Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

How to limit Torrent bandwidth usage in Bitlord

Posted: 23 Jul 2009 03:49 AM PDT

If you are downloading a big file using the bit torrent P2P protocol, you might encounter bandwidth slowdown in your other applications. According to Wikipedia, BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and by some estimates it accounted for approximately 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet in 2004.

In most cases when bandwidth is limited, enabling an unlimited BitTorrent download and upload rate could impact your other apps. For example, you will not be able to watch videos in real-time streaming or your instant messages are delayed for a few seconds.

It depends on your bandwidth on how much an impact it will cost you, for dial up or non-broadband connections you might not be able to use IM at all if your torrents are downloading. To resolve this issue you can try to limit the bandwidth used by your torrent client. In the example below I am using BitLord to download a movie at 6KB/s (I have a slow shared connection . )

To limit the download speed,o to the preferences window then enter the maximum download rate to a value that you prefer. In the example below I entered 3KB/s to limit the download rate to that value.

After that, verify the download speed by looking at the torrent sessions that are currently running. In the example below I saw that the download speed is now maxed at 3KB/s:

Since you have limited the download speed, also limit the upload speed – this way you can enjoy your connection outside of your torrent client.

Play with these values until you get your desired bandwidth performance. In my case, I enable the download/upload limit during my working hours when I need the bandwidth and then I set it to unlimited when I am not working.