So.....Do Sky have traffic shaping?

[railfrog]

I have recently downloaded a few torrents at between 5:00pm and 6:00pm.
The torrents are well supported with normally 50+ seeds and 15+ peers online.

The speed starts well, normally get to 1.5MB/s but then about 30 seconds later the speed goes down to between 100 - 300kB/s and stays this way well in to the evening.

Is this Sky doing some traffic shaping?

[Scubbie]

I'm sure that you have asked this before.

The simple answer is no.

Take a look at the stats below if you don't believe me, they were taken this evening. Earlier I was downloading at 1.6MB/s, currently it is around 800kB/s:

[railfrog]

Take a look at the stats below if you don't believe me, they were taken this evening. Earlier I was downloading at 1.6MB/s, currently it is around 800kB/s:

So is there anyway to explain the vast difference in my download speeds?

[SadBloke]

The people seeding have traffic shaping?

[Scubbie]

Private torrent sites tend to offer good speeds. Public torrent sites tend to get a lot of poor seeders.

You could also look at the computer you are using to download the torrents. Perhaps the torrent program needs tweaking a little.

It may just be that the individual torrent/s you are downloading are not being seeded very well or that the individuals your computer has connected to are not seeding at a good speed.

[deadman1984]

i get 1.9mb from sky unlimited and i dont think im been traffic shaped at least not as far as i know mind i dont take any notice like lol i just check to see how fast it goes hehehe

[dholdi]

i get 1.9mb from sky unlimited and i dont think im been traffic shaped at least not as far as i know mind i dont take any notice like lol i just check to see how fast it goes hehehe

Let me get this straight :-

You dont think you are being shaped,
As far as you know you arnt being shaped,
You dont take notice of whether you are being shaped,

YET

You just check to see how fast it goes.

Isnt there a contradiction in here somewhere ?

[railfrog]

Thanks for the answers.

But if you look at my original post the speed starts very well and then drops almost immediately.

Surely the speed should stay around the original speed when I first start downloading. Yes I know that if people leave then the speed will drop, but I have sat and watched it and more people have joined (seeds & Peers) and it still drops.

[Scubbie]

But if you look at my original post the speed starts very well and then drops almost immediately.

On many occasions I have mentioned on this forum that I have a PC which just handles my torrents. I can assure you that the download speeds go up and down constantly.

If you are getting a peak, which is tailing off very quickly, it suggests to me that the PC which you are passing your torrents through is not set up properly. If you allow it unrestricted access to both the upstream & downstream connection speed, then there will be a problem as it won't be able to handshake with the other computers in the torrent.

For this reason, since it is the upstream connection which is the real killer, I limit my upload connection. I would highly recommend that you do this as well, if you are not already doing so.

From time to time I play with the settings on my torrent PC and currently it is set to 70kB/s. I recommend that you don't set it above 2/3rds of your connection speed for during the day.

At the moment I have set it so that at night the upload speed goes as high as 110kB/s. My current upload connection on my router is showing 1168kb/s.

Surely the speed should stay around the original speed when I first start downloading. Yes I know that if people leave then the speed will drop, but I have sat and watched it and more people have joined (seeds & Peers) and it still drops.

In the past I have watched different seeders joining and leaving the torrents which I have been downloading (slow days). This has nothing to do with Sky.

It may be that that computer is seeding to various other people and that you get a splurge of data, then it moves on to someone else.

Provided that the computer isn't set to stop seeding when it reaches 150%, it may well return to seed your computer, but that is the nature of torrents.

[Old_nick]

You're quite right about the upload restrictions, Scubbie. If your upload to other people is hogging all the upload capability, then your download speeds will suffer because there won't be any bandwidth left for acknowldgement packets to be sent, to tell the computer at the other end that a packet has been received, and another part can be sent.

Another classic mistake is to allow too many simultaneous connections, because some routers just can't cope because they run out of memory and lose track of them all. The secret to good torrent connections is to start off with very modest settings, then gradually increase them until you hit the optimum settings for your broadband connection, your router, and your PC.