is just the problem with general internet traffic - on daytime all the businesses are online and especially usa<->europe connections are heavily loaded. on night-time then it gets better and the downloads speed up.

so try to figure out the good hosts. and don't rely on the speed the clients have provided - i had the 1,5 mbps download from a client with 24kb speed and let them run for a while even if it doesn't look so good. i have a large number of unsuccessful downloads (unfortunately), but there always comes the time there one succeeds ... also it often takes a loooong time before you are lucky enough to get a free slot on busy servers. but patience helps you on