Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

I've had a problem with using torrents for many many months, and I've been unable to fix it.

When using any torrent program my connection can just drop to 0kB/s (despite still being connected). It will usually take 10 to 20 seconds to fix itself and come back to normal.
Needless to say I've played about with many options in the client especially the number of connections and the download and upload speeds. I've been unable to get rid of the problem. Also I never seem to get any good speeds, even on torrents which are seeded well, despite having a 10Mbps connection. I'm using a port at around 55000, and the programs I have tried are Azereus and BitComet.

I have WinXP, up to date with the windowsupdate (I have also applied the fix to increase the number of connections above the 10 allowed.)

I really hope someone can help.

Thanks

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Always limit your uppload speed to about 70% of your connections maximum. Also make sure you limit the number of connections, esp if you use a router, too many connections can overload a router.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Thanks for the quick reply.

I've done all that a load of times, it doesn't help.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

If you're using a router, check your port forwardings are in place properly. If the client is trying to establish forwardings using UPNP, try disabling that and setting them manually.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

The port is correct and UPnP is turned off.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

are you uploading normally?

70% upload is a bit high you can probably raise upload slots (so your more connectable this is what rates you not upload speed) and drop upload to around 30%.

Make sure the uploading is happening and in return your downloading should start but if their is no or little seeds and the other peers dont have your pieces this will be why it isnt downloading.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Uploading is fine.

The torrent is downloading, but it will just keep stopping as it makes my connection 'crash'.
I can limit how often/regularly it crashes by heaviliy reducing the number of connection0/speed, but it still will fail...especially if I'm using an IM and IE at the same time (example).
I'm not really sure what is actually causing it to do this, it just seems that if I run it very slowly and don't do anything else on my pc it will probably be stable.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

That's not strictly true - the basic algorithm behind the protocol includes the fact that peers will choose which peers to communicate with based on the return speed. i.e. The higher the upload bandwidth you can guarantee to another peer the more chance there is of it choosing to upload back to you than someone else in the swarm.

The key point in there is 'guaranteed' - if you offer a high bandwidth but don't stump up with the goods as it were then you get choked and see very low download speeds. Hence the reason you should set the max upload speed in your client properly.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

I've played about with these options many times, it has no effect in terms of fixing the connection 'crash'.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Then I would suggest that BT is not necessarily the problem, sounds more like your router giving up after a while.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Sounds like your router to me, Mine is causing the same problems and as such its about to be replaced. Just out of interest what router do you have?? (You do have one dont you?)

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

I have a wireless router (Netgear rangemax), BUT I had the same problem before I got it.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Well then you have to ask yourself what has remained constant throughout all of these connection problems? e.g. PC, Cable modem (or adsl), Ethernet card, Ethernet cable.
Also things like the make and model of both your current router and your previous one (If any) could be helpfull.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Sounds like you got that from the docs.

It is FUD dude to make people set their upload limits high after all if we all started setting 1kB limits the torrent system would collapse.

Back in december when my 10meg was kickass I played with some p2p and set my upload to 5kB sec which is under 10% of my limit and was grabbing at 10mbit downstream. I had set something like 30 upload slots which were getting extreme low speeds of course :) .

Its connectivity that matters not speed, if you have 1 guy leeching of you at 30kB or 10 guys of you at a total of 10kB the latter will reap more awards.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

FUD? That's not one I've seen before but I can guess what it means :(

Isn't the success of either approach going to depend on the environment? For some of the public trackers around that regularly have 100+ peers at a time, no-one understands how it works and everyone leaves a ton of torrents running I think you're right - having more connections open will give better overall download rates for your contribution.

But on a private tracker where people have to maintain ratios and seed back into the system I'm not sure it would work so well as people work to provide higher upload speeds on their end.

The protocol was designed to reward people who put more back into the swarm, but if nobody is really contributing much then you're better off playing their game and winning. Perhaps it's time to find a client that supports profiles to swap between the two approaches ;)

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

the 10meg I got was on a private torrent. 10meg would never be possible on a public torrent too many leechers to seeds.

all the ratios do is serve a purpose to keep track of what people are doing and if they stay too low for too long they lose their login, it has absolutely no bearing on what speeds you get.

utorrent supports selecting number of upload slots etc.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

This isn't a problem of speeds though, more to do with it 'crashing'. My low speed is just due to me limiting the client program so that it doesn't crash as often.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Have you tried linking your modem to your comp directly and seeing if that changes the speeds?

Utorrent is a good new client as well, get the latest one. I get max speed at TB all the while but other sites can be slow. But yeah i'd try Utorrent and also connecting directly to rule out the router for sure.

Oh and the "setting your upload speed faster gets you better speeds" is a lie kinda.

It works on the fact that if EVERYONE set their upload speed to near max the torrent will fly along as everyone is seeding fast. But if EVERYONE limits their upload the torrent will crawl. Although if just one person limits their speed they will see no speed decrease if everyone else is at max. But you might as well put your upload to 80-90% of your max, it doesnt affect my speed at all and means you seed 1:1 much faster

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

So I hear:
If you have SP2 this can affect torrents because MS in their wisdom limited the number of open/half open connections with SP2 to try and make XP more secure.

There is a work around to it, but I think it is something to do with a TCP hack.


If your torrent program/pc keeps crashing then maybe it is time for a reinstall?

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

It "can " affect torrents but new versions of the apps or at least new utorrent doesnt need loads of half opened ports. The SP2 limitation is for half open ports not established connections.

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

I've tried uTorrent but it has the same effect as all other clients.

I've tried playing about with the 'XP connection hack' to improve the situation, but it changes nothing.

I did a cable modem power check last night (first time I'd ever done it) and the power outside the limit in a Sticky on this site. That matter much or at all ?

I have an 'ntl home 100', some people on some message boards with the 'ntl home 120' seem to have the same issue. But I imagine that a lot of people don't. What are people here using ?

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

Well I've just spoken to NTL technical support and I have to say that I've never spoken to such muppets in all my life.

So I cannot do anything when downloading torrents, I assume other people can...so where is the problem?

Re: Torrent Problem. Connection grinds to a halt.
 

try using an alternative tracker port since standard ones will give the tracker the ntl proxy ip instead of yours reducing your connectability status.

Utorrent has an option to manually report specified ip to tracker overiding auto detection.