>> - Downloaders try to download from the fastest uploader [from their
>> location on the network].
> 
> No, downloaders download from multiple uploaders. Not from "the" fastest. 
> And I don't think torrent clients care about "location on the network" yet.

Download speed is used as an approximation for network proximity. And 
yes, each machine downloads from multiple peers, but it tries to select 
the fastest such peers.

>> - But wait! This torrent has 450 seeders and 3 downloaders. And I
>> sometimes see 200 KB/sec from a single seeder, so... why THE HELL is any
>> peer going to download from me at a piffling 40 KB/sec when there are
>> peers out there at least 5x faster?
> 
> Because downloading from 10 seeders who have 40KB/s will get them the file 
> fast. The "5x faster" peer isn't fast at all if there are already 30 users 
> downloading from it!

Fair enough...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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