Download speeds drop extremely low when downloading really large torrents

[haris262]

Don't know if this is supposed to happen. My internet speed is around 12 megabits/second, and I usually download torrents at around 1.3 megabytes/second. However when downloading large files (>20 GB) my speed is around 200 kilobytes/second. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[anti-duck]

It's just the nature of peer-to-peer file sharing. Your download speed depends on how many seeds there are and the bandwidth they've allocated.

 

[USAFRet]

Using torrents as a determination of 'speed' is wildly unreliable.
The torrent protocol is completely different than testing at speedtest.net, or what your ISP gives you.

A torrent is simply downloading bits and pieces of a file off other peoples hard drives. And other people are getting bits and pieces off your hard drive.
The fewer people seeding, or their upload bandwidth...all has an impact on how 'fast' you get something from a torrent.

 

[haris262]

Using torrents as a determination of 'speed' is wildly unreliable.
The torrent protocol is completely different than testing at speedtest.net, or what your ISP gives you.

A torrent is simply downloading bits and pieces of a file off other peoples hard drives. And other people are getting bits and pieces off your hard drive.
The fewer people seeding, or their upload bandwidth...all has an impact on how 'fast' you get something from a torrent.

the torrent I'm trying to download has about 180 seeds and 550 peers. Does this explain my low speeds?

 

[USAFRet]

Using torrents as a determination of 'speed' is wildly unreliable.
The torrent protocol is completely different than testing at speedtest.net, or what your ISP gives you.

A torrent is simply downloading bits and pieces of a file off other peoples hard drives. And other people are getting bits and pieces off your hard drive.
The fewer people seeding, or their upload bandwidth...all has an impact on how 'fast' you get something from a torrent.

the torrent I'm trying to download has about 180 seeds and 550 peers. Does this explain my low speeds?

Possibly.
Is it only this one particular torrent, or every torrent?
If just this one, then that is the issue.
If ALL torrents, your ISP (or other upstream device) may be throttling torrents in general.