Strange Download Speeds

[dips10101]

I've been using Utorrent on my home computer for a while now and I was able to reach speeds of up to 250kb/s regularly depending on the speed.

Recently I switched to a new laptop with Vista and a wireless connection through a router.

Now I am able to be only achieve 0-3kb/s on any torrent I choose.

If I download something directly from internet explorer it downloads much faster.

Also I looked through some previous posts, I tried downloading a 'Slackware' file, i'm not sure what it was, but I left it on for a few minutes and speeds reached 100kb/s.

I've looked into port forwarding, but I am unsure if it is safe, or worthwhile doing.

Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong?

Thanks!

[Switeck]

It's safer to port forward 1 incoming port from your router to your computer than to web surf in general. I know of neither confirmed NOR probable reports of someone getting a virus or getting hacked through the port they forwarded for uTorrent.

...And if they somehow did, it'd likely be because another program was also listening on that port that was far more vulnerable to hacking than uTorrent.

With wireless, you cannot have as many connections at once (global and per torrent) as you would wired. More than 100 is definitely bad, even more than 60 may be too much in some cases.

High half open rates in uTorrent is also bad for wireless. Setting it higher than the default value of 8 is unnecessary.

[dips10101]

Why is uTorrent able to download fast from that 'slackware' site? I'm not sure what it is.. and it can't off multiple other torrents that I have tried from..

Okay so if port forwarding is safe, how would I be able to port forward uTorrent correctly, I tried following the instructions at 'portforward.com' but I must have done a few things wrong as it didn't work. Also i'm not sure if I have a static IP address.

Can anyone help me get it up to speed?

Also my router has lots of preset ports (Belkin), I was wondering if the MSN under the list is the same as Windows Live Messenger, off topic but does anyone know? As I seem to disconnect alot from WLM alot too! (Especially during video conferencing)

[jewelisheaven]

uT downloads from working functional swarms. Slackware and OOo just HAPPEN to be setup that way by their maintainers.

On your router's page, can you ASSIGN a DHCP address by "MAC Address" (I can on my Dlink)... If not you should change your network connection to be a static IP OUTSIDE the DHCP range of your router.

If those terms and descriptions as well as the portforward guide for your router make/model, you can post pictures of your router's setup if you wish for guidance on where to put it.

[Switeck]

Belkin routers tend to crap out even before they hit 60 total connections.

The Slackware and OpenOffice torrents we recommend are being seeded by MULTIPLE 100 megabits/sec lines. So your upload to others is not needed...and in fact you'll be lucky to upload anything to others before the torrent finishes.

[dips10101]

Sorry I don't understand the fix that is posted above, can someone explain to me how I can solve this problem, in really simple terms that I could follow.

Also I tried downloading from my PC which is wired through the router to the modem, however this also reaches slow speeds, so it is definetly the router.

Help anyone?!

[jewelisheaven]

... There are pre-made guides. Which steps are you confused about?

[dips10101]

I was just wondering the dangers of creating a static IP against the dynamic one I have?

Also how would I set up a static IP, bare in mind I have a Belkin router (I couldn't follow port forwards guide).

I was slightly worried that getting settings wrong would permanently screw up my internet.

Can you tell me what I need to do please dude, sorry!

[Ultima]

Using a static IP is not a security risk. Your NAT puts your entire LAN behind a veil so that the inside is invisible to other computers on the WAN (the Internet), so whether you're using one or the other, no one would know besides those inside the LAN.

How to do it? Check this guide. Make sure you set the static IP to be outside of the router's DHCP range (which can be found in the router's configuration page). As the guide says, if your Internet connection stops working, it's as simple as setting the TCP/IP settings back obtaining addresses automatically.

[dips10101]

Okay, I've set up a static IP on one of my laptops, should I also do it for the other one?

Shall I do it for the PC which is connected by wires to the router and modem?

Thanks!

[Ultima]

Yes, you should do it for any computer you're trying to forward the port for. To reiterate, their IPs should be set outside of the router's DHCP range, since many routers don't allow port forwarding within that range.

[dips10101]

Crap, what is this range? How do I set the IP outside of this range?

Sorry!

[Ultima]

Like I mentioned earlier, it should be in the router configuration somewhere.

[dips10101]

I got my router settings up as we speak, it has a DHCP Client list, with 3 ips of my systems and their ips, is this the range :S

[Ultima]

So set your static IPs to be outside of the range.

If the range is from 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.149 (50 IPs in the range), then set your static IPs to something like 192.168.1.200, 192.168.1.201, etc.

[dips10101]

Thanks, yes its outside the range. I was wondering if it is possible to have a static IP for one PC and one laptop, and a dynamic for the other?

[Ultima]

Yes, it is, but if you're going to be forwarding the port to any computer, it should have a static IP.

[jewelisheaven]

If it supports UPnP the DHCP'd client doesn't need to have port forwarding, but in the case of UPnP you can generally ignore all port forwarding procedures and setup all computers to use it.

[Ultima]

I'm not all that big a fan of UPnP. It's a hit-or-miss kind of thing; it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, depending on your router's mood (happened to me before ).

[dips10101]

Wahey, my speed is at 130kb/s, and seems to be slowly increasing.

I used the speed guide, and tweaking my upload seems to help.

I also tried forcing protocol encryption, but left it as enabled.

All seems fine now, apart from that I can only have one active torrent and the rest will be displayed as queued, I don't mind that too much though.

Are there any tweak guides or anything I can do to make it better?

Thanks Switeck, Jewelisheaven and Ultima for the help!!!

[jewelisheaven]

Understanding general parameters for proper functioning of swarms may help you tweak your settings. Though I suggest 5-10 KiBps per peer (that is total upload / (slots * torrents)) others will tell you anything < 1 KiBps is very unwise, it's all up for configuration. Generally speaking though, you need to find the stress levels for your hardware (consumer routers) and your line (ISP interference when total connections > 200 usually) and decrease them below those thresholds to keep things working consistently persistently... many people find they can eek out some more KiBps to peers by turning off additional features (2nd post in the How-To) and that additional 10% may allow you to upload 8% more per day.

[Switeck]

On the UPnP debate, I've heard of crashes and reboots of a computer causing UPnP of a router to hold open old UPnP port entries and not re-map uTorrent to the same port later because the router still remembers the old UPnP entry. It's a mess...supposedly more convenient...but when it doesn't work right, it can be nightmares worse than manual port forwarding.