I have this perpetual problem with torrent programs.

It has persisted for years and I've never quite figured it out. For some reason any torrent I have ever tried to download on my network is horrendously slow.

I have checked, re-checked and re-re-checked portforwarding settings in the past and even now I am retrying to get it working--no luck.

What sort of things should I look for as a problem? I am totally lost at this point.

Use a non-standard port, I use 10000, for example. Also, make sure you turn on forced encryption, and disallow legacy connections.

Make sure you're using a static IP on whatever computer you're torrenting too, otherwise your IP may change and the ports will no longer be forwarded correctly.

I leave my torrent box open to the world, Eastlink is the shizz when pretty much interacting with any/all routers.

ya, DMZ is a lot easier then the fooling around with Port Forwarding.. also make sure you enable encryption

This is insane, nothing is working.

Could age of router have anything to do with it?

Unbelievably frustrating.