Comcast Limiting Bittorrent?

[chjade84]

I have Comcast for broadband and I live in Fort Wayne, IN. They recently added their 50mbps package to compete with Fios and as a result doubled all of our connection speeds...for free!

My problem lies with bit torrent - specifically uTorrent.

Before the upgrade my downloads would always level off at about 760 KB/s and the Speakeasy Speed Test said I was at about 1.5MB/s. Granted that's probably mostly powerboost's doing. Now, Speakeasy says I'm at 3.5MB/s however uTorrent still levels off at 760-770 KB/s.

I have heard rumors of companies limiting/banning bit torrent traffic. Anyone know if Comcast does this, particularly in Fort Wayne? I thought of upgrading to the next highest plan but I'd rather not waste my money if they aren't going to let me use the full bandwidth.

Thanks!

 

[suvayanr]

Well, see your torrent speeds often do level off. most torrents won't get above a certain speed. For example i'm on a 50 mbps line, but often my download speeds just won't cross about 600kb/s on certain torrents.
it has more to do with the way torrents work. torrents won't necessarily max out your internet connection

 

[pcgeek1017]

correct, it depends a lot upon the seeds on bittorrent your capped at how fast the seeders can upload the file as well so that could be part of your problem.

 

[chjade84]

Thanks Guys!

I realize that it's never going to be unlimited speed since people have to be able to upload as fast as I can download. I guess I just find it odd that no matter the number or type of torrent it [almost] always spikes up to ~1.4-1.5 MB/s (because of PowerBoost) then drops to 760-770 KB/s (which was the max speed of my old connection; 6Mbps). Now I have a 12Mbps connection and the download speed is exactly the same; 760-77KB/s (5.97Mbps).

Besides, if I download from 100 people at a time, each one uploading me 10Kb/s; shouldn't that equal 1MB/s download speed for me?

Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?

 

[chjade84]

Update: I'm now downloading at a smooth 1.49-1.50MB/s off torrents with no changes to anything. Perhaps the new speed increase just hadn't taken yet.

Thanks for the advice!