I am trying to download some files using BitTornado, but even though the torrent's health status is at max, I just can't donwload or it goes at only 1 kb/s on occasion. I can see several peers and seeds, and I have high speed internet, but still no activity. Any ideas how to fix this?

couple of things... Torrent works by sharing... if you're not uploading it won't help you download either. Do you have router and/or firewall?... you may need to open some ports to allow the program to send/get the info it needs. Also... have you tried Azureus.. my fav. :) TK

About uploading, I did not place any restrictions, so it could have uploaded as much as it wanted, but there was no activity either way. Of course, it can't upload anything when I just start since I haven't received anything yet. And yes, I have both a router and a firewall (Zone Alarm). I didn't set up anything with them, and I *have* previously downloaded with BitTornado before (reaching speeds up to 20 kb/s on DSL basic before I got high speed). But how would I go about opening ports, and is it safe? No, I haven't tried Azureus. I know there are many different torrent programs, but I don't know too much about them. I just started using this one, since it seemed to be among the better ones.

Take a look at portforward.com. It should give you all the info you need.

1.Download Azureus 2.Config norton or what ever personal firewall you use. 3.Go into Network connections and right click on your internet connection and select properties. Click on Advanced then click settings. Press the add button and as the decription call it "T1" then under "name or ip adress" Put the name of your computer. EG mines called demonic. now under external port number type "49000" and type the same in the box below now open Azureus and click on config wizard when you get to the stage it will ask for incoming TCP listen port and set it to "49000" now click test.. you should get a "Testing port 49000 ... OK !" message.. this means you have full connection to and from others on this port.. meaning you will get nice download speeds (considering it has enough seeders) Hope this has helped.. email me if you need any more info (demonic_drummer@hotmail.com) i had the same problem for ages.

Thanks for the link, rhawk. Boy, it looks like I've got a lot of reading up ahead. :P And thank you, Karl, for your suggestion as well. I'll be trying that too.