Port forwarding / Green symbol?

[scraggadoo]

Hello guys,

I hope you can help me with this problem I am having. I am trying to get the port forwarding done correctly, and unfortunately it is not working well. I have tried nearly all the suggestions suggested in the sticky.

First of all, I have set up port forwarding in the router (virtual server etc) and also using a static ip address outside of the DHCP range. I am on a wireless network if that helps. The router is a BTVoyager 2100 ADSL. ISP is Plusnet.

As far as I know, it has been done correctly, yet the utorrent program port opening checker indicates that the port is closed. It does however indicate that the network connection is green which kind of conflicts with this.

Download and upload speeds are determined and set to be roughly 900kB/s and 200kB/s respectively. I have disabled UPnP, random port, and Add Utorrent to windows firewall. I have also made exceptions in windows firewall manually for the port being used, in both TCP / UCP protocol. My average download speed is about 20kB/s and with good torrents.

I would be grateful for any assistance one can offer me. Thanks, please don't hesitate if you need any more information. I am thinking that there is something to do with either a router firewall or something similar, but I could be wrong.

[Switeck]

"Download and upload speeds are determined and set to be roughly 900kB/s and 200kB/s respectively."

Is that kilobits/sec or KiloBYTES/sec?

[scraggadoo]

Well on the speed test it said in kilobits I think... About 900 Kb/s download and 200 Kb/s upload.

Now that you mention it, is the one in utorrent in kilobytes per second? If so what does this equate to roughly?

Any advice about the port forwarding issue?

Thanks

[Firon]

The Speed Guide is in kilobits/second.

[Switeck]

The Speed Guide (CTRL+G) is asking for your connection type's UPLOAD bandwidth in kilobits/sec...which is the value typically used for upload bandwidth.

However, everywhere else in the program (upload and download speeds) are in KiloBYTES/sec. This even includes the Upload Limit value in Speed Guide immediately under Connection Type.

If you only have 200 kilobits/sec upload bandwidth then the xx/192k Speed Guide setting is the closest match. You could increase total active uploads to 2 if you also increased your upload speed to 20 KiloBYTES/sec. If anything, the number of connections allowed is overkill for your internet connection...you might even get slightly faster speeds reducing the global to 40-60 and the per-torrent to 30-40.

Lastly, you may want to reduce net.max_halfopen to only 4-6. No sense trying to make new connections so rapidly if you're keeping only 60 tops. The connection attempts themselves are much more wasteful than maintaining a lot of "idle" connections that aren't uploading/downloading with you.

[scraggadoo]

Thanks for all your help. I have just modified the settings as you have just said.

Only one torrent will download and upload now at a time. Is this to be expected?

Speeds seem to be increased a bit, although there is another user on my internet connection at the moment, so will be able to tell for sure when he is off later!

Thanks again!

[Switeck]

Like I said, you could increase total active torrents to 2 if you wanted...or both total active and downloading torrents to 2 if you wanted.

Just remember your upload speed is being split between each torrent AND between each upload slot in each torrent. So others that ARE downloading from you at any given moment will only be seeing average download speeds of ~2.5-3 KiloBYTES/sec...so if others are uploading faster to them, then they're likely to not give you a lot in return.

[gfdgd32]

I usually just use the global upload/download throttling. It works really well.

[Switeck]

The other settings matter too. If you're only uploading at 10 KiloBYTES/sec but you have lots of torrents downloading...you're probably leeching some of them. Download speeds per torrent are almost always a LOT better if you're uploading at a reasonable rate of speed per torrent.

[scraggadoo]

Thanks switeck for all your assistance.

I've come to realise that if I select the numbers you have told me to input, my port suddenly opens. I wonder if this is because of the ISP throttling my connection?

Obviously my upload speed will be a lot slower then my download speed, so is it advisable to keep seeding until a certain ratio is reached or something, obviously in the interests of being fair?

Thanks again.

EDIT: Its now starting to prop up with a yellow triangle and the port forwarding is unsuccessful. I have reviewed settings and they seem unchanged? Uploading is a no go at present! I'm lost at the moment...

[Switeck]

If you are jumping between green and yellow, either you're still overloading your settings and need to try Ultima's troubleshooting FAQ here:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=15992

...or the torrent is SO low on peers+seeds that you're connected to everyone and no new incoming connections are being attempted so µTorrent thinks you're firewalled.

[scraggadoo]

I tried the OpenOffice torrent, and I seem to be getting download speeds of approx 30 kilobytes/s, albeit with a yellow triangle. My connection, previously speed tested before, is actually 220 kilobytes / sec download and approx 27 kilobytes / sec upload. I have modified the speed settings accordingly.

I already completed most of the guidelines set out in the link provided, so I believe that it could be just the torrent. I will check it out tmrw morning when traffic is at a minimum and see whether there is any difference. Thanks for all the help so far again.

[Switeck]

That open office torrent should've maxed out your connection.

There's some scary-fast internet lines seeding that torrent. :cool:

[scraggadoo]

Right, I've just tried the OpenOffice torrent again this morning, and I have got a green symbol :cool: so all is well :-)

Downloads seem to be around 80 kB/s with it maxing out at 105 kB/s at one point! So thats good to hear! Not maxed out but it could be... Here's what I think...

As for speed checks, using the ones supplied on the utorrent's Ctrl + G bit, these are all american servers which incidentally is across the 'pond' from me, and I tried out a speed check with a local server in my own country. The download speed differed worryingly so i.e. approx 900 kilobits per sec download and 200 kilobits per second upload compared to approx 1700 kilobits per sec download and again 250 kilobits per second locally.

So which settings are the best to use? (For manually configuring the download speed, as upload speeds are roughly the same I guess) I would assume its the former since a lot of torrents seem to come from the US having looked in the peers tab on a download?

[Switeck]

Definitely use the xx/256k...because as far as upload speed max used, it's a bit conservative.

[remilio]

I am experiencing similar issues to you, scraggadoo. I write here because I am also on plusnet with the same router.

See http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=254981 for other advice from Ultima.

I am still not sorted - green light is on and off, with settings that I have edited and adapted. When it works, it works brilliantly for me. Otherwise, I have no activity whatsoever.

[scraggadoo]

@remilio: I've just read your separate thread, I can't explain it either, other then that my utorrent works perfectly fine at first during the day from morning onwards, and I leave it on until the yellow triangle pops up, which is usually around 4 - 5pm in the afternoon. I can only think that the ISP starts to throttle my connection after this point, in order to free up other areas. It also depends on what account you have with them I believe, as they assign different priorities to other areas.

See this link for more detail (this is my package): http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/bb_plus.shtml

So when it becomes peak time, you are restricted, and traffic management systems probably blocks your port in use. Outside of peak time, the port opens, so basically midnight to 4pm is the ideal time for use going by this.

Hope this is of some help. Once you've determined your ideal settings just leave it as it is and don't play round with them anymore. It is probably just the ISP.