Query

[telepwen]

I use the BitTorrent client.

The thing that frustrates me is the number of peers that I connect to that neither upload to me nor download from me. It also frustrates me to see that I'm usually the person receiving the slowest download.

Will donwloading a different client help with this, and if so, do you have a suggestion as to which client?

Comments

[nostrademons]

I use uTorrent, mostly because it was the only one that didn't make my computer grind to a halt when I had both it and VMWare open. Also has a decent UI, and runs fast.

It probably will not help your download woes. It sounds like you've got firewall issues; if there is a firewall on your connection, only peers that don't have a firewall will be able to connect with you, so you cut off most of your potential suppliers. uTorrent has a little icon at the bottom of the window for this: it's red if you're firewalled, yellow if you're probably firewalled, and green if you're open. There're also a bunch of bittorrent connection testers on the web that will tell you if you have all the proper ports open.

If you are firewalled, check for "port forwarding" on your home or wireless router. It should allow the port that you've configured on your BitTorrent client. Also beware of crazy networking setups - I couldn't get incoming connections for ages because I had two routers between my connection and my computer, first the Ethernet router

[dlevey]

What Nostrasamud said. Also, check your ISP. Some do what they cann "traffic shaping". This ends up meaning that they throttle Bittorrent connections, amongst other things.

[tinitinytina]

BitComet always worked better than BitTorrent for me. But yeah, check your firewall.

[aworldinside]

Totally second the UTorrent thing. It takes up far, far less resources than any other client I've tried. <3