Slow torrents, fast everything else.

[Ev0lv3]

Anyone else experiencing slow torrents? Last week, and the 3 months I've had BB50 prior, I could literally top out my connection at 5.7MB/s and now starting a couple days ago I'm lucky if I hit 1.3MB/s.

All speedtests are fine, and read in the neighborhood of where they should read. And according to the shaw techs I chatted with, all they rely on for slow speed complaints are these speed tests.

It's funny though, because everything else is fine. I can get 6.5MB/s on newsgroups. I can download through private servers at 5.5MB/s. However, a torrent with 5000 seeds, and 128 leechers nets me 1.3MB/s.

Nothing has changed on the system AT ALL, the primary use of the system is web development. And torrents/media server. No updates, nadda.

I've asked on a local Winnipeg forum, and there are a few other people experiencing the same thing.

Now, I understand that if I was to upload too much, they would packet shape. Which is fine, who cares about that so much. In fact in the TOS it says they will do so. BUT will not touch the download rates.

When you're paying the amount of money we are for internet, and are given a certain service. And then that is just taken away on one specific thing, it kinda makes you wonder wtf their doing.


Any insider clues, actions that could be taken etc?

[ShawnB]

They packet shape on the downloads to, i don't know where it states they won't do that but shaw is among the worst for it

[Ev0lv3]

http://www.shaw.ca/Terms-of-Use/

Last updated: June 7, 2011

Shaw uses traffic management policies to ensure proportional access to its network for all Shaw Internet customers. Some Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications used for non real-time file sharing can consume a disproportionate amount of upstream bandwidth causing disruption to other customers on Shaw's network. Shaw's traffic management policies were introduced to quickly address any upstream congestion caused by these P2P applications while standard network expansion activities are undertaken to increase the bandwidth availability for all users.

Shaw's traffic management policies come into effect only if upstream network congestion occurs on a network segment. If congestion occurs, the traffic management policies reduce the amount of upstream bandwidth available for P2P applications completing non real-time file transfer activity to 80 kbps per end-user.

Shaw's traffic management policies do not affect download speeds and will not affect real-time interactive activities such as on-line gaming, banking, e-mail or VoIP services. For the majority of Shaw customers the Internet experience is unaffected by our traffic management policies and both upstream and downstream bandwidth will be available to ensure the full operation of any application.

The traffic management policies implemented by Shaw use IP addresses to make real-time traffic management decisions in relation to Shaw's network. Since IP addresses have the potential to be linked to an individual's customer account, IP addresses could be considered personal information. The traffic management policies implemented by Shaw do not involve capturing, storing or archiving this information in any way.

And being told the same thing by a few shaw reps. Still think its a blatant lie.

[timmaywpg]

Try running a traffic shaping test:

http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php

You could also try changing the port that your torrent client uses, as well as try to limit the number of concurrent connections to see if this makes a difference.

[Ev0lv3]

I tried running that test a few times lastnight, and it said it couldn't test my connection. No A/V software, or firewall..

[timmaywpg]

I understand you're in Wpg as well.

I have a Shaw connection at home, I'll give it a shot tonight and post the results.

[jshel101]

Originally Posted by ShawnB

They packet shape on the downloads to, i don't know where it states they won't do that but shaw is among the worst for it

I disagree they are among the worst. If you read in the Bell and Rogers forums you will see they are probably a lot worse than Shaw on this. But I don't know for certain as I am just going by what I read and not by actual experience. I personally get pretty good torrent speeds, not as good as downloading from newsgroups, but good none the less.

[timmaywpg]

Sorry for the delay, but I finally managed to run the traffic shaping test and it found no indications of traffic shaping on Shaw here in Winnipeg.

I have been noticing slower speeds as well, same on my mega shares account which used to max out my DL speeds.

Maybe they're somehow throttling sustained downloads? It's pretty frustrating having a connection with a big bandwidth, and only seeing it max out on small/short downloads.

[jshel101]

Did you check with Shaw to see if your area is saturated?

[ShawnB]

what are good torrent speeds if your download speed is supoosed to be 50mb/s?
i've never seen anything past 1.5mb/s and that is the best i've ever seen.
If my DL speed is meant to be 50mb/s then 2mb/s is slow as hell

I don't know if shaw or bell or telus is the worst but i know shaw has gotten worse over the years. Plus i know a few people who worked as network enginers and they told me shaw has and does throttle torrents

[GamerGuy]

1.5MB seems to be "the" number for me. Most sites, that are not locked in X KB/s seem to run right at 1.5MB/s on any line I've tried. (High-Speed 7.5, 10, and Extreme.)

I have seen Steam hit 3.8MB/s, once, but it was not sustained for any length of time. 80+ percent of the time, it's 1.3-1.5MB/s.

[jshel101]

Originally Posted by ShawnB

told me shaw has and does throttle torrents

Even if that is true, how can you throw out statements that Shaw is the worst for it? This happens all the time, someone throws out incorrect statements like they are true. With nothing to back it up. If you have proof they are the worst at throttling torrents, then please post it here. I would love to see it.

[Ev0lv3]

I still can't get that test to even run on either one of my computers, doesn't matter which browser. lol

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one noticing these slowdowns. It really does suck that with a connection like ours, we don't see the speeds we should be. It honestly does make me want to switch to a lower tier of internet.

I was better off not switching from extreme to bb50, because now, I'm barely getting over extreme speeds. Its frustrating.

Would kind of be like having a baby used to having a full bottle of milk for breakfast, to getting 1/3 a bottle. Do you know how damn cranky that kid would be? lol

[adiabatic]

Originally Posted by Ev0lv3

Anyone else experiencing slow torrents? Last week, and the 3 months I've had BB50 prior, I could literally top out my connection at 5.7MB/s and now starting a couple days ago I'm lucky if I hit 1.3MB/s.

There is something very similar happening with me and it just started in the last week. Torrents max out around 1.0-1.3 Mbps down (total speed for either one or multiple transfers combined) and up speed is horrible. Glasnost reports no shaping. Speedtests are normal (~85/5).

Here's the weird thing. If I run one client I get 1.0-1.3 Mbps. If I run two different clients the total d/l speed is still 1.0-1.3 Mbps but it's shared between the two clients (i.e., each drops to 0.5 Mbps). I can flip each from active to paused and see the other jump back to 1.0.

I've troubleshooted everything but my router (i.e., was going to try a direct connection to the modem tonight)... then I read your post. Hmmm.

[ravenchilde]

I've seen a lot of these threads on DSLreports over the last couple years and they've never been resolved with Shaw throttling.

Shaw's terms of use state they only throttle upstream P2P to 80K/user when uploading on a node saturates:
http://www.shaw.ca/terms-of-use/

Last updated: June 7, 2011
Shaw uses traffic management policies to ensure proportional access to its network for all Shaw Internet customers. Some Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications used for non real-time file sharing can consume a disproportionate amount of upstream bandwidth causing disruption to other customers on Shaw's network. Shaw's traffic management policies were introduced to quickly address any upstream congestion caused by these P2P applications while standard network expansion activities are undertaken to increase the bandwidth availability for all users.
Shaw's traffic management policies come into effect only if upstream network congestion occurs on a network segment. If congestion occurs, the traffic management policies reduce the amount of upstream bandwidth available for P2P applications completing non real-time file transfer activity to 80 kbps per end-user.
Shaw's traffic management policies do not affect download speeds and will not affect real-time interactive activities such as on-line gaming, banking, e-mail or VoIP services. For the majority of Shaw customers the Internet experience is unaffected by our traffic management policies and both upstream and downstream bandwidth will be available to ensure the full operation of any application.
The traffic management policies implemented by Shaw use IP addresses to make real-time traffic management decisions in relation to Shaw's network. Since IP addresses have the potential to be linked to an individual's customer account, IP addresses could be considered personal information. The traffic management policies implemented by Shaw do not involve capturing, storing or archiving this information in any way

Usually folks find that their router is an issue, or their bit torrent client. If you have a home network with multiple users then you might be running into what Bram Cohen (the inventor of the Bit Torrent protocol) calls buffer bloat in his article "TCP sucks".
http://bramcohen.com/2012/05/07/tcp-sucks

Perhaps make sure you are using a UDP based bit torrent client, try axing your router out of the configuration to see if it is the issue, or run ICSI Netalyzer to analyze your connection for buffer bloat and other issues.
http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/

I don't post all this to say that Shaw isn't responsible for your connection at all, it's just my experience from DSLreports that when users resolved Bit Torrent issues, it was either a problem on their machine/network or a problem with the swarm. I'd rather you folks find the source of the problem then sit pointing fingers with no resolution. Too bad there isn't some sort of definitive bit torrent protocol swarm speed testing tool...

Just my two cents from my observations over on DSLR, best of luck to you folks on finding a solution. (I recommend you switch to usenet )