Transmission

I understand how to use the speed limit settings, but why would I want to? Is it to keep Transmission from hogging bandwidth when I'm trying to do other things, or am I missing something obvious? Thanks.

It's a one-button bandwidth capper, for both upload and download. Altho it can be done manually, it's not as easy as just clicking it once and you are all set, then clicking it again to get rid of the caps.

Is it to keep Transmission from hogging bandwidth when I'm trying to do other things. . .?

Yes. I use it when I want to download something while either seeding -- or while downloading a slow torrent.

For example, I find that further restricting my upload speed limit will help speed up downloads from sites like megaupload.

Much appreciated. Thanks for your answers.

In some countries (e.g. Australia) where we have download limits, some ISPs have separate download limits for 'on-peak' usage and 'off-peak' usage. Speed limits are very useful in this situation.

For example, on a particular internet plan you might get 12GB to use during the on-peak times (maybe 12pm to 2am) and 60GB to use during off-peak times (2am to 12pm).

Scheduling Transmission to only download during the off-peak time prevents exceeding the 12G on-peak usage.

This is very useful information. I was also wondering about the speed limit and was about to ask about that when I stumbled upon this thread. Thanks for the information.