Bit Torrent Clients

When bit torrent clients are active they can absolutely EAT internet speeds. If not set up properly these programs devour the speed of your network because they are constantly checking for a better tracker to connect to, and they don't limit upload speeds.

If you use a client such as Azureus, Transmission, Xtorrent, or even the torrent downloader built right into Opera(my current favorite 'cause it works well and it's wicked easy) you most likely won't even notice a difference on your network because they are set up to work optimally right out of the box. These modern clients don't aggravate your network with constant tracker updates and they have the options to limit upload speeds. Check out the difference in ping times from when I had Bit Torrent running downloading a file without an upload limit and when I quit the application, which is necessary to making sure the client isn't still running. When you hit "pause" it doesn't stop the client from slowing the network at all, you need to actually quit to be sure.

Network Ping times (the time it takes for information to get from your computer to a site, in this case Google, and back, in milliseconds:
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=855 ttl=115 time=4053.799 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=856 ttl=115 time=4099.037 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=857 ttl=115 time=4055.384 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=858 ttl=115 time=4033.114 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=859 ttl=115 time=4195.999 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=860 ttl=115 time=4137.639 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=861 ttl=115 time=4139.862 ms

Here is what happened when Bit Torrent is quit... we magically get normal ping times again:
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=862 ttl=115 time=19.645 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=863 ttl=115 time=13.137 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=864 ttl=115 time=15.742 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=865 ttl=115 time=14.918 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=866 ttl=115 time=17.739 ms
64 bytes from 68.87.60.144: icmp_seq=867 ttl=115 time=16.239 ms

Moral of the story, make sure your bit torrent client (and your room mates!) is set up to work optimally to keep your internet running like normal, not to mention so as not to piss off your friends on the network.

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