We never understood the reason for Internet Service Providers to offer fast Internet connection speeds and at the same time throttle speeds. While most service providers have some sort of bandwidth cap set in place, we don\’t really see the need to have bandwidth throttling set in place as well. If this means anything at all, the service providers are just trying to decide what you can and cannot do with the service that you, as the consumer, pay for every month.
This tutorial is meant for educational use only. We do not condone downloading illegal and pirated software and music via torrent sites.
How do you know if you are being throttled?
First of all you should know what sort of Internet speed you have. The best way would be to check with your ISP. Once you have that information, then you would need to test your speed. You can use http://www.speedtest.net.
Never test your speed from your ISP speed test page. Your test results will not be accurate. In other words, never trust them when they tell you everything is working as it should.
How to calculate your download speed
1Megabit = 1024 Kilobit
1 byte = 8 bit
Download speed calculation examples
512 Kilobit: (512 Kilobyte / 8 Kilobit) – 20% = 51.2 Kilobyte per second
1 Megabit: (1,024 Kilobyte / 8 Kilobit) – 20% = 102.4 Kilobyte per second
5 Megabit: (5,120 Kilobyte / 8 Kilobit) – 20% = 512 Kilobyte per second
10 Megabit (10,240 Kilobyte / 8 Kilobit) – 20% = 1024 Kilobyte per second
We are deducting 20% from the speed because of overhead. Each packet transferred includes TCP headers and trailers. The extra data transmitted are considered overhead.
Now that you know what sort of download speed you\’re supposed to be getting, you can measure if your Internet is being throttled.
How to bypass torrent throttling
There are a few methods to bypass torrent throttling and below are some of the methods.
- Using a seedbox
- This is especially useful if you are on a private torrent tracker that requires re-seeding to gain buffers. This method would probably set you back about $10 per month.
- A seedbox is a slice of a high speed server that you rent. You remotely download the files onto the server then you grab the files via FTP or direct download.
- Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- This is a cost effective way of bypassing throttling. This method is set up locally on your computer. Downloads are done locally as well.
- This method would set you back about $5 for a good VPN.
- SSH Tunelling
- You basically need a server or a shell on a remote server (a seedbox will do as well). This method basically sets up a connection to the server and it acts as a proxy.
Conclusion
Listed above are some of the common methods to bypass ISP torrent throttling. Unfortunately there are no free solutions to bypass torrent throttling because most if not all of the free proxies have torrenting blocked.
The most cost effective way to bypass torrent throttling is to get a few friends and rent a dedicated server. That could potentially be cheaper than subscribing to a VPN.
If you are looking to bypass torrent throttling you can check out our range of professional Dedicated Servers or Managed Seedboxes.
You can also read how to set up a socks proxy using your Linux server or seedbox.
