I have an ADSL 384/128 d/u kbps router. I want to know what the optimum settings are to achieve the fastest downloads without wasting a lot of bandwidth uploading.

Currently mine is:
Max downloads 0
Max seeds 20
Max connections per torrent 50
Global connection 250
max upload rate 4
max download rate 0
number of upload slots 10

I would actually set max connections lower given your connection speed, or you're going to lose a bit of bandwidth in TCP overhead.

I agree with jdong, i would lower that a little.
You have 48/16 KB/s on paper? Then i would try this:

160/45 connections
6x2KB/s= 12KB/s total upload bandwidth
42KB/s max download bandwidth
max downloads= 2
max seeds= 1

Wouldn't raising my upload rate to 12 make me waste a lot of bandwidth. I don't mind sharing it's just that bandwidth is expensive here.

Limiting the number of upload slots to 2 is also a good idea.

AquaFox wrote:Wouldn't raising my upload rate to 12 make me waste a lot of bandwidth. I don't mind sharing it's just that bandwidth is expensive here.

You can see if lowering your upload rate will still let you download the torrents that you want.

If you want to download from peers, you can only do so at a 1:1 ratio. What you get equals what you give.

If you cap your uploads greedily then you will limit yourself to downloading from seeds only, who may be extremely overcrowded already and not have an open slot too often