Hi all,

Sometimes my download speed exceeds the specs of my cable service, like 325KB/s. But sometimes it is 5-25KB/s, UNACCEPTABLE. What's going on? Can I fix it? How?

Hi David

Before I go on to answer your question, and as I live in the UK, what does ABQ stand for?

I can guess but, in all honesty, I don't really know.

OK, that said, speed is a problem for most people because, on the gnutella network, you cannot download faster than the person you are downloading from can upload.

Now, you do know that when you download something (anything) you are actually downloading from other computer P2P users from around the world. The downside of this is you are at the mercy of the other users ability to upload. For example, if you are downloading from someone (or a group of people) that have dial-up, poor infrastructure, congested network or any combination thereof then no matter how fast your cable or DSL connection is you will get a slow download.

You will note that in my example I have used some of the worse case scenarios but in most cases everyone downloads from someone or group with one or more of the above problems.

Hope this helps.


UK Bob

Hi UK Bob,

ABQ is one abbreviation for Albuquerque, in New Mexico.

No, I don't think that that's it. I change what files to download and it doesn't change much. AAMOF, if I have 5 files coming in, pausing 4 of them does not speed up the speed of the remaining one; culd THAT be due to your reason, when we're talking about 2-3 KB/s over a T1?

Sometimes when I'm home, it's super fast, like 100 to 350KB/s, then other times the same set of files slows down to 0-5KB/s.

???

David

++++++++++++++++++++
Hi David

Before I go on to answer your question, and as I live in the UK, what does ABQ stand for?

I can guess but, in all honesty, I don't really know.

OK, that said, speed is a problem for most people because, on the gnutella network, you cannot download faster than the person you are downloading from can upload.

Now, you do know that when you download something (anything) you are actually downloading from other computer P2P users from around the world. The downside of this is you are at the mercy of the other users ability to upload. For example, if you are downloading from someone (or a group of people) that have dial-up, poor infrastructure, congested network or any combination thereof then no matter how fast your cable or DSL connection is you will get a slow download.

You will note that in my example I have used some of the worse case scenarios but in most cases everyone downloads from someone or group with one or more of the above problems.

Hope this helps.


UK Bob

Hi again David

You asked:The answer to your question is "yes".

Taking your example, you have five downloads coming in and one of them is a rare file on a PC with a dial-up connection. Now, you pausing or stopping the other four files will not do anything to speed up a download from someone with a dial-up connection.

I have an ADSL connection with a maximum download speed of 8MB, however the best I am able to achieve on a good day is 5.0x. I am at the moment trying to download two rare files of over 500MB each but I, like you, can only get 2-3 Kbs/s. So I reckon that the person (or persons) sharing these files must be on dial-up or live somewhere where the infrastructure/network facilities are not that good.

In situations like this I tend to try for a few weeks and then abandon any further hope of getting these files.

Hope this helps in your understanding.


UK Bob

Yeah, unhappily.

Small download speeds can also be related to their upload speed settings, and also due to them sharing many files & thus their upload speeds get shared around & perhaps squeezed. Larger files for some odd reason do tend to slow down over the downloading period. This may be due to traffic, or the person taking on more uploaders, or the physics of the communication between host & downloader ... communicating which parts/packets have been downloaded & each message getting slowed... You may or may not be aware but ultrapeers you are connected thru can change during a session & some may be less reliable or be within packet shaping ISP areas or pass thru such over the hops of isp's to get to them.

I was reading your thread, but My problem is a littel different, when I initially connect I have decent to high download speeds, but I soon begins to drop to single digits and stays there. If I shut it down and restart, same thing starts all over. Sound familiar to anyone?

Yeah, it sounds like the time my previous ISP started to "Bandwidth Shape" my connection, i.e. throttle my P2P connection while leaving my browsing untouched.

I could not download films or film clips anymore only the odd MP3 file.

well i argue that limewire should have everyone to put there upload speed to unlimited so that people can download alot faster and also if they do that, people uploading somthing to someone else well get rid of the upload fastter