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Checking my XP + Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall settings


leecovuk

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Posted

hello anyone who knows,

I've been using uTorrent for some time now and am of course happy with it, but when I open the Speed Guide and run the test to check if the port is correctly forwarded I get a mixture of 'error' and 'ok' results from one test to another.

So, can I please check that how I have my XP install should be ok in terms of networking and connection; some of the details below may not be relevant but I've added them here anyway through my own uncertainty :-

Windows XP Home Edition, SP2, up to date in terms of critical and security updates, except for 'Internet Explorer Cumulative Security Update' and 'Internet Explorer 7'.

I have installed the optional XP update 'Peer Name Resolution Protocol'.

In XP's Add/Remove Windows Components, I have all of the 'Networking Services' options enabled so that the checkbox is fully white and ticked. There are 5 options in there including 'Peer-to-Peer'.

I have an ADSL broadband connection using a Speedtouch 330 USB modem. It is not 'always on' and XP treats it as a dial-up connection requiring a username and password.

It is a 'sold' 1.1 Mbps connection so I use the 'xx/256k' setting as a basis in uTorrent's 'Speed Guide'.

I use the free version of Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall and have created a 'Packet Filter' in 'Network Security' for the utorrent.exe program, allowing in and out connections on any port for TCP, UDP and ICMP (3) (destination unreachable).

I have un-checked 'Resolve Address' in 'Overview' due to a CPU usage recommendation seen on this site.

I don't currently have an IP filter in place, such as Protowall or Peer Guardian Lite.

I don't currently have 'LvlLord's EventID 4226 Patcher' in place.

I have AVG Anti Virus free edition installed with all available options enabled.

uTorrent itself is set to use a constant listening port, with 'enable uPnP port mapping' and 'add uTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions' both currently un-checked.

uTorrent has DHT disabled due to the requirements of one torrent site I use.

I think that covers all of it; so what do you think? Should I have everything in place for 'perfection' in terms of connection?

Do you think I need to add some more manual settings in the Sunbelt Kerio firewall, which previously may have been 'created by default' in the Windows Firewall ?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Lee

England

Posted

1.1mbit/s connection... I presume that's download speed, but what's your upload speed? And I wonder about that USB modem... USB = bad, and might not be able to handle too many connections. Too many connections can lead to firewalled-like conditions.

Posted

hello Ultima,

i don't remember / have the figures to hand, but I worked out and checked some time ago that I should be using the xx/256k setting.

As for the USB modem, I didn't know that, but I guess I'm kind of stuck with it !

My main reason for wanting to check my system as above, was to try and troubleshoot why the 'port check' in Speed Guide sometimes shows 'error' and sometimes shows 'ok' in the browser.

ie, I don't know if this is simply a problem in connecting sometimes to your port checker url which for me is http://www.utorrent.com/testport.php?port=51885 (maybe your server has limits / is busy ?) , or if it implies instead I have something deficient somewhere at my end.

My overall torrent performance seems ok, but just wanting to check that all is as it should be.

Posted

If you can get an OK from the port checker, it should be fine, but as I said, overloading your hardware/connection with too many connections can make your computer look as if it's in a firewalled state, and the port checker will fail. If you find odd behaviors, like your internet seemingly not working, or the speeds suddenly dropping periodically, try lowering the global connections a bit... maybe to 100, or 75. Other than that, it should be fine, assuming your connection's upload speed really is xx/256k (you should probably run a speed test to confirm again).

Posted

ok thanks, so any 'green ok' is a good one, kind of thing, pretty much. ?

However I've often been checking the port and getting 'red error' when no torrents are running, so presumably there aren't lots of connections at that time anyway?

I'll try lowering the global connections amount anyway and see if that helps.

Oh I didn't add in my list, I have 'protocol encryption' set to 'enabled' in utorrent and 'allow incoming legacy connections' ticked.

Maybe that is having an impact ? I tried asking my ISP at one point about using those settings but frankly I got no meaningful response.

Posted

In that case, I guess you could just ignore the port errors. Protocol Encryption doesn't affect it in any way, and I wouldn't expect your ISP to answer your questions on µTorrent, especially not Protocol Encryption.

Posted

ok then, thanks.

I suppose as long as the 'green tick' shows up in the utorrent tray, most of the time, then that is really all we need to worry about, I suppose.

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