Dave-GTTurbo
I beg to differ about a few points
"Also, encrypted traffic never needs to be set to unencrypted unless, say, the tracker doesn't allow encrypted connections or something similar. There is no way there is "prob a chance most isp's know what to look for" as encryption is exactly that... Hidden behind the encrypted code... If they could see what it was, it wouldn't be encrypted."
According to a few guides about Bit torrent encryption it is said that some ISP's can detect encrypted traffic I'll cut out a bit of the text to save you reading a long boring page.
"Some ISPs are now using more sophisticated measures (e.g. pattern/timing analysis or categorizing ports based on side-channel data) to detect BitTorrent traffic. This means that even encrypted BitTorrent traffic can be throttled. However, with ISPs that continue to use simpler, less costly methods to identify and throttle BitTorrent, the current solution remains extremely effective."
So even know you encrypt it you do run the risk of your ISP tracking it down, you have to remember most ISP's don't want you to do peer to peer as they know whats going on and what people are sharing or leeching.
You have to remember ISP's will get suspicious when they see traffic on the line which isn't HTTP downloads or packets for online games.
Bit of text copied to show how ISP's detect this and how Bit Torrent Traffic works.
"The BitTorrent protocol has a distinct handshake. To control uploading by seeders, ISPs have learned to look for this handshake. The recent releases of both µTorrent and Azureus/Vuze include a "Lazy Bitfield" feature to hide seeders from ISPs. When Lazy Bitfield is enabled, the handshake is changed to make a BitTorrent seeder initially appear to be a non-seeding peer (sometimes called a leecher). This is done by sending a bitfield indicating missing pieces. Then, once the handshake is done, the client notifies its peer that it now has the pieces that were originally indicated as missing."
If you really want to stop your ISP from detecting that your downloading from Bit Torrents then your best to use an Encrypted Tunnel like Commercial Virtual Private Network (VPN) from providers such as Relakks, BTGuard or SecureIX. This will stop your ISP from seeing what your doing but again some ISP's throttle this traffic as they've clocked onto what their being used for.
As far as torrents go it's a never ending battle.
Hutch read through this website that i found on my bookmarks for when i used to use Torrents.
http://suprbay.org/showthread.php?t=15636
But as previous people have said it's down to your ISP, seeders vs leechers ratio, upload ratio, shared connections (this is a big one cause if you open too many connections you can kill your connection.)
But don't go believing that if you "encrypt" your Bit Torrent traffic it'll be ok cause as proved there is ways to detect it all you need to do is do a bit of research and you can see all the information. ISP's ain't stupid.
There is a website that tests your ISP and also the usual bit torrent stuff to see if it is being affected at ISP end.
http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/bttest.php
Even if you don't use Azureus you can use this guide to setup your Bit Torrent client to make sure all your connections and upload and download settings are correct.
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Good_settings
This debate can go on and on and on about whats proper and whats not, no one really knows what will work, things might work for one person but not another there is many if's and buts, you just have to try them all.
Just do your research and you'll find the pro's and cons.