Hi,
when I download torrents the utorrent app offers me bandwidth (small, medium, high). I assume high means it will download faster but what does that mean and why does it download faster. Also, why would I ever use the other options if this one is the fastest.
In short, what does bandwidth means, why does it matter and what its use in torrents?
Please and thank you.
In: Technology
Bandwith in data transfer is the amount of data you transfer per unit of time. So it is in bytes/second or perhaps more common in kilobytes/second where 1 kilobyte is 1000 bytes or in megabytes where 1 megabyte is 1000 kilobytes. To confuse more connections is often measured in bits where 1 byte = 8 bit. So 10 mega bit/2 internet is 1.2 megabyte/s
The setting in the app can be two things. It can be set so it works well if your connection to the internet is slow, medium or fast. It can also be a setting for the amount of your internet connection it is allowed to use.
If you have a 10mega bit connection and let the torrent run withoute limit it can fill the whole connection and doing anything else at the same time might be almost impossible. So the setting can be to reduce the torrent speed so you can do other stuff.
What the mean by small, medium and high depending on the program. I have not used the app only the desktop application and it don’t have vague words like that
I have to warn you that you can be tracked when you download data via torrent so downloading copyrighted stuff might result in legal action against you and cost you a lot of money. A VPN that can hide you is almost needed to do that. What VPN is good and does not store information that they can be forced to devolve is another questi0on.
Of course, the risk depends on what country you live in.
There is also stuff on torrents that is legal to download but be careful.
Bandwidth can be thought of like a road that information travels along. Lets say your bandwidth has ten lanes, normally 2 of those will be for uploading and 8 for download (most people download way more than they upload).
Basically your torrent program is saying “okay, we set aside these 6 lanes for torrenting, we have a set of 3, 2, and 1, which would you like to use?” The 3 lane one is going to go faster because there is more space, the 1 slowest.
Thats pretty much it
Why you would chose a lower one really depends what else in your house or on your computer you want using the roads (or even other torrents). Some things are less important and you’d rather use the bandwidth to play a game while it downloads or something like that.
Think of it as asking you if you’d like to leave some space for other things.
My home internet connection is able to download things at a speed of 5 (a made up number). If I use all of that for torrent my torrent will download fast.
Except I’m not the only one who uses my internet connection. If I use all of the download speed for myself, other people on the network will suffer. My sister watching Netflix, my brother playing Xbox. My torrent has such a massive and consistent availability of data that I can download so much so fast that it’ll push their activities to the side.
Sometimes it’s not even other people. If I don’t set a bandwidth limit while downloading a torrent I can’t use my internet connection for anything else. Sometimes I like to watch YouTube while waiting for my torrent. I’d rather take 10 minutes to download something and be able to watch YouTube at the same time than I would download it in 5 minutes and be unable to do anything else.
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