BitTorrent technology has been around for quite some time now and I guess many of you should already know how to download stuff from there. Actually BitTorrent is a very effective way of sharing files and it is used by many pirates to spread movies, softwares and etc. There are also legit sites such as Open Office and some Linux distros that uses BitTorrent to distribute files which is absolutely legal. So you can’t really say that BitTorrent is illegal since it is merely a technology. Problem nowadays is a lot of Internet Service Provider (ISO ISP) are shaping (in other words, limiting) the speed of transfer via torrent.
One example is normally you can achieve a maximum download speed of 150KBps on HTTP sites but then on torrent, even with optimal configuration with many seeders, you are still downloading at the speed of less than 20KBps. That is a sign of your ISP limiting your torrent speed. I have recently stumbled on a website that provides free test to check if your ISP is limiting the speed for BitTorrent, eMule, Gnutella, Email (POP and IMAP4), HTTP, SSH, and flash video (YouTube).
Glasnost tests easily enables you to check whether traffic from your applications is being rate-limited, throttled or blocked. It is created based on 3 challenges which is tests must be easy to use, tests must be short and results are accurate. The only requirements to run the tests is to have a working Internet connection, a web browser, Java and 8 minutes of your time. To have a more accurate result, it is best that all application that uses the Internet connection are terminated so that the Glasnost test won’t be affected.
When you are at Glasnost website, there are a few selection for you to choose from.
Some example of applications that uses BitTorrent are uTorrent, BitComet, Vuze. As for Gnutella, they are Limewire and Frostwire. To test if torrent speed is limited, simply select BitTorrent and click Start testing button. Wait for 500 seconds and you will get a report page. If you see the sentence “There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your uploads/downloads”, then your ISP does not limit or shape the BitTorrent speed. However if you see “Your ISP appears to rate limit your downloads/uploads”, now you know why your download speed is terribly slow.
Here are a list of ISP that are known to limit BitTorrent; Bell Canada, Cogeco, Rogers, (Canada), BT, Tiscali (UK), City Telecom (Hong Kong), Clearwire (USA), Free (France), Kabel D (Germany), ONO (Spain), TM Net (Malaysia), TVCabo (Portugal), UPC (Netherlands). Oh look, Malaysia made it in the list! Fortunately there are paid VPN services such as BolehVPN which allows bypassing Bittorrent P2P throttling.
[ Visit Glasnost ]
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I have a similar issue but at a video streaming site.
I have a grandfathered unlimited account with Bell Canadaalso a 2Wire combo modem/router.
Recently, about two weeks or so ago, my buffering and d/l speeds at just one video steaming site will drop drastically at just before 8PM est. from 775kbs down to as low as 5+kbs and will stay there until about 12:30AM. The Tech’s at the site say it isn’t them. I have noticed on a net meter that the speed seems to go in a pattern from as low as 5kbs up to 60 or 70kbs and back down to 10+kps fairly consistently, not a consistent range, but way lower than my usual 775kbs used to be.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. I have used the test but it comes back as they are not limiting my speed. The site Mod say’s that they are not throttling my speed and it doesn’t matter how many members are online using the site in that time frame either.
Hello Ray,
Just to comment on your article Ref; Download speeds etc, here in the UK download speeds from torrents are quite exceptional for the time being. We are keeping updated as to the outcomes of some of the legal actions being taken against some distributors by Spain, USA, UK, Germany all are tripling their efforts to shut the Web down if they get their way. Lets hope for some common sense.
Hello Ray,
Thanks for the post. But during the test, 30MB of data has been downloaded. I wonder why they use such a big file like this to do this test!!!
easy way to send large files is senduit.com/
100mb limit, so use multi part zip and set to 99mb parts
easy
@Gratntwhy & Swami, Thanks for the tips. I will sure look at both of them.
@Jack
Why not use Opera Unite. You don’t have to upload anything. The downloader can use any browser to get the files from your computer.
Jack,
I’m not sure if it is exactly what you need, but what about dropbox?
I haven’t used it, but from it seems to have a good reputation/is well liked, and a free account starts with about 2GB(?) storage.
I’m guessing that you could set up an account, upload the file, give your friend access to download the file.
hopefully someone can confirm that :-p
Thanks for another great tip Raymond. I have a question regarding file sharing, I need to send a girl a large file. She lives 3,000 miles away How can I get this to her for free, without uploading it to a public torrent site. I tried a service called Gygan. but it’s in beta and it’s so buggy that it crashes, before the upload finishes.
Thanks Jack
@Mark: Firewall and antivirus shouldn’t interfere with the test although do make sure that your firewall isn’t blocking the connection from the test.
@shiroshadows: You can try contacting them and get a free trial. They are nice people ;)
@mr2: Thanks for spotting and informing the obvious mistake. Updated from ISO -> ISP.
“Problem nowadays is a lot of Internet Service Provider (ISO)”
The mistake is obvious
Does BolehVPN work in countries outside Malaysia, like New Zealand?
Is it suppose to disable your firewall and anti virus temporarily?
Thank you Raymond for this blog as it’s an interesting topic and i have often heard of complaints about various ISP and as i often wondered did my ISP throttle my bandwidth and the results as you can see are very favorable in Eire…at the moment
Is your upload traffic rate limited?
There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your uploads.
Is your download traffic rate limited?
There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your downloads.