Simple way to speed up downloads

Archived discussion about features (predating the use of Bugzilla as a bug and feature tracker)

Moderator: Moderators

Locked
durexlw
Posts: 3
Joined: 2005-01-05 18:22

Simple way to speed up downloads

Post by durexlw » 2005-01-05 18:42

Did it ever occur to you that you're looking for a file, you need it fast and you found a few persons who have it. There's a few fast ones and a few slow oones. If there is, forgive me, however I did not find any way up till today to manually control what source it should be downloading from, except for removing this source, wich is kinda a one-way-ticket...

Anyway... here's the idea:

Just as files have priority, give priority to sources too...

A simple way to see who will give you the fastest way for a download, is just to get the filelists of all those who have the file. In your finished download window you can now see who of these sources has the fastest downloadspeed for you.
If it were possible to give priority to that source, where priority means a frequent check to see if this user has a free slot and the ability to switch to this user where you get the highest download speed, regardless if the file is already downloading or not, this would result in alot more control and faster downloads, by just using optimally what's there to use anyway.

This can be taken to a next level, where you now have a "Search" window, there could easily be made a "Search fastest source" window... It doesn't even need to be a seperate window. A bit thinking could nicely integrate this in the search window.
Anyway, it's the mechanics we're interested in, not the looks: This search would simply download all filelists, what happens anyway for those who use the automatic looking for other sources, so we'd better use it for good: This slightly more advanced search monitors for the user whay source gives him the highest download speed. This source will accordingly get a high priority in the Download Queue. Off course settings allow a user to deside how to automatically treat this information and has the freedom to set each priority for every source by hand.

In a few words: a way to tell to DC++ "This dude is a fast one... if he's available, I want him!"

Cheers guys and thanks for all the hard work you've been doing on this apps!

Greetings,
Andy

Todi
Forum Moderator
Posts: 699
Joined: 2003-03-04 12:16
Contact:

Re: Simple way to speed up downloads

Post by Todi » 2005-01-05 19:23

durexlw wrote:Did it ever occur to you that you're looking for a file, you need it fast and you found a few persons who have it.
Did it ever occur to you to search before posting? This is not a new idea, it's been suggested many times in the past.

durexlw
Posts: 3
Joined: 2005-01-05 18:22

Post by durexlw » 2005-01-05 19:33

I found nothing related in the search I did. Delete this thread if you can. I'm not interested in fame, just in the idea.

ullner
Forum Moderator
Posts: 333
Joined: 2004-09-10 11:00
Contact:

Post by ullner » 2005-01-05 20:34

The download speed for file lists are not accurate enough to get a good picture of how fast the source is due to the size and compression of the file list does a great deal when trying to establish a speed.
Try it. Find someone who has a small (in size) file list. Say, 10 KiB, and that you have a 1 Mbit/s connection, and that the other person has a 0.5 Mbit/s connection. Does this mean that the transfer will only go at 10 KiB/s because of the file list size? No. I might go 30 KiB/s, it might go even higher.
Now, say another person, has a 1 Mbit/s connection with a file list with the (exact) same size. You start to download his (or hers) file list at 20 KiB/s. Both of them has 3 slots of 4 available (you taking up one from each).
Who has a faster connection?

GargoyleMT
DC++ Contributor
Posts: 3212
Joined: 2003-01-07 21:46
Location: .pa.us

Post by GargoyleMT » 2005-01-06 13:56

Soon enough, file lists will be replaced with partial file lists, at least for queue matching (in all likelyhood). The wasted bandwidth due to file list transfers should be eliminated.

Downloading file lists (because they're free) to see the speed on a given source is wasteful. There are other solutions, such as multisource (which is a lot of work - not that this feature isn't either), or removing sources transferring below a certain threshold.

both are in the feature tracker:
http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/cgi-b ... .cgi?id=73
http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/cgi-b ... cgi?id=378

imb
Posts: 99
Joined: 2004-06-15 17:48
Location: England

Post by imb » 2005-01-08 00:48

GargoyleMT wrote:Soon enough, file lists will be replaced with partial file lists, at least for queue matching (in all likelyhood). The wasted bandwidth due to file list transfers should be eliminated.
Yeah, I transfer about 4GB upload a month just with my file list. how will it work?

GargoyleMT
DC++ Contributor
Posts: 3212
Joined: 2003-01-07 21:46
Location: .pa.us

Post by GargoyleMT » 2005-01-08 11:28

imb wrote:Yeah, I transfer about 4GB upload a month just with my file list. how will it work?
You mean the user interface? There's none yet, so I can't give you an answer.

Locked