Does downloading Torrents slow down your internet?

D

doubletrouble

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forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I recently signed up on an mweb 1mb uncapped account.

I don't really download a lot, but I have tried out torrents the other day. I noticed that while I am downloading a torrent my internet is extremely slow. My online gaming starts lagging hectically on ps3 and also my youtube on laptop is extremely slow and buffers alot at 240p.

Is this due to the torrent I'm downloading?
 
Absolutely yes.

Think of your line as a road. During rush hour (your torrent), all the traffic slows down. Capacity is limited and torrents eat it all up.
 
Thanks for the response sinbad. So the quick fix would be to download during times I'm not using the web.
 
Correct.

You could also look at limiting the speed of your torrent client, to say 80 KB/sec. This will leave 20KB/sec or so for your gaming/browsing, but will not give as good results as your option.
 
torrents also have the tendancy of opening alot of connections so if your modem gets overwhelmed will make matters worse.

Anyhow, normally best to keep the torrents off when gaming or trying to use the net for other things
 
You can set your torrents to download on a low priority whcih should help
But the best is to download at night.
 
switch to usenet :P

i can download usenet , and still use my net , because it does not open like 1000 connections to pcs etc. , where usenet is limited to connections it uses , mine is set to 10 connections.
 
deni-do said:
forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I recently signed up on an mweb 1mb uncapped account.

I don't really download a lot, but I have tried out torrents the other day. I noticed that while I am downloading a torrent my internet is extremely slow. My online gaming starts lagging hectically on ps3 and also my youtube on laptop is extremely slow and buffers alot at 240p.

Is this due to the torrent I'm downloading?
Click to expand...

i had the same problem but configured the qos settings on my router. it really is a router config that not many take advantage off. google qos settings for your router model. its awesome :D
 
hereticangel said:
switch to usenet :P

i can download usenet , and still use my net , because it does not open like 1000 connections to pcs etc. , where usenet is limited to connections it uses , mine is set to 10 connections.
Click to expand...

Usenet not the same since Nzbmatrix was shut down.
 
deni-do said:
Thanks for the response sinbad. So the quick fix would be to download during times I'm not using the web.
Click to expand...

What client are you using ?

I'm sure there is an option that will QOS your torrents when you try and do other things.

As soon as I use the web my torrents will slow down, so often I don't notice they are running.
 
Yes it does.

Torrents create several hundred open threads through your connection. It's not a PC or router limitation, but a DSLAM limitation on Telkom's side. As soon as you try do anything else, your HTTP/Mail or whatever will be slow. MWEB does brilliant shaping in this regard whereby they give HTTP priority even if you're saturated in Torrent traffic
 
AcidRaZor said:
Yes it does.

Torrents create several hundred open threads through your connection. It's not a PC or router limitation, but a DSLAM limitation on Telkom's side. As soon as you try do anything else, your HTTP/Mail or whatever will be slow. MWEB does brilliant shaping in this regard whereby they give HTTP priority even if you're saturated in Torrent traffic
Click to expand...

Not in my experience.
 
I don't agree with AcidRaZor's last post either.

Torrent creates so many connections that some modem's can track all the connections and then some even may fall over, which may require a manual reboot.
The DSLAM works on a much lower network layer, so torrents won't have any negative influence on the DSLAM/Exchange at all. The only influence that torrents would have on the Exchange is consuming precious bandwidth.

MWEB is giving HTTP & gaming traffic priority, but if you're downloading torrents at full line speed, your HTTP experience would be terrible.

I'm shaping my traffic with MikroTik RouterOS on my side as well, giving HTTP traffic priority over NNTP and other traffic, and it greatly improves the HTTP browsing experience - even though I'm also on MWEB.
 
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