These setting should give you a good experience in both getting and sharing files. Remember, many users will cancel your download if you dont share, or share ineffectively - I cancel and sometimes block the IP of persistant offenders.
** Note:
64/128 cable is a cable service with 64Kbps upstream and 128Kbps down to you.
128/512 cable is a cable service with 128Kbps upstream and 512Kbps down to you.
THE BANDWIDTH SETTINGS - Bandwidth throttle screen in settings (usually effective immediately)
** You should set up the bandwidth throttle in EVERY CASE to prevent a TCP/IP issue where fully used (saturated) outgoing bandwidth affects incoming resulting in reduction of incoming transfer rate and unstable connections both ways.
Click the settings button.
Select bandwidth throttle. (You can change all these settings dynamically in a session depending on how fast the transfers are occuring)
Tick both 'Limit incoming bandwidth' and 'Limit outgoing bandwidth.
INCOMING (transfers to you)
You should set the incoming bandwidth to just below your maximum transfer to allow browseing etc simultaneously.
e.g. If you have 64k isdn - set to 7000 (64k isdn = approx 8Kbps). For 512k cable set to 45000 or 50000)
OUTGOING (transfers from you to other people)
You should ALWAYS set the outgoing bandwidth to maximum 65% - 75% of your available bandwidth.
e.g. If you have 64k isdn - set to 5500 (64k isdn = approx 8Kbps). For 512k cable which have 128K upstream set to 12000)
For dial-up, this should be set to minimum (2000)
NOTE: Higher capacity connections can utilise a higher percentage of available capacity
THROTTLE PROCESS INTERVAL (Also on the Bandwidth throttle screen in settings)
Provided you have a reasonable speed processor (400Mhz+) and at least 128Mb memeory, set this to 100. This will give smother transfers when multiple transfers are occuring. Beware of this on lower speed CPU's when blowing CD's as it does utilise CPU.
The FILE TRANSFERS screen in settings:
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This defines how many transfers CAN occur each way (to and from you) and how long they stay displayed on your screen after they have completed or failed.
Click on the + symbol to show the QUEUEING screen in settings.
'Max total downloads' is how many transfers can occur TO you simultaneously.
I suggest:
For dial-up - 1 or 2
For isdn & 64/128k cable - 4 to 5
For 128/512k cable, 256k DSL and up - 8 to 10
'Max total uploads' is how many transfers can occur FROM you simultaneously.
I suggest:
For dial-up - 1
For isdn & 64k cable - 2
For 128/512k cable - 6
For 256k DSL, uncapped cable and up - 10 to 12
You can always manually start another via right click on queued item 'start transfer' if you have a number of low speed transfers occuring.
Note:
24000 =3kBps
32000=4kBps
64000=8kBps
128000=16kBps
512000=64KBps
etc
These settings should allow reasonable, more stable, transfer rates without ruining your incoming transfers and browseing.
It is a good base to start from while you learn the exact settings that suite your situation. It also allows you to right click on transfers and set the bandwidth priority, to give individual transfers more or less of the available capacity.
Network Card
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If you use a network card to connect to a cable modem, you should set this specifically to half duplex mode. In Windows this will normally be a setting in advanced properties from 'properties' of the particular network card in device manager.
It will probable say something like 'UTP 10Mbps' from a drop down list of settings.
This will almost certainly improve both throughput and stability of any transfers.
BLOCKING NON-SHARERS
A little bit technical this - may not complete it - involves sniffers and firewalls.
