Why is bittorrent slow from my home computer?

"The most common cause of this problem is having your BitTorrent software set up to have too many maximum connections. Most BT software (even the most recommended ones) have default settings that will make most home routers cry.

In your BitTorrent client, find the area where you can set the maximums and set it WAY lower. Start with something like 50, let it run for a few hours, and then maybe try increasing it.

The cause of this is the plain and simple fact that home routers are by and large not designed to handle so many concurrent connections. It just isn't normal outside the world of BitTorrent. This would completely explain why you are seeing different performance from a machine being hosted at a professional hosting company, which probably uses business-class routers."

"I can get other files (http/ftp) at 1MB/s at home. Just not bit-torrent.

Well then. You're being hit by protocol-based (DPI) throttling.

Whilst the factors listed by OverloadUT are all true, they aren't the most common BitTorrent bottleneck. BitTorrent clients aren't completely stupid and don't in the typical case overload the router. They can, sure, but ISP throttling is by far the more likely explanation.

Apart from ISP throttling, which I'm told is not in effect

Ha! Yeah, sorry. Your ISP will tell you that. Because they're liars. Who are they? If you're in the UK or US they almost certainly have a “Fair Usage Policy” that states in small print you're not going to get any bandwidth if they don't feel like it.

the fastest way for me to download a file is to get it on the hosted computer and then download it to my home computer over http - which just doesn't strike me as the best thing to do.

Welcome to seedboxing. It's what everyone else does."