Problems with torrent

[Flaepru]

Hello. From some time ago I started using torrents to download stuff, and at the beginning it was allright. I have a 1mbps connection and using uTorrent, and my download speed was 115~120 kbps. And still I could browse the internet. However, unexplainably everytime I open my torrent client, the internet becomes unusable. EVEN if it isn't downloading anything and/or the download speed is below the max. I've tryied to change to BitTorrent, but I still have the same problem. Anyone got clues of what may be happening?

 

[Xilef]

I had that problem, so when I was getting some Linux distros to try out my bro would scream at me. Big issues.
Q1: Are you on a router?

 

[Flaepru]

Well, yeah I am, but at the beginning I was having no problems, even with the router. Then it started without any reason.

Oh, only the first minutes of the torrent on takes all the connection, the rest is ok.

 

[Xilef]

Q2: What make is your router?

 

[Flaepru]

Make? Do you mean maker? It's from Encore Electronics. Another thing I didn't mention is that when I open the torrent, only my connection is affected, not the other computers'.

But now I guess it's ok. Only when the program is looking for seed the internet doesn't work properly.

 

[eharper256]

Although I can't say for certain, I will say that uTorrent (indeed, any torrenting program) really, really likes to hog the bandwidth. And that means there's none left over for Firefox.

I too used experience this problem; so in practice, what I tended to do was to browse all of the normal sites, download the .torrents I want, but not start them running until I'd finished the rounds.

You might notice the past tense in there, which is true since I've not had any issues since I changed to cable. But even now, though I can use the net simulataneously with torrents, browsing speed usually takes a hit, especially when its cruising along at 500 k/b from thousands of seeds, but I guess thats to be expected.

 

[___]

Try throttling your maximum upload speed, it may be the torrents you're seeding that are sucking up your upload bandwidth, which is a lot more limited than your download bandwidth on most connections.  If that doesn't help, another possibility is that your router is old and has a hard time juggling the massive number of simultaneous connections torrents use up; try setting your max number of connections down to something small like 4 or so and see what happens.  Obviously this defeats the point of torrenting, but it will help you identify the problem and you can decide where to go from there.