My download is really slow: how to speed it up
Quick answer: It depends on the method: torrents are only as fast as their seeders, free file hosts throttle free users, and Usenet runs at your full line speed. Check your client's limits and connections, and if one method crawls, switch to another, ideally the NZB.
A slow download is usually down to the method rather than your internet. Each way of downloading has its own bottleneck, so find yours below and work through the fixes.
First, a quick reality check
- How fast is your connection? Run a speed test. If your broadband gives 50 Mbps, the best you will see is roughly 6 MB per second (divide Mbps by 8 for MB per second).
- Wi-Fi vs cable: Wi-Fi through two walls can halve your speed. A network cable to the router is the quickest win going.
- Other people on the line: streaming 4K and game updates on other devices all share the same pipe.
- Big builds take time: 300GB at 10 MB per second is over 8 hours, even when everything is working perfectly.
Torrents
A torrent is only as fast as the people sharing it (the seeders). Arcade Punks seeds fresh releases from fast seedboxes for about 90 days. After that the community keeps them going, so older or niche builds can slow to a trickle.
- Check the seed count in your client. Zero or one seeder means slow, no matter what you change.
- Check your limits. In Tixati look at Settings > Bandwidth and make sure you have not capped your download speed too low. Setting your upload limit very low can also slow your download, because peers favour people who share back.
- Open your incoming port. In Tixati, Settings > Network shows the port. Allowing it through your firewall (and forwarding it on your router) lets more peers connect.
- Give it time. Torrents often start slowly and pick up as you find more peers.
Full guide: torrents for beginners.
MEGA, RapidGator and other file hosts
- Free accounts are deliberately slowed, made to wait, or capped. That is how the hosts sell premium.
- MEGA pauses free downloads when you hit the transfer quota. See downloading from MEGA, or MEGA Pro for a bigger allowance.
- RapidGator is quick with a premium account; free downloads are slower and come with waits. See RapidGator and file hosts.
- Google Drive is quick when it works, but popular files get blocked. See Google Drive quota exceeded.
Usenet (NZB)
Usenet does not rely on other people, so it should run at or near your full line speed. If it does not:
- Use more connections. In your client’s server settings, raise the number of connections. Newshosting allows up to 100; 20 to 50 is plenty for most home broadband.
- Use the secure port 563 with SSL turned on. Some internet providers slow down unencrypted Usenet traffic.
- Check the speed limit in your client. SABnzbd and NZBGet both have a speed limit setting that may be switched on.
- Check your disk. If the download drive is nearly full or very slow (an old USB stick, for example), repair and unpacking will crawl. Download to an internal drive with plenty of space.
Set up guides: NZB Grab, SABnzbd and NZBGet.
The quickest fix of all: switch method
If one option is crawling, try another in the download box. Not every build has every option, but most have several. For speed, the NZB is king: no seeders, no timers, no quotas. Newshosting’s Arcade Punks deal gets you 70% off plus 3 free months, with a 30 day money back guarantee. New to it? Start at Usenet and NZB for beginners.
If the build offers Usenet Share, you may not need to download the whole thing at all. See Usenet Share explained.
Still stuck? If your download stops completely rather than just crawling, read my download failed, or ask in our Discord.