Download speed issues

[telly]

I'll admit I'm a total newbie at all of this, so apologies if I'm missing something obvious. I'm running OSX, my internet is through Charter (who, to my knowledge, don't throttle). I did a bandwidth test and my connection is capable of 8+Mbps. However, I'm averaging around 80Kbps tops with my BT download. After digging through the help menu, I followed the instructions for fixing port forwarding, here's the output from debug mode:

2009-03-03 18:18:25 -0600 port-forwarding.c:116 [Info] Port Forwarding: Closing port 51413 on ::
2009-03-03 18:18:25 -0600 port-forwarding.c:116 [Info] Port Forwarding: Closing port 51413 on 0.0.0.0
2009-03-03 18:18:25 -0600 net.c:580 [Debug] Transmission: Bound socket 12 to port 51413 on ::
2009-03-03 18:18:25 -0600 port-forwarding.c:153 [Info] Port Forwarding: Opened port 51413 on :: to listen for incoming peer connections
2009-03-03 18:18:25 -0600 net.c:580 [Debug] Transmission: Bound socket 13 to port 51413 on 0.0.0.0
2009-03-03 18:18:25 -0600 port-forwarding.c:153 [Info] Port Forwarding: Opened port 51413 on 0.0.0.0 to listen for incoming peer connections

I have no idea what any of that means. I'm not even sure if it's a port issue or something else, but that's my best guess. Ideas?
ETA: If it's relevant, there are 78 seeders for the torrent in question and my firewall is disabled.

[Jordan]

Hi Telly,

FIrst work your way through this checklist of common problems that slow things down:

http://trac.transmissionbt.com/wiki/SlowSpeeds

[telly]

Hi Telly,

FIrst work your way through this checklist of common problems that slow things down:

http://trac.transmissionbt.com/wiki/SlowSpeeds

I did go through that once. The only one that applies is the "port closed" thing. (But. I talked to a friend last night who said that opening ports is a Bad Idea. If I don't open ports, am I just stuck with the 20-50Kbps crawl?)

Thanks for responding.

[Jordan]

Your friend is incorrect. If nobody opened their ports, BitTorrent wouldn't work at all.

[telly]

Hmm. I don't know enough about this sort of thing, I guess. I trust your expertise.

I'm still unsure as to how to open the port, though. Past doing the debug log, I'm lost.

[essiw]

the only problem port forwarding could cause is that you could get virusses easier then otherwise [don't even know if that is 100% true] but since you have a mac/linux that is also no problem at all. port forwarding is explained in the build in help of Transmission (fill port forwarding in the search and you get a few things (and only 2 important ones), one thing about forwarding router and one about forwarding firewall, read those 2 and you would be able to open your port)

[telly]

Got it worked out. Thanks for your help, folks!

[essiw]

glad to hear that ; )