Maximum PC

Everyone I know who uses BitTorent/Limewire/Frostwire uses it for music downloading, game downloading, and other less-than-legal things. But it must have legal uses, "file sharing" right? But if that's all that its used for, then why not use a site like MegaUpload or something?

But then a forum member told me this:
Apparently when downloading from a normal website, the rules go as followed:
HTTP: The more users, the more slowdown you'll get.
P2P: The more users, the less slowdown you'll get.
(Im assuming this is a big plus towards using P2P. If a game releases a patch, and the servers are swamped, someone can spread it via P2P)

Now this is interesting because people say that with P2P, downloads are much faster. On a decent website, the max download speeds I get are ~620kbp/s. On P2P, it will take me about 5-10 minutes to reach a point close to that. However, I NEVER go past ~620kpb/s, which im assuming is the evil work of AT&T, disallowing me to enjoy my internet too much. If I ever use P2P, its usually as a last resort because all else has failed.

Thus P2P file sharing has never gotten much use from me, yet the system is wildly popular. Is it wildly popular because you can download a few hundred songs under the radar? Or am I missing something else?

Thanks

You are right that there are legal P2P downloads.

The forum member is correct, except for number 2. There have to be a large number of seeders, otherwise the leechers will overrun the people seeding the files which will cause the download process to go slow for everyone.

A normal web server (talking normal here, not like Microsoft, Google, etc) cannot handle the heavy demands from thousands or tens of thousands of people (which is why Woot goes down when they sell bags of crap). With P2P you are pretty much downloading from someone computer instead of directly from the company. Obviously a simple explanation (the clients connect to more than one computer), but that's about it.

The reason you are getting slow download speeds is most likely because your ISP filters the ports your client is operating on. Try changing the ports and see what happens. I know mine filters all the common ones so I have to change to some rather odd port to get it to work properly.

You also have to make sure that port is open in your router and your firewall. (Obvious?)