Trouble with D/L's on Network/Seeding Q

1) I've tried downloading several different concerts using several different programs (Azureus, BT, uTorrent) and none of them can reach speeds over over 5kb/s. The one I'm getting now has 6 seeds, 2 peers and a speed of 3kb/s. I read through the portforward section and didn't quite get it. I'm on a university network so i don't have access to a router, i just have the network cord from my computer to the wall. When i d/l of BT i only get the yellow circle. I disabled my firewall to no avail. uTorrent gave me slow speeds too, and Azureus won't download at all, showing a red unhappy face . Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

2) Quick Q: How do i seed: do I leave my finished downloads open or re-open finished downloads, or is there anything special I need to do. thx

[U2Lynne]

1) I've heard that several universities block, or severly limit the speeds, on the most commonly used ports for bittorrent, 6881-6889. Try using some other ports in your bittorrent client, like 50000 or so. However, I've also heard of some universites going the route of only opening the necessary ports for their system. If that is what they've done, then it is much more tricky to get around.

2) Yes and yes. Both of those will set you up to seed.

How would i go about changing the port number?

[U2Lynne]

Well, it sounds like the only thing you have any control over changing the port number in is your bittorrent client. Somewhere in your preferences it asks for your port number. If you can't find it, tell us what client you prefer to use and we can tell you where in your preferences it is.