Basically torrents are all about other users so you need to understand a few things about torrents. Basically "seeders" are the people who have the part you want. Yes, you download torrents in parts. Leechers are the people currently downloading the part you want. Basically its you and these leechers fighting for the bandwidth on offer from the seeders. Hopefully im not losing you, but heres a diagram:
File----------------------[Seeder]------------------------------[You]
[Other Leechers]
Anyway, lets get into it.
The 1st step is to hack windows tcp/ip connection amounts. You can get a patch here which changes it to 50, which is better than the normal 5-10. Get it here.
Secondly, you want to limit your upload speed. Yes, i know you want to contribute, but your upload speed can have an effect on you download speed. Basically take a test of your upload speed here.
Now that you have a result, you want to limit your upload speed at around 80% of what result you got. (eg: I got 110kb/s, so i'll limit it at roughly 70kb/s). Just go into your torrent settings and change your max upload speed to your required value.
Thirdly, you want to change your port. Torrents normally operate on your default ports (6991-6999) so you may want to change it to get better speeds.
Lastly, when choosing a torrent, get one with the best seeder:leecher ratio. A torrent with 60 seeders and 50 leechers is going to be better than a 600 seeders 1,700 leechers.
discuss this topic to forum
