odd Initial Seeding behaviour?

[drizzle]

I am currently downloading a 44GB torrent, consisting of approx. 22000 2MB pieces.

I am running 1.7.2

The uploader is reported in my peers list as running 1.6.0.0 and is in "Initial Seeding" mode.

So far I've acquired about 5500 complete pieces, however the 'Pieces' panel currently lists another 1100 partially received pieces with 0 availability. I've been watching this for a while and it seems that I connect to the seeder, am sent some blocks of a new piece, then am disconnected, leaving me with another of these partials.

Since these are partials, I am unable to share them out, and since the seeder is in "Initial Seeding" mode I don't seem to be getting completions for these partials from it or anyone else.

I'm considering blocking the seeder so as to avoid getting yet more of these partials; the list just keeps getting longer and longer and longer. I seem to be doing okay with exchanging data with other peers.

Based upon my experience watching other torrent downloads, this just doesn't look right to me.

Any idea what is going on?

[Switeck]

Makes sense to me.

The seeder probably has a low upload speed and/or allows too many torrents and/or upload slots PER torrent at once. You're probably only getting download speed from the seeder via its optimistic upload slot.

And THAT'S the problem even with intitial seeding! If it doesn't finish uploading a completed piece to a particular peer...it doesn't do any good even if its upload speed is rather high!

Ironically, blocking the seeder may increase the torrent download speed for you in the long run. This is because it won't end up splitting its terribly slow upload bandwidth so many directions. This also assumes the various OTHER peers on the torrent are more willing to share and have better settings.

[drizzle]

So, for initial seeding mode - limit number of upload slots to a 'small' number?

I don't think it's the optimistic unchoke; I meant connect/disconnect literally above.

I watched the flags more closely and 'I' is not present. I must be connecting to them, we handshake, they send me some data, then one of us disconnects from the other (how to tell who/why?).

I've blocked the seeder's IP, and am no longer accumulating partial pieces.

very weird...

[Switeck]

Yes, if initial seeding, you should keep the upload slots low -- probably no more than 6 maybe even as low as 3. Below 3, µTorrent gets all weird.

"then one of us disconnects from the other (how to tell who/why?)."

Maybe due to timeout interval in advanced settings? The seed didn't send you anything in 'x' seconds...and you certainly didn't send the seed anything. That's just a guess...I've seen what seemed to be perfectly good connections breaking on µTorrent even within 5 minutes even when uploading and/or downloading!

"I've blocked the seeder's IP, and am no longer accumulating partial pieces."

Who else could/would send you partial pieces? The peers would only have what you're missing as well, but likely you have almost as much as most/all other peers. They will only share if/when THEY get a completed piece...and may even end up having only it to share, so quite likely they end up uploading all of it.

[drizzle]

I'm not familiar with all the logging options, but here's some info obtained from two attempts to gather such info.

[07:50:07]  x.x.x.x  : Connecting: port 40010 source: TIX
[07:50:08]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Encrypted handshake completed
[07:50:12]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Have 7506
[07:50:13]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Sending 5 bytes of aggregated data
[07:52:07]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Send Have 7415
[07:52:14]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Disconnect: Connection closed

[07:58:10]  x.x.x.x  : Connecting: port 40010 source: TIX
[07:58:11]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Encrypted handshake completed
[07:58:19]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:0->16384
[07:58:19]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:32768->16384
[07:58:19]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:49152->16384
[07:58:21]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:16384->16384
[07:58:21]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:65536->16384
[07:58:23]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:32768->16384
[07:58:23]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:81920->16384
[07:58:24]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:49152->16384
[07:58:24]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:98304->16384
[07:58:25]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:114688->16384
[07:58:26]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:65536->16384
[07:58:26]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:131072->16384
[07:58:27]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:81920->16384
[07:58:27]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:147456->16384
[07:58:28]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:98304->16384
[07:58:28]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:163840->16384
[07:58:28]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:114688->16384
[07:58:28]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:180224->16384
[07:58:28]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:196608->16384
[07:58:30]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:131072->16384
[07:58:32]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:147456->16384
[07:58:32]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:212992->16384
[07:58:32]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:229376->16384
[07:58:33]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:163840->16384
[07:58:35]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:180224->16384
[07:58:35]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:245760->16384
[07:58:35]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:262144->16384
[07:58:36]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:196608->16384
[07:58:38]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:212992->16384
[07:58:38]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:278528->16384
[07:58:40]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Got Piece: 7578:229376->16384
[07:58:40]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:294912->16384
[07:58:40]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Requesting 7578:311296->16384
[07:58:40]  x.x.x.x  : [µTorrent/1.6.0.0]: Disconnect: Connection closed

As you can see in the second log, I connect, we are merrily going along, then blam - disconnect!

BTW, how do you tell uTorrent to STOP logging to a file?

[Switeck]

I don't know how to STOP logging to a file.

And I fear the disconnects are either hostile ISP interference or something subtle in µTorrent causing problems.

[drizzle]

FYI - I figured out the logging thing; leave the logging filename blank and then hit 'ok'

And re: above - I PM'd the seeder and pointed to this topic. They switched back to regular seeding mode (which didn't fix the disconnects, but did stop creating more partials), then made some other (unknown) adjustments which seemed to improve things.

I'm now getting larger chunks of data, and (sometimes) getting chokes instead of the abrupt quick disconnects.

Perhaps they'll post info on what they did...