Trouble connected to and downloading torrents

[RandmTask]

Gday,

Ive been using torrents for quite a while but still having trouble, this isnt isolated to utorrent, also have had problems with Bitlord.

1) I have files i am trying to download, eg one particular file says:

Seeds 1 of 4 connected (1394 in swarm)

Peers 2 of 52 connected (5026 in swarm)

DHT status is not allowed (some other torrents say DHT announce in x minutes)

Trackers come back as offline (timed out) or working

(This happens with many of the torrents I try to download by the way) Why would it be connected to so few of the seeds and peers?

2)

Another problem is that the torrent sites like mininova, torrentspy, torrentportal etc may show many thousands of seeds and peers but in utorrent it comes through as 0 (0) seeds and 0 (0) peers.

I have opened up a port with the router and i have a green tick for downloads. Port is open and accepting connections.

I am living in the middle east and they ban a great deal of sites. I think it may have to do with them blocking some of the trackers or something like that. If this is the case can I set up a proxy to get around it (just for the trackers, not for the downloads)? Most of the proxy servers are banned also, so quite hard to find one that works.

Im running v1.6 build 474 of utorrent on windows xp and a 3com wireless router (which is connected to this particular computer by a network cable), Ive tried it with and without a firewall.

would really appreciate any help.

RandmTask

[Switeck]

On the few torrents you connect to, see if there's any pattern to what ip ranges you DO connect to.

[RandmTask]

No, there doesnt seem to be a pattern of IP addresses that I can make out.

Any ideas?

[Switeck]

Have you read up on how to connect directly with your modem using just the windows firewall to protect your computer?

In short, to remove the router to see if it's the cause of your problems.