Slow speeds when downloading via uTorrent?

Hi all,

I have a very strange problem. I am on a 50Mbps Down and 20Mbps Up, line...

When downloading 2 things on uTorrent at around 1.5MB/s all my bandwidth just goes? This has not happened to me before.



Normal speedtest:


I do use a firewall (MalwareBytes Pro) which has website blocking... This is disabled.

Can anyone help?

Due to the way that torrents work it is unlikely you will ever get as high a download speed as with a direct connection - as the speed depends on the upload speed of those sharing the files.

Also a lot of ISPs throttle traffic recognised as torrent file sharing, as it is seen a a major drain on their bandwidth and not being seen as a totally legitimate activity

i used to get 8mb roughly with torrent speeds ,but to be honest this was a hindrance as the read write speeds used to cause havoc with the pc, it would just freeze and only a hard restart would get it back, and most often it would freeze immediately on starting the torrents again.
it no longer happens and the max speeds i get are around 4mb on a torrent. though this is only at certain times of the day as my ISP throttles the traffic as nigel mentioned above.

1.5mb on a torrent is not a bad speed as all those who trickle in at around 250kb will testify.
keep an eye on the speeds at different times of the day and see which times are best for you to start . usually just after midnight is when the speeds pick up.

set utorrent to automatic shutdown pc when torrents finish if doing any overnight, this will save your bandwidth and electricity .

No its not my torrent speeds! It just I lose all bandwidth to anything else I am doing... This was fine before

that does seem odd, speeds will drop when using torrents but it shouldnt drop to nothing or just the speed you get from the torrent.
are there other computers using your bandwidth,phones etc. we have two teenagers both with phones and ipods connected so there are four computers plugged in most of the time.
our speeds do get low but not too bad,
try trouble shooting your internet by right clicking the connectivity icon in your systems tray and see if there is any results there

This could be, as I said above, throttling of the bandwidth, which will effect all download speeds, once the address is seen as using a torrent then the ISP will reduce the speed available to a pre-set low level often around the 2Mb/s range. this will stay in place for a set time after the torrent is stopped, this may last for hours after ceasing.

Although the technology has existed for a long time, and the clause has been written into contracts for a long time also, it may be that the ISP concerned has not implemented the restriction until recently. there are allegedly things that the user can do to mask the use of torrent but these are not proven to be effective as the ISP has final control of the service they provide.

boohbah said:

that does seem odd, speeds will drop when using torrents but it shouldnt drop to nothing or just the speed you get from the torrent.
are there other computers using your bandwidth,phones etc. we have two teenagers both with phones and ipods connected so there are four computers plugged in most of the time.
our speeds do get low but not too bad,
try trouble shooting your internet by right clicking the connectivity icon in your systems tray and see if there is any results there

Yes it is very odd. It has never done this before. No I have checked to make sure and kicked everyone off the router and still have the issue. I have tried troubleshooting the connection and its come back fine.

Barman58 said:

This could be, as I said above, throttling of the bandwidth, which will effect all download speeds, once the address is seen as using a torrent then the ISP will reduce the speed available to a pre-set low level often around the 2Mb/s range. this will stay in place for a set time after the torrent is stopped, this may last for hours after ceasing.

Although the technology has existed for a long time, and the clause has been written into contracts for a long time also, it may be that the ISP concerned has not implemented the restriction until recently. there are allegedly things that the user can do to mask the use of torrent but these are not proven to be effective as the ISP has final control of the service they provide.

Good idea however this is not the case. When download on my PC then upon checking the speeds on another computers its still get 45/49 down...

Anyway... I have now swapped the network card over the check if that was the problem.

updating the wireless drivers may help, im assuming its wireless for some reason!

Its hard wired . Hate wireless haha :). So far no problems. Think it must of been my network card playing up.