Utorrent conections causing internet failure.

[pimppimp]

My ISP is Cox and recently we have been having internet/connection issues.Cox came over to our house to fix this problem and after 3 hours they have determined that when Utorrent is running and uploading/downloading it crouds the internet connection.When it gets crouded our bandwidth, download, and upload speeds drop by 75+ percent.When the connection gets too crouded the connection simply drops,goes out or whatever you wan't to say.It's not like it does it every once in a while, it will drop the connection 2 or 3 times every 10 minutes.I am using Utorrent 1.61 with a 10+ megabit per second connection.Is there a newer version of Utorrent that will fix this problem or is there a setting that I can change?

[DreadWingKnight]

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

[pimppimp]

This has nothing to do with speed.If there are to many people connected to my computer either uploading or downloading the connection gets droped and the internet goes out.

[DreadWingKnight]

Then read the full thread before trying to assume it doesn't apply to your issue.

[Switeck]

It's also for INTERRUPTED INTERNET and slow other internet access.

Please try it.

[finman]

Dear pimppimp,

I have experienced similar problems to what you describe and have been trying to determine the root cause for some time. I have not seen the solution I am about to suggest on any support site so far, but I could be mistaken.

I think your problem could be fixed by upgrading your NIC card to a "server grade" NIC. At least it fixed my lockup issues. Sounds expensive but it's not. My theory is that the NIC most users are running cannot handle the number of simultaneous connections that result from running a BT client. They are probably using a NIC built into the motherboard or a cheapo card that works fine for web browsing and email. "Everything worked great before BT", and then either the PC, the broadband modem, or both, lockup periodically.

I stumbled across this solution by chance after spending a lot of time trying the solutions suggested in BT client support forums. Not to trash those solutions, their advice should still be heeded, but after all else failed this is what worked for me.

I used to have both a server and a desktop PC running the same hardware except for the NIC cards; motherboard, RAM, power supply, case, etc. were identical. After years of faithful service both systems needed repair, so I combined the best components from both to use as my desktop PC. This resulted in me using the NIC card from the server in my desktop PC.

Afterwards all of my BT crashing problems vanished; I no longer have to micromanage the number of connections or bandwidth usage. The specific problem I was previously experiencing was that my cable modem needed to be power cycled every 6 hours or so when running a BT client.

So after upgrading my _NIC_, my _cable modem_ stopped crashing! Go figure. I used to have this problem regardless of whether I was running uTorrent or Azureus.

The NIC I'm using is a "3Com 10/100 PCI Server NIC w/3XP (3CR990SVR97)". I originally paid $150 for it about four or five years ago. They are still available and can be easily obtained new in the box from about $25 - $40, see this link to a Froogle product search:

http://tinyurl.com/2kdvw8

I really think this is the fix for many many of the lockup issues people report when running a BT client. I would love for someone like yourself to independently test this theory.

I can tell you my performance is rock solid since upgrading the NIC. I'm constantly running 2Mb down/450Kbps up 24/7 and it just cruises along . I currently have 11 active downloads and 3 active seeds. This would have absolutely crashed out with my old hardware configuration. I have an old AMD Athalon 1.4 Ghz with 768MB of RAM, nothing fancy at all by today's standards. My ISP is Comcast and my cable modem is an older model Motorola SB 4200.

Good luck and let me know if you try this,

finman