With a name like "Torrent" I thought this was going to be fast
It is fast if you are attempting to get a file with a lot of seeds (people who are sharing the source). If you are pulling in a file with one or two seeds, you are limited to the max upload limit set by the one seeder you're connected to divided by the number of people trying to download from him at the same time.
but I notice I'm not the only one to find that it is relatively slow ("dribble" springs to mind
What version of KTorrent are you using? The older versions - like the version that is on the SUSE 10.1 DVD is slow... very slow. The latest version is a must have if you're trying to use KTorrent. Have you setup your firewall/router to forward the right ports? That also makes a significant difference.
Will I find that as I use it more and offer more "stuff" for upload it gets faster?
No, it doesn't work that way. You do not need to share gigabytes of data to get a special upload ratio and gain some kind of happy credit that ups your download speed from the sources. It is considered polite though to at least upload a ration of 1:1 for a particular file you download - but not mandatory.
Similarly, if I can "earn" more download speed by helping others, then that's clearly enlightened self-interest at work, and I'm all for that too!
The only place you see something this is on specialized warez sites, and then the limitation is on the number of megs you can download vs how much you upload, not on speed. If for example you're downloading the Torrent for the latest SUSE 10.2 build, there is no upload/download ratio that So.. first thing is to make sure you're using the latest build from the repositories, then make sure you've set up port forwarding for the ports that KTorrent is using, and then... when you choose your file for download, choose one that has lots of seeders... if you do this you should be able to max out your connection. I regularly download using torrents and I get speeds that max out my network connection (12Mbit). C -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org