Bittorent ?!

[Vincent Trouilliez]

I don't understand this Bittorent thing.
I thought that, by letting people share some of their bandwidth with, it
was supposed to help you achieve good download speeds when there are too
many people wanting the same file, and the server can't cope with it.

But, right now I am downloading the ISO image of the Kubuntu Live CD, as
I am curious, and Bittorent gives very unstable speeds, and very low
speeds, between 30 and 80KB/s, whereas if I stop bittorent and try
downloanidng directly from the Ubuntu server (main one, in the UK), it
instantly reaches my full bandwidth, about 125KB/s (1Mbps), and stays
there steady, until it finished. Same for Synpatic, I always get steady
and full speed from Ubuntu's servers.

So, if the server is plenty availalbe to give me full speed, the
logically, bittorent should be AT LEAST as fast, no ? 
So why is Bittrent so crap then ?

I "force" myself to use bittorent to try and let Ubuntu's servers breath
a bit, but looking at facts above, I am not sure if there is any point
at all in doing that !

If someone could shed some light on this for me....


Vince