how fast should my downloads be?

[torpeza]

I have been messing around with Kazaa lite, Shareaza, Soulseek and Bit Torrent.
I am getting horribly slow download/upload speeds. They average between .5 and 1.5 KB/s. But I don't know if my slow download speeds are a result of my connection, my system configuration, the settings on my p2p clients or something that I don't even know about.

How does somebody find out how fast they can expect to be downloading?

My connection speed is at 256KB/s and I've run several http bandwidth speed tests which have told me that via http, I download at about that. (maybe between 225 and 245) My web browsing is generally pretty adequate. Only my P2P file exchange is slow.

I have a hyperthreading P4 processor w. 496 MB of ram. I'm running XP pro w. SP1.

I've tried various firewall combinations; Tiny personal, Zone Alarm, and currently Kerio personal. I'm sure that my problem isn't firewall related though, because in addition to disabling any of those which I've had installed, I've even tried uninstalling all of them to run shareaza and soulseek with no firewall at all and the download speed wasn't affected.

I don't use a router.

I've tried several of those automatic configuration applications, the so-called internet optimizers, like Webrocket or Tweakmaster and to no avail.

When I'm downloading, I can browse the web with no apreciable diffence in http download speed.

I have tweaked the settings in Shareaza according to several of the examples which I've read in posts on this and their forums, and no change. I can't imagine that it would be a question of adjusting Shareaza settings though, since with all of the other P2P clients I've tried the download/upload speed is the same.

I don´t really know what to try next. I know that my download/upload speeds are abnormally slow. Even if I don't know what they should be, given my specs and my connection speed, I know they should be faster than what they are.

I'd like to know how somebody can find out what their transfer rate should be, but I also just want to be able to fix the problem.

I'd be really grateful if anyone would be willing to offer me some help or some advice.

Thanks.

[TheBlackSnow]

well, with slsk I reach the 20Kb/s maximum, but it is very rare moments... usually till 10Kb/s, if the uploader is quite able, if the uploader isnt able - my download speed is 0.1Kb/s - 5Kb/s with emule I can reach maximum 20 Kb/s, when I add 12 files to download... there are no any p2p systems, which are really fast. the dd speed depends from the uploader, not from the p2p system

[Psilaxs]

Ok first off, those internet optimizers do absolutely jack shit, and in most cases screw up settings so bad they can be a detriment to file sharing. From everything you describe, it seems as though you need to limit your upload speed on the networks you are using, especially bit torrent and Shareaza. If you allow those programs to completely saturate your upstream you will not have enough bandwidth left to send confirmation packets to the source you are downloading from (or maintain a decent amount of connections for multi sourcing) If your maximum upload speed is say 16 kilobytes a second, limit your total upload bandwidth for those networks to 10 or 11 kilobytes, no more.

If your upload speed is in the 256 kilobit range (about 32 kilobytes) limit it to about 20-22 kilobytes a second, as that will leave you enough bandwidth for maintaining connections and sending confirmation packets.

[rebirth]

256 divided by 8 is what you COULD get (What you PAY for)
256 divided by 10 is what you will, about, get MAX.

[torpeza]

so even if i'm supposed to max out at 25 KB/s, my average download speed should be higher. that's so obvious it hurts to say.

so then, what's to be done?

rebirth, if what you're saying is simply, pay for more bandwidth...that's a good idea, but will it solve the problem? my downloads should already be way faster than they are...

psilaxis, thanks for your suggestions. i haven't implemented them yet, but give it a go right now. and you're right...the internet optimizer did do jack shit. a whole lot of it. all the ones that i installed offered the option to return all configuration changes made to their original state. hopefully they at least did that job well.

and modestas, ok. you also have download speeds of between 1 and 10 KB/s most of the time. but on the computer that i left at my folks' place in canada, i was getting average download speeds of between 35 and 75 KB/s. i was using kazaa, limewire and bareshare then. i don't know what my folk's bandwidth was. probably high, but still...with this processer and a cable connection, even if a weak 256, i should be up and downloading faster than i am.

entonces...?

thanks for the responses so far. i hope you'll keep them coming.