"Error! Port XXXXX does not APPEAR to be open" (yet uploading OK?)

[SPants]

"APPEAR?" Well, is it, or isn't it? I don't understand the subjective nature of this test...or is this just a language thing?

I'm not raising this to be picky, though. In my use, I see no consistency between this port-forwarding test-result and whether I am able to upload/download.

Right now, my d/l is almost nil (say 2kB/s) but upload is humming along at 40kB/s. Yet the port-forwarding test says I...what, /might/ (?)...not have an open port. Is there some reason the port-forwarding test should not reflect uploading capability?

So with absolutely no changes in configuration in the last few days--no shutdowns, no nuthin'--why did my "port forwarding" test result change from "appearing" to be open...to NOT? And does this matter, really?

A Linksys WRTG54 (v6) is serving this laptop. Likely I don't fully understand port-forwarding (and hate utorrent's referral to for-pay software to do this), but I long ago set my utorrent port to enabled, just working from the Linksys router control page. This has worked for much uploading and downloading, but lately I have to question performance. Are there now tweaks for v6 that I should know about?

--'pants

[µtorrent-Guest]

there is nothing between the two.

just because your port isn't open does NOT mean you can't DL/UL.

It just means that others can't initiate the connection to you since your port for incomming connections isn't open. If the other guy hasn't also no incomming port open then you guys have a problem since no comunication could be established.

Edit: and what "pay for referal" are you talking about?

portforward.com isn't a pay site. jsut do not click on their advertising, but read the instructions how to forward ports by hand.

if you have problems with forwarding you might want to start at this point

http://portforward.com/help/pfprogression.htm

[Switeck]

µTorrent is free too.

[SPants]

"I'm a "Kraut". Don't blame me for my english!"

Never! I'm multilingual, like most Americans: I speak fluent British, Australian, New Zealandese [?], Singaporean, and most of the South African, Irish and Canadian dialects...

By "referral to for-pay software" I'm referring to the for-pay port-forwarding software [pfconfig] sold via that link. As I expect was intended, I found my eyes glazing over while reading the rambling, fractal explanation of port-forwarding...at which point I expect I was supposed to give up and just buy their software. (The author clearly would have a disincentive to make this simple, since he makes no money by explaining clearly and simply, right?) Instead, I just gave up.

Some time later, suspecting crappy utorrent performance, and newly experimenting with e-mule, I found a German e-mule help page specific to my router that showed a screenshot of the setup page: http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/help.cgi?l=2&rm=show_topic&topic_id=669.

Since my German ist sheise, but that page's screenshot is of course in English, it was pretty easy for me to mindlessly make needed changes to match the screenshot. And it worked, apparently, for e-mule. So I inferred from that result, and the page's sole focus on the router setup dialog, that THIS was really the key to port forwarding. Not so? I added the random port that utorrent happened to have selected on that day, set utorrent to keep that port, and BOOM: suddenly the port-forwarding test showed "green."

But as I say, this comes and goes. Huh?

[µtorrent-Guest]

Ok so if it worked for a while with µT, please make sure that a) µtorrent is really still using the same port that you forwarded once a upon a time ago and make sure your PC still has the same IP address you entered in the portforwarding rules in your router.

As it is laptop like oyu said, this might be very likely that you have used DHCP assigned IP addresses instead of a static one, and he now has a different one then before.

IF you made absolutely sure that all the numbers are still a match, just take a look if your CTRL+G settings are set according to your uploadspeed. Wrong settings there could lead to to much stress on your router hardware which might also be responsible for a appearantly closed incomming port upon testing.

[Lord Alderaan]

Right now, my d/l is almost nil (say 2kB/s) but upload is humming along at 40kB/s. Yet the port-forwarding test says I...what, 'might' (?)...not have an open port. Is there some reason the port-forwarding test should not reflect uploading capability?

afaik it will only say your port is open if you mapped it AND µtorrent is running AND nothing else is blocking it. Since the port-checker is just a website that can be reached with any browser even when µtorrent isn't running it might be that your port is mapped properly but µtorrent isn't running. Besides there are a gazillion other things that could cause the port-checker to not get a connection to µtorrent and thats why they add the disclaimer 'appears'. Something besides the portmap could be the problem.

[SPants]

Thanks, Lord A and utorrent-guest...who-isn't-really-just-a-guest, I expect...

"guest": you wrote "likely that you have used DHCP assigned IP addresses instead of a static one..." I went back to the Linksys router setup page to see if I could stumble my way through a possible needed change. My router is indeed set up via the pulldown menu choice "Automatic Configuration - DHCP," but then...that hasn't changed for many shutdowns. Still, if that's not the way it should be set, then how /should/ that page be configured? I can change that selection to "Static IP"...but it then requires at least one static DNS. That's where I run out of guesses--thought I had but one IP address and don't know what this really means. Linksys software seems to think this DNS # would have been given to me by my ISP, but all I've ever gotten from Earthlink is generic welcome software and bills. I could contact them, but I've never even tried to navigate their help channels and from other posts, I don't know that they'd be too keen on supporting a new file-sharing doofus like me.

But from what Lord A wrote, this may all be barking up the wrong tree.

Is there some kind of accepted benchmark download/upload to test the process, like standard chunks of file info as used by speed-tests for web connections? I'm weary of seeing no movement at all (or only movement in uploads, as is usually the case). The last two files I've been trying to download showed thousands of seeds available, so I think there must be some connection clog.

[µtorrent-Guest]

the static IP would be set in windows, not for your router from your ISP side view.

http://portforward.com/help/pfprogression.htm general introduction in this whole forwarding thingy

http://portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm how to get your machine a static IP

[Lord Alderaan]

The Open Office torrent is usually suggested as a way to test µtorrent and to discern between problems caused by trackers, torrents and swarms and problems caused by µtorrent, your PC, your LAN, your ISP and their respective settings.

[SPants]

"guest": OK, with your help-- and after MUCH fumbling and forcing myself to parse out the relevant parts of the rambling portforward instructions, I seem to have settings right now! Thanks for the green emblem...again...though I fully expect it to go to yellow at some point for no particular reason...

Lord A: I was surprised to find almost no Open Office torrents anywhere--none with many seeds at least-- so I will try that sometime later. At least now there's nothing indicating a potential problem with DL or UL.

Next issue?: Once I have my desktop monitor back in operation (vice my laptop from which I am now forced to work entirely) I will have to look back into traffic-management. Cfoss once said they were working on a router version of their traffic-shaping software...would that be the way to go, or are there better alternatives? I guess that should be a new topic...

[DreadWingKnight]

SPants, you're not even looking in the right places if you can't find openoffice torrents.

http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/

[SPants]

finding a site to download Open Office from isn't the issue...I was following Lord A's suggestion ["The Open Office torrent is usually suggested as a way to test µtorrent and to discern between problems caused by trackers, torrents and swarms and problems caused by µtorrent, your PC, your LAN, your ISP and their respective settings."] The idea is to find a TORRENT of Open Office to use as a download benchmark per his suggestion.

[DreadWingKnight]

I specifically linked the openoffice torrent page.

[SPants]

ah...got it. Thanks.

-----FF by six months------

I thought I would see if it was worth reviving this old thread, since I had a major "coffee event" this AM. The resulting shower of coffee apparently took out my wireless router [as described above, the LinkSys WRTG54 (v6)].

I've not yet really missed the router, since I've been using utorrent on my hard-wired desktop for a few weeks anyway, and I think I may not replace the router since I have to give up the laptop soon for other reasons.

But here's the thing: now that my desktop is wired direct to the cable modem, my download speeds are HUGELY improved, and for the first time in a long time, I have a green "network OK" indicator on the desktop PC, not just the laptop. Also, it seems it was markedly more painful to web-surf while running uTorrent before--everything opened in slow motion or not at all, so for practical reasons, I would usually have to shut down uTorrent if I needed to do any web-work.

Yes, there might have been some resurgence of port-forwarding issues (why would this change?) but here's what I don't get:

a) my laptop--getting its signal via the wireless router, which I would assume would always be the poorer/slower of the two connections--ALWAYS gave me the green light (while the hard-wired desktop usually didn't ?!) I'd used the analogous port-forwarding setup for both laptop and desktop on my router setup page, so it seemed like there was a level playing-field, and the desktop had, for some time, given me the "green" indicator before dropping to yellow.

I'd understood from one of the responses above that my concern over the status of that "network" indicator was misplaced ("...just because your port isn't open does NOT mean you can't DL/UL. It just means that others can't initiate the connection to you since your port for incomming connections isn't open. If the other guy hasn't also no incomming port open then you guys have a problem since no comunication could be established.")

Should I have read that to mean that my download speeds might indeed have been hugely reduced, as it appears was the case, and indeed it is the purpose of the "network" status indicator to warn me about this?

Do wireless or other routers ALWAYS slow things down that much? If I replace it, I'm wondering if there might be a better choice than the LinkSys, which was exceptionally problematic to get set up with any security, and to get port-forwarding working. (And if I /should/ go with the LinkSys again, do they have a coffee-detector in their warranty-replacement inspection process?)