BitLord 1.1

[Mike.C]

I am using, or trying to use, a program called BitLord 1.1 to download a TV show which is 698mb, and so far it has taken 9 hours to download just 497mb.
At times the download speed is as low as 7kb/s, but on average it is between 15kb/s and 38kb/s.

I know I am a novice when it comes to PC's and the internet, but surely with broadband it should be downloading quicker then this. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

I do not know if this is right either, but the upload speed is around 30kb/s with an average speed of between 19kb/s and 40kb/s.
By the way what is being uploaded? I thought uploading was when I uploaded some photo's etc, but I am not doing anything like that.
The strange thing is looking at the figures just now it has uploaded more (645mb) then I have downloaded (502mb), does this sound right?

Except for writing this post and my firewall/antivirus running in the background I am not doing anything else that would slow the speed down.

If the above is the normal speed, do you know of any other program that downloads faster?

Thank you in advance

Cheers

Mike

 

[Dave S]

BitLord is a BitTorrent client. BitTorrent is a method of file sharing. It is used for both legal and illegal shares - for example, several Linux distributions are available via official Torrents, but many videos, applications etc are illegally shared this way. So you may want to check the legality of what you are downloading.

BitTorrent is designed to reduce load on a server and increase download speeds. Let's say that Norm's site decide to make episodes of NYW available for download. Say each episode is 1000Mb, for sake of a round figure. For every person who downloads, their server has to send out 1000Mb, so if 100 people download it, the server has to send out 100,000Mb. That is a strain on the server and if all are trying to download at once, it will be quite slow.

However, what they could do is send a different 10Mb to each person. If each person then swaps with all the others, they can then each get their 1000Mb, but the server has only had to send out 1000Mb. The load on the server is significantly reduced. Since you can upload and download at the same time, it is a quicker process than if you had to get everything direct from the server.

Ok - it's a bit more complicated than that, but that is the principle. Now, you are currently downloading, but you are also uploading. What you are doing, is uploading data that you have already received, to someone else who does not yet have it.

The key to this working effectively is how many other people there are who are connected and have the data that you don't yet have. If there aren't many, your download speed will be slower because there will be several of you trying to download the same chunks from the same people. Most clients that I've used (not used BitLord) show the number of peers and number of seeds currently connected. Seeds are people who have the all the data and are still sharing it. They will be uploading only. Peers are those like yourself who have some of the data. They will be uploading and downloading. If people disconnect as soon as they have received all the data, the system will start to slow down. The usually guide is that once you have finished downloading, you should stay connected until you have uploaded at least as much as you downloaded. More is better.

Dave

 

[Mike.C]

Hi Dave, thanks very much for your quick reply. oops I had no idea that it could be illegal, because it is on the open internet for anyone to see. I will have to check this out.

Dave,

Now, you are currently downloading, but you are also uploading. What you are doing, is uploading data that you have already received, to someone else who does not yet have it.

So if say I am downloading a football match and have already received the first half, and someone else does not have it yet , then Bitloard is using my pc to pass it on to the other person, is this correct?

As for the speed it is just pot lock then? One day I could download 100mb's an hour and the next day it could take 5 hours?

Are there any better programs or should I just stick with BitLord?

Thanks very much for your help.

Cheers

Mike

 

[mr]

As for the speed it is just pot lock then? One day I could download 100mb's an hour and the next day it could take 5 hours?

Are there any better programs or should I just stick with BitLord?

Thanks very much for your help.

Cheers

Mike

As for speed the number of seeds and (to a lesser extent) peers is the key figure in determining speed. The more seeds the better.
Cheers Mike

 

[Dave S]

Hi Dave, thanks very much for your quick reply. oops I had no idea that it could be illegal, because it is on the open internet for anyone to see. I will have to check this out.

I suspect many have been caught out this way. In a similar vein, my Wife once joined a music download site, for which she had to pay to join and pay per download. Turned out that the downloads were being done 'behind the scenes' by an illegal filesharing utility (can't remember which) and they were pocketing all the cash! It appeared completely legitimate, but was in fact an illegal scam.

So if say I am downloading a football match and have already received the first half, and someone else does not have it yet , then Bitloard is using my pc to pass it on to the other person, is this correct?

Yes. You could be sending chunks of the first half to several people, and several people would be sending you chunks of the second half. To use my NYW example, you may find that once the whole episode is has been sent out, they never need to send the data out again. Everyone would be able to get it from each other, and all Norm's site would have to do is give everyone the very small control file that enables everyone to communicate with each other.

As for the speed it is just pot lock then? One day I could download 100mb's an hour and the next day it could take 5 hours?

Yes, depending broadly speaking on the ratio of Seeds to Peers. The more people out there with the data you need, and the fewer people after it, the faster it will be. It is possible to find no Seeds and all the peers are looking for the same data. The whole thing will then stall until someone with all the data connects again. This is most likely where the Torrent is only available to a few users. Eg, if I decided to make a woodwork video available to forum members via BitTorrent, that scenario would be likely.

Are there any better programs or should I just stick with BitLord?

Hard to say - I've only used Burst and Azureas on Windows. No doubt some clients are better than others, but ultimately the speed of download is dependant on external factors. Although there are settings than can be tweaked, I've always stuck with the defaults.

Dave

 

[Mike.C]

Dave, Mike, very much appreciated.

By the way what is the average download speed you guys usually get.

Cheers

Mike