upload speed increases when windows media player is open

[comaxauto]

I am currently seeding -- nothing is downloading -- and my upload rate is set to unlimited. I achieve a steady upload rate of just under 65 kB/s. However, as soon as I open Windows Media Player, my upload rate jumps to just over 80 kB/s and stays steady at that higher rate. When I close WMP, it drops back down to 65 kB/s.

Below is a screenshot of the phenomenon. The first twenty minutes are with WMP closed, the next twenty with it open, followed by ten minutes with it closed, and ten more minutes with it open again.

I should note that I'm not streaming or playing anything in WMP. When I open WMP, it just sits there idle.

I've only been using uTorrent since 1.7b17xx, but I've noticed this behaviour in the last three or four beta releases.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 6300 1.86 GHz

RAM: 2 GB

Operating System: Windows XP MCE 2005 SP2

Media Player: Windows Media Player 11.0.5721.5145

BitTorrent: uTorrent 1.7b2248

Firewall: Windows Firewall

Anti-Virus avast! Home 4.7.1001

Anti-Spyware: Windows Defender 1.1.1593

Router: none that I know of

Modem: Alcatel SpeedTouch USB

ISP: Bell Sympatico High Speed

Connection Type: DSL

Speed Guide Results: 1809 Kbps down, 661 Kbps up

Port Checker Results: OK! Port 47572 is open and accepting connections

Network Status Light: green checkmark

Here are screenshots of my uTorrent settings. Please let me know if you need to know any additional settings.

So, finally, my question: Why do I get the higher upload rate only when WMP is open?

My apologies if this has been discussed before. I did a couple searches on the "Speed problems" forum (one on "wmp" and one on "windows media player"), but none of the results seemed similar this.

[Switeck]

Your discovery is QUITE STRANGE!

So my questions may likewise seem so...

Is your USB-to-modem connection from your computer through an add-on USB PCI card or on-board USB?

Are the drivers for the USB set up to fully support USB v2.0?

Is WMP is set up for audio/video streaming?

What is your Windows Quality-of-Service settings for your connection?

Have you tweaked your MTU, TCP receive window, TTL?

Does your computer also have a network card/LAN network connection?

Are you using any internet connection sharing software?

[comaxauto]

Thanks very much for attempting to help. Please be patient with me; some of your questions are getting beyond what I am familiar with.

Is your USB-to-modem connection from your computer through an add-on USB PCI card or on-board USB?

On-board USB.

Are the drivers for the USB set up to fully support USB v2.0?

My computer is only about six months old, so I would assume so. Is that something I check in the Device Manager? By drivers, are you refering to the drivers for my USB modem, or the drivers for my USB ports, or both?

Is WMP is set up for audio/video streaming?

Again, I would assume so. I have used WMP to stream audio from terrestrial radio stations. Is that something I can check in the WMP preferences? I should mention again that the WMP/upload-rate behaviour occurs consistently when WMP is idle (not playing or streaming anything).

What is your Windows Quality-of-Service settings for your connection?

I'm not exactly sure what that is. When I view the properties of my connection, in the Networking tab, I see something called "QoS Packet Scheduler" listed, but I can't access its properties. Am I looking in the right place?

Have you tweaked your MTU, TCP receive window, TTL?

I have heard of these settings but I don't know where to find them, so it's very unlikely I've changed them manually. I use the Fasterfox add-on with Firefox and it is set to the "Turbo Charged" setting. Is it possible Fasterfox has tweaked those settings? I should note that this WMP/upload-rate behaviour occurs regardless of whether Firefox is open or closed.

Does your computer also have a network card/LAN network connection?

Yes, my computer has a network card. In the Device Manager it is listed as "Intel® 82562V 10/100 Network Connection". It has an ethernet cable running directly from it to another computer's network card (with no router in between the two computers).

Are you using any internet connection sharing software?

Yes, I'm using the Windows XP built-in ICS software. The USB modem is directly connected to this computer, and the second computer that is connected via the ethernet cable is sharing my internet connection. I should note that this WMP/upload-rate behaviour occurs regardless of whether the second computer is on or off.

Please let me know if you need additional information. I really appreciate your attempt to help me.

[Switeck]

Ok...WMP streaming settings are buried deep in WMP's 'options' or something. Probably not important and not the cause of the behavior...at least directly!

"QoS Packet Scheduler" settings should be accessible either in safe mode. Disable it or reduce it to 5% or less.

Your FasterFox add-on for FireFox may be set too aggressively. "exceeds RFC specs (increases load to web servers)" Try "Optimized" instead.

I'm guessing there's something indirect about Quality-of-Service reserving internet bandwidth for Internet Connection Sharing...but for whatever the reason WMP overrides that.

[Honeyfrog]

Neat! (Rushing off to open WMP right now to see what happens....)

[Switeck]

Honeyfrog,

I bet you won't be able to duplicate comaxauto's results unless you have 2 network adaptors (or a USB modem) and ICS to another computer. And even then, it'd only occur on the computer in between the other computer and the internet.

...maybe.

[Honeyfrog]

I don't use Fasterfox either. :/

[Switeck]

That reminds me...

WMP may be using whatever the proxy settings are in FireFox.

Still I think the FasterFox settings changes may be a red herring.

The weird thing is QoS is supposed to reserve only 10-20% of the bandwidth for "special uses" such as background Windows updates. And that's one thing I just don't get:

How does QoS know what full speed is for the ADSL modem? ...Since it can only see the speeds the USB provides -- which are quite possibly a magnitude faster.

Open the Network Neighborhood icon and see what network speeds are reported there. There may be 1 speed for the ICS/LAN link between the 2 computers, and another speed for the USB-to-ADSL modem.

[comaxauto]

Open the Network Neighborhood icon and see what network speeds are reported there.

Here is my Network Connections window. For the Ethernet Card, it claims the network cable is unplugged because the computer that shares my internet connection it currently turned off.

And here are my network speeds.

To try and rule out Fasterfox as the culprit, I changed the settings to Default.

The WMP/upload-rate behaviour still occurs. Just to be safe I rebooted, but the WMP/upload-rate behaviour still occurs. So now I entirely disable the Fasterfox add-on, reboot once more for good measure, but the WMP/upload-rate behaviour still occurs. So, like you said, it appears Fasterfox is a red-herring and can be discounted.

"QoS Packet Scheduler" settings should be accessible either in safe mode.

I restart in Safe Mode, but my Network Connections window is empty. So I restart in Safe Mode with Networking, but the Network Connections window only shows my Ethernet Card. (The second computer is still turned off.)

I look at the properties for the Ethernet Card, but the QoS settings still are not accessible.

I restart Windows normally, and I Google QoS. I follow the instructions from speedguide.net and changed the QoS settings from "Not Configured" to "Enabled" and reduced the bandwidth limit from 20% to 0%.

The WMP/upload-rate behaviour still occurs. I reboot one more time, but the WMP/upload-rate behaviour still occurs.

Here are my network speeds again, now with Fasterfox (set back to default and then) disabled and QoS bandwidth limit set to 0%.

WMP may be using whatever the proxy settings are in FireFox.

I tried two final things with the WMP settings. I switched from "Detect connection speed" to "Choose connection speed" and intentionally set it dramatically low to "Modem (28.8 Kbps)". And I changed the HTTP streaming proxy settings from "Use proxy settings of the Web browser" to "Do not use a proxy server".

However, the WMP/upload-rate behaviour is still occuring.

All of the settings that have changed, I've restored back to what they were previously. The only exception is Fasterfox which I've left disabled for the time being.

Again, thanks for your attempts to help. If you don't think this can be solved easily, I'm content to simply leave WMP open while I'm seeding.

Update: Things just got a whole lot weirder.

When I finished submiting that last post, I took a look at uTorrent and saw my upload rate was at its usual 80 kB/s. But then I realized WMP wasn't open! I opened WMP and the upload rate remained unchanged. I closed WMP and the upload rate still remained steady around 80 kB/s! I'm wondering to myself what the heck has changed?! The only thing different right now is that Fasterfox is disabled. This is where it starts to get really strange...

I close Firefox, and my upload rate drops back down to 65 kB/s.

I open Firefox and it stays at 65 kB/s.

I close Firefox, still at 65 kB/s.

I open WMP and it goes up to 80 kB/s.

I close WMP, back down to 65 kB/s.

I open Firefox, still at 65 kB/s.

Open WMP, up to 80 kB/s.

Close WMP, down to 65 kB/s.

Open WMP, up to 80 kB/s.

Close Firefox, still at 80 kB/s.

Close WMP, back down to 65 kB/s.

All that and I can't figure out why for that one time my upload rate was high with Firefox open, but WMP with closed.

I decide to experiment with some other media players. With WMP closed and Firefox closed, my upload rate is still at its steady 65 kB/s. I open Winamp 5.32. My upload rate stays at 65 kB/s. But as soon as I start to play MP3s off my hard drive, the upload rate goes up to 80 kB/s! Bizzare! I press stop and it goes back down to 65 kB/s. Press play, back up to 80 kB/s. WTF?!

Okay, close Winamp, back down to 65 kB/s. Open QuickTime 7.1.5, and just like with WMP sitting idle (not playing or streaming anything), my upload rate goes up to 80 kB/s. Close QuickTime, back down to 65 kB/s.

Just to make sure I'm not losing my mind, I open Windows Calculator. Thankfully, my upload rate stays unchanged at 65 kB/s.

So I start experimenting with Firefox. I open Firefox (with Fasterfox still disabled) with only one tab: plain old vanilla (non-personalized) google.com. My upload rate is still steady at 65 kB/s. I change the address to imageshack.us, and believe it or not, my upload rate jumps up to 80 kB/s. Weirder still, I click the back button to go back to Google, and my upload rate drops back down to 65 kB/s.

I repeat this experiment with Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11 and get the exact same results.

It took me a minute or two to realize that the ImageShack page has embedded Flash advertising. I go to Adobe and, sure enough, my upload rate goes up to 80 kB/s. Back to Google, down to 65 kB/s. So I decided to try and find a website with a lot of text, some advertising, and some images, but no Flash. I went to Slashdot, and sure enough my upload rate stays at 65 kB/s.

So, to summarize, my upload rate goes up when any of the following is true:

Firefox (open and viewing a page with Flash content)

IE (open and viewing a page with Flash content)

WMP (open and either idle or playing)

Winamp (open and playing)

Quicktime (open and either idle or playing)

How @#$%ing bizzare is that?

[Switeck]

Can you uninstall Adobe Flash?

...Not that it's likely to help, it's just the only thing I can think of with even remotely a common link between all that.

Do you have HijackThis! and/or Process Explorer?

They may spot strange processes running on your computer that you may want removed.

...might even fix the problem when you do.

[comaxauto]

Here are a few more examples I've found.

* Open iTunes, upload rate goes up to 80 kB/s. Close iTunes, back down to 65 kB/s.

* Open Picasa, upload rate goes up to 80 kB/s. Close Picasa, back down to 65 kB/s.

* Open Google Video Player, upload rate stays at 65 kB/s. Play a GVI file on my hard drive, up to 80 kB/s. Close Google Video Player, back down to 65 kB/s.

* Open Media Center, upload rate goes up to 80 kB/s. Close Media Center, back down to 65 kB/s.

* Open RealPlayer, upload rate stays at 65 kB/s. Play an MP3 file on my hard drive, up to 80 kB/s. Press stop, down to 65 kB/s. Press play, back up to 80 kB/s. Close RealPlayer, back down to 65 kB/s.

* Open VLC Media Player, upload rate stays at 65 kB/s. Play an MP3 file on my hard drive, up to 80 kB/s. Press stop, down to 65 kB/s. Press play, back up to 80 kB/s. Close VLC Media Player, back down to 65 kB/s.

I tried the following programs that use my internet connection, but none of them caused my upload rate to increase.

* Outlook

* Internet Checkers

* Google Talk

* Windows Live Messenger

* FTP via the Command Prompt

Okay, I uninstalled Flash Player and then went to the player test page. The Flash Player didn't load, but my upload rate still increased to 80 kB/s, probably because the Shockwave Player loaded. So, downloaded the uninstaller for Shockwave Player, closed Firefox, and my upload rate decreased to 65 kB/s. Ran the uninstaller, reopened Firefox and returned to the player test page. Neither Shockwave nor Flash Player loaded, and my upload rate stayed at 65 kB/s. I opened WMP, and it went back up to 80 kB/s.

Here is what Process Explorer shows me.

Everything looks normal. I recognize all of the non-Microsoft processes: avast (anti-virus), InCD (so I can easily use CD-RWs), NVIDIA (video related), Sigmatel (audio related), iPod and iTunes.

I tried one more thing. I turned off the second computer, then disabled the Internet Connection Sharing on this computer. Then I rebooted this computer. Once uTorrent had been running for a couple minutes, my upload rate stayed steady at 65 kB/s, and increased to 80 kB/s when I opened WMP. So, perhaps ICS can be ruled out, as well.

Now, I'm certainly no expert, but I'll offer my opinion based on what I've seen. The common link I see is that whenever I open or use a media player of one sort or another, my upload rate increases. It appears that all these media players temporarily increase my available upload bandwidth, which uTorrent immediately takes advantage of. Once I close these media players, they release that extra bandwidth, and uTorrent settles back down to 65 kB/s. I'm left wondering why uTorrent can't access that extra bandwidth without having a media player open.

Once more, thanks very much for trying to help, since I seem to be the only person who has encountered this behaviour, and especially since it is not clear if this is a uTorrent problem or a Windows problem. If a solution isn't possible, it's certainly not an inconvenience for me to have WMP open while seeding. Just very strange...

[Switeck]

Another mystery is what is the REST of your connection doing?

It should be faster than 80 KiloBYTES/sec download...though µTorrent is of course rate-limited by how fast others will upload to you.