Does torrenting affect Wi-Fi speed?

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

So my family is convinced that when I download and seed torrents I slow them all down. I don't think I do but does it actually affect it?

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=3103&CURRENT_CMD=SEARCH&CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable

I might have missed something but doesn't that say it only affects you if you are trying to download something at the same time as someone else?

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

You are all going through the same pipe. Torrenting, downloading a patch from Microsoft, getting a new game from Steam....it's all a shared pipe, both download and upload (seeding).

derekullo · May 25, 2014

You should be able to limit your upload and download speeds through your torrenting client. Keep lowering the upload and or download till they stop complaining.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

derekullo :

Despite having a 120MB/s router and having a slow download going, they still bitch

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

A 120Mbps router, or a 120Mbps connection from the ISP? There's a difference.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

USAFRet :

Legolas8181 :

A 120Mbps router, or a 120Mbps connection from the ISP? There's a difference.

I don't know, I just know we are on a 120MB router/connection whichever it is

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

OK.
If everyone (how many devices?) is wireless, then your torrenting may well have a significant impact on everyone else. A torrent can open a lot of concurrent connections, and may well hog the wireless radio.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

USAFRet :

There is me on my laptop, brother on his iPad and laptop, sister on her laptop, mother on her laptop and father on his laptop. But I am the only one who downloads, and I often have 10 or less going at once. Everyone else just uses data to load webpages. And last time I was bitched at (tonight) I only had one game being downloaded through Steam

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

So everyone is wireless, and you sometimes have 10 or more torrents going at the same time?
In that house, you are indeed the bandwidth hog.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

USAFRet :

If you're right, then why do i get a text from my sister every night around the same time saying she can't load a page even if I am not even doing anything? And Mum once came up to ask how much I was doing which at the time was nothing

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

Dunno. Did you leave your torrent client open and seeding by accident?

WiFi is very temperamental. Could be a lot of things.
Interference from the neighbors, someone put something in the microwave, her laptop is in that 6" wide deadzone....

unksol · May 25, 2014

If you are usually causing the problem of course they are going to blame you. And torrents normally run in the background automatically. Simple solution stop torrenting.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

USAFRet :

Legolas8181 :

Dunno. Did you leave your torrent client open and seeding by accident?

WiFi is very temperamental. Could be a lot of things.
Interference from the neighbors, someone put something in the microwave, her laptop is in that 6" wide deadzone....

And I just got a text from sister yet again saying her browser is slow when the only thing am doing is downloading one game through Steam

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

You could always have that run overnight, instead of primetime when everyone in the house is trying to use the same resource.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

USAFRet :

We always have a lot of people using it throughout the day so I don't get why it slows at night

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

Downloading a Steam game is far more resource intensive that opening a web page. Especially via WiFi.

Legolas8181 · May 25, 2014

USAFRet :

I don't download games every night though so that still doesn't explain why my sister always bitches

USAFRet · May 25, 2014

Legolas8181 :

By definition, that's what sisters do.

Pooneil · May 25, 2014

From experience, the a big problem with torrenting is that with all the upload connections open it kills ping times. That will in turn give everyone a bad user experience. You need to set your program up to limit connections and bandwidth during hours when others are active users.

Dobbymon · May 26, 2014

Use a scheduler in Utorrent and set specific speed and time to download and seed so that other users are not affected. You would probably have a low internet speed to significantly slow down others. I suggest taking a 100 MBps download connection.

derekullo · May 28, 2014

The issue could just be you are making the wireless "unstable" for everyone else. Try plugging into ethernet on the router to see if that fixes anything. If your internet speed is 120 megabits download then you should have no shortage of speed. Just don't forget upload matters too. Even if your download is 120 megabits your upload could be much lower. You could be seeding files at your maximum upload speed and whenever Mom sends a request to webmd to get a page it has to wait in line behind your torrents.

Does torrenting affect Wi-Fi speed?

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