Calling all bittorrent users

[Osirus]

I have just recently ordered a 1024k line from Telkom (which they claim is now 4096) but I am unsure of the ISP to choose from. I have researched alot through helkom and basically visiting many ISP's websites but I am still unsure whether to go for Shaped or Unshaped. If I want to use the Bittorrent Network extensively, specifically the bittorrent app Azureus (using UDP and TCP/IP), should I go for shaped or unshaped? Is unshaped crucial to using bittorrent? If anybody with experience using shaped/unshaped accounts who bittorrents heavily (5 - 15 GB per month) can give me advice? I ask this simply because you can get higher caps with shaped, but I am unsure whether you actually CAN bittorrent with a shaped account...

I am at a loss at the moment...

 

[|tera|]

Rather get an IS account and use the newsserver, sure torrents are okay, but you need to seed and ratio's suck. With the newsserver you just download, no uploading.

Have a look at this thread.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=54472

 

[GreatBigMouth]

As for the ISP, go for Atlantic. I had DSL with them a few months ago and they're fine. Never go with Helkom, as their service is poor.

Go for unshaped if you want to download on P2P networks or Torrents. My Iburst is shaped and any P2P programor Torrent downloads at Dialup speed!

 

[bwana]

I have just recently ordered a 1024k line from Telkom (which they claim is now 4096)

They claim it's up to 4096 - YMMV

You should try shaped first - its cheaper and you can always upgrade if you need to. TelkomInternet might suck but you'll get at least 3gb and then some - though you'll never know for sure how much that will be.

IS has some news servers which are great when they're working. Not sure if everyone on IS is getting full speed or not.

 

[br34k]

no point in gettin unshaped for downloading, im sure u'll reach ur 3GB cap soon enough

 

[Wisemansa]

ya theres definitely no point in wasting your money on a unshaped account when a shaped one wil do just fine.....

 

[GreatBigMouth]

ya theres definitely no point in wasting your money on a unshaped account when a shaped one wil do just fine.....

Shaped doesn't allow you full access to P2P networks or torrents. From websites I download at about 70kb/s and from any P2P client it's going at 20kb/s.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Shaped doesn't allow you full access to P2P networks or torrents. From websites I download at about 70kb/s and from any P2P client it's going at 20kb/s.

Well you stated that you're on iBurst - they shape to death. On ADSL it's not so bad really, one would mainly need a shaped account if only latency is an issue. For normal downloads shaped is fine.

 

[venom]

Yeah. Unshaped is the best value for money as far as torrents are concerned (on ADSL) and dowloading something with a good seed ratio could easily max out your line.

Still...as teraside said, the newserver is way better.

 

[GreatBigMouth]

Well you stated that you're on iBurst - they shape to death.

Yeah I know. Sometimes I can't even login to Limewire, Kazaa etc bacause of this. I don't think Iburst offers an unshaped package do they?

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Do a forum search for port forwarding, might help you out

 

[Peppercorns]

I agree with Teraside

Go for an IS account, Openweb should do nicely and have competetive prices, pm Mr BEEP for more info on Openweb and their specials

 

[GreatBigMouth]

How exactly can Port Forwarding help me out?

 

[Dazzla]

I use Azureus with my shaped telkom account. Getting 20-45kB/s on a 384 line, depending on number of seeds. You gotta get the shu hack version or the uploads will eat up your bandwidth faster than your downloads.

 

[enx]

why hack when you can limit your up speed with azureus ?

right click on torrent, advanced, set upload speed limit to 0.1...this way it wont mess with your global download speed, like it does if you do the same in the options panel...

 

[Maestr0]

Shaped or unshaped, I get top speeds on my shaped accounts with Telkom. Over the weekend it literally hit the threshhold at 52kb/s...for more than 24 hours and I download off torrents. Don't get unshaped...you are going to waste your money.

Dude ignore all this other k@k about port forwarding, etc. Download uTorrent (much better than Azurues), pop in your torrent file and enjoy download goodness. Cheers.