My computer internet is stuck when using uTorrent

[Messer262]

Hey guys, so this is the problem.

When I use uTorrent all the internet connections freeze mostly. Like if I want to open a page it takes minutes and minutes IF it will load in the end. In games very high latency, and some programs won't even open.

I have 5mbps down and 400kbps up and even when both of them are lower I still have the same problem. Doesn't matter if I have 1 torrent open or 10.

What is up with this?

[jewelisheaven]

What are your Speed Guide settings? A screenshot or a list would suffice.

[Messer262]

Settings are xx/384k

Customer upload is 25kb/s (tried 15kb/s too), 100 connections, 250 global, and upped my max torrents to 8. But as I said, even with 2 torrents I have the same.

It's like utorrent is getting chocked with connections and chockes my internet too. There are few moments when the internet works perfect but a lot of time it's like I am on dial-up, or even worse. Pages just won't load, or maybe just load 1-2 items and then stop, or not even loading at all.

[jewelisheaven]

OK. So reduce those connections to say 20% of current under Ctrl-P -> BitTorrent. Also reducing the settings wherever you try (Start with the How-To) is a MUCH better idea than increasing settings

[Firon]

Make sure your net.max_halfopen is set to 8.

[Switeck]

As you go lower in upload speed, you need to scale other things back.

Trying to upload less than 1 KiloBYTE/second per upload slot won't work too well.

And remember I mean per total upload slots, not just on 1 torrent -- since upload speed is split between all the active torrents.

[Messer262]

It has nothing to do with the settings such as upload slots, etc. I mean I had Firefox downloads of max speed and DC++ p2p downloads and uploads (taking my whole bandwith) and I could still play games and surf the net. I have DU Meter and I can see exactly how much of my bandwith is used.

Basicaly even when I have a download of 20kb/s and upload of 10kb/s my surfing and gaming still hangs and lags.

I have read in the uTorrent FAQ that there is a problem with Linksys WRT54GL, and makes the connections hang. This is what I experience I belive, but even when I did a direct connection to internet, I still have the hang/lag problems.

Another way I know it's not internet limitation problem is that even when I try to access the router internal page it still hangs and it's not loading the page properly or not at all.

The Halfopen is 8

[Firon]

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=15992#p258231

[lokey]

try using Mozzilla firefox as your browser. if you dont already, its free and i have never had a problem with it. (unlike microsoft IE).

Utorrent is constantly running in the background and i use Zone alarm. i can play high spec games and go on line too. No probs.

[Messer262]

I use Firefox too lokey, and I do have Zone Alarm in background.

I will give a read to what Firon posted in the link and I will come back with any updates if I can find anything

Edit:

I solved the problem, I THINK

I set the net.max_Halfopen to 4 (from 8) and now I no longer have any hanging, lag or pages unable to load. I did not try it yet for games.

What exactly does net.max_halfopen do? What is the difference between the 8 and 4 and why changing from 8 to 4 fixed my problem? Will this make my uTorrent perform less than for somebody who has net.max_halfopen 8 and did not had the same problems as me?

P.S. My Linksys WRT54GL was not the problem. I had the same symptoms even with direct connection. Now it works good using my WRT54GL (and using whatever firmware it came with out of the box)

[Switeck]

net.max_halfopen is how many new connection attempts to be making all at once.

You may already have 50+ made connections to peers and seeds...but net.max_halfopen will still force uTorrent to attempt new connections at whatever you set it to (in this case 8 or 4) until global connection max in uTorrent is reached. A router's memory can fill up with all the connection attempts...and slow or crash! The connection attempts are not forgotten on some routers even 10+ hours later, even if the connection failed! ...so it's not always an instant connection-killer.

Ironically, if you're NOT firewalled in uTorrent, you may get higher download and upload speeds with a low net.max_halfopen such as 4...since less bandwidth is used trying new connections. Incoming connections (peers and seeds trying your ip) don't count against the net.max_halfopen value...so if you're not firewalled they are likely constantly connecting to you.

net.max_halfopen only has a modest effect on how fast new torrents start up or how fast old torrents start up if your internet ip changed. But if the first few peers+seeds you connect to are fast, even those few could max out your connection.

[Messer262]

Well I guess I understood a bit what this halfopen does, but tbh, as long as it works it's perfect with me. I experience no more hangs and I also have good download speeds.

However, as you said in your post above, I do experience connections attempts on the open port that is used by uTorrent even after uTorrent has been closed. Prooly this is what you said that connections attempts are not forgotten? Like in the FAQ about Linksys WRT54GL?

My ZoneAlarm firewall blocks them, but I still get them all the time even as I said, I exit uTorrent. Even after 8-10 hours when my computer is shutdown and I start it up again, I still get incoming on the port used by uTorrent and my firewall blocks them.

Example:

Description Packet sent from 84.171.178.135 (UDP Port 63920) to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (UDP Port xxxxx "port opened for uTorrent and used by it") was blocked

Rating Medium

Date / Time 2008/02/06 21:30:14-5:00 GMT

Type Firewall

Protocol UDP

Program

Source IP 84.171.178.135:63920

Destination IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xxxxx "Same port opened for uTorrent"

Direction Incoming

Action Taken Blocked

Count 1

Source DNS p54ABB287.dip0.t-ipconnect.de

Destination DNS XXXX

These type of "attacks" as my firewall categorise comes all the time when I first open uTorrent and will only stop after 1-2 days, or if I close the port uTorrent use with my router.

Would you care to comment on these too?

Also you said that the connection attempts can fill the router memory. Then why I am still experiencing hangs even when I am connecting directly to internet with halfopen 8?

[DreadWingKnight]

I would comment that your firewall is being overparanoid.

ZoneAlarm is known to be problematic, and this is just one of the problems.

[Switeck]

Messer262 said, "I do experience connections attempts on the open port that is used by uTorrent even after uTorrent has been closed. Prooly this is what you said that connections attempts are not forgotten? Like in the FAQ about Linksys WRT54GL?"

No, that's not what I meant. You're not running uTorrent, but others still running the same torrent/s as you are retrying your ip address. It's like your telephone ringing when you're not home. Your ZA firewall software is blocking that as though it were a hostile attack...because ZA is stupid.

Routers "remember" old ips you've tried to connect to or ips that tried to connect to you. It's similar to a web browser's HISTORY, showing where you've been on the internet in the last few hours/days. The problem is, with BitTorrent/uTorrent, the router's memory can pretty quickly fill up with these old entries...because of all the incoming and outgoing peers+seeds connections and connection attempts. This is even after such connections are no longer present...the router (stupidly) has them stored in its all-too-limited ram. Belkin routers are among the absolute worst in this regard, because their ram is so little.

[Messer262]

Well I guess it's defenetly my router too.

Because again, my connections started to hang after about half a day. Even today in the morning, when I started utorrent in a few seconds I lost the ability to browse sites or connect with my games (prooly because the router still gets connection and it's memory is full as per FAQ - http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#Special_note_for_users_with_Linksys_WRT54G_GL_GS_routers).

Changing my halfopen from 4 to 2 or even 1 didn't do any difference anymore.

I connected my computer directly to internet and now it works very good, while I have utorrent open.

Now I guess I do have to change the firmware as per that FAQ correct? At least if I want to be able to use uTorrent and still be able to use all the other programs such as Firefox and games online.

The interesting part is tho, "sometimes" while connected to the router and uTorrent and I have no other internet connection for web, etc, as soon as I close uTorrent, my internet connectivity comes back online for web and games. It does take a bit of lag to be operational, but I will be able to start navigating again over the web/games online. I would expect not being able to since the router ram is full and still attempts to stay connected as per FAQ.

Later Edit: It looks like that the router memory did fillup somehow and basicaly would not allow me to open any web pages even after closing uTorrent. Interestingly I could play games online with no problems, just webpages would not load. What I did was take out the power from the router, leave it for bout 1 minute and plug it back. Now I can again keep uTorrent open and browse the web at the same time with no problems.

So therefore I am sure the router problem is that somehow the memory fills up with all the connections from uTorrent and freezes any possbilities to use the Web (as I said games aren't much affected, tho connections are made slower).

Now, how do I fix this, I have as I said WRT54GL Linksys with the original firmware. Would upgrading to DD-WRT (v23+)? Taken from uTorrent FAQ (http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#Special_note_for_users_with_Linksys_WRT54G_GL_GS_routers)

What can I do?

[jaker]

I have WRT54GS and I have v4.71.1, Hyperwrt 2.1b1 + Thibor15c installed with the script

, same as in your link. Doesn't work.

[Switeck]

Disable UPnP, DHT, Resolve IPs, and Local Peer Discovery in uTorrent.

I wouldn't be surprised if that "fixes" the problem.

...but it means your router is most likely the problem.

[Messer262]

Well at the moment I will have to wait til the router start hanging again. It's been running uTorrent for several hours and all is fine til now.

[Xaero]

I too have a problem with uT maxing out my connection. decreasing net.max_halfopen to 4 or 2 didn't help. anyother way to prioritize network bandwidth?

[Triplec4]

Hi I would like to add to this discussion as Im having exactly the same problem but only since updating to 1.7.7. Im running vista ultimate and what happens is as soon as a connection is made all port 80 communication is dead to the point where it wont even resolve pages. the only way to fix is to close down utorrent reset modem and pc Im using a Dlink g604t.

[Messer262]

So basicaly after these few days, the only way to fix this problem is to reset the router by plugging it's power out for 1-2 minutes when it starts to hang.

After this I have bout 4-6 hours to keep uTorrent open and be able to browse and use the internet around til it starts to hang. Once that happen ususaly if I close uTorrent the internet connections are restoring to full, but if I continue to keep uTorrent (while at this point I am no able to browse anymore) for a few more hours, not even after closing uTorrent will the internet restore anymore, so again I have to repeat the step in reseting the router.

If anyone has any fix for this, please, let me know.

The router is WRT54GL, and if anyone followed the steps in the uTorrent FAQ (http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#Special_note_for_users_with_Linksys_WRT54G_GL_GS_routers) by updating his firmware and it worked, please let me know. Jaker said it didn't fixed it for him, and I am not that savy about updating firmwares. I don't wanna brink my router

[jewelisheaven]

If the router is holding the connections too long there is no fix aside from changing the firmware :/

The main thing you need to keep in mind is backing up your current firmware In the event the new one didn't take I'm pretty sure you don't even need the UI to SFTP the old thing in there from your computer and you're golden... though that may need a crossover DB9 cable I haven't even looked at a linksys ... even though i've had access to two of them lately they were in-use and I'm sure the owners wouldn't like me mucking with their firmware

You know you can limit your concurrent connections even more to keep the router alive longer... but since you've already removed extra services which make more connections, it's coming down to fixing those entries' database so it doesn't fill up (if possible) or overhauling the firmware to something better coded.

[-RA-]

I had the same problem .. "When I use uTorrent all the internet connections freeze mostly. Like if I want to open a page it takes minutes and minutes IF it will load in the end." The only way to browse without problems was to close µTorrent and wait ~ a minute.

I have 3Mbps down and 3Mbps up. I tryed most of the recomandations from here but the problem remained.

I solved the problem(at least for me) by switching back from µTorrent v1.7.5 Stable to µTorrent v1.6.1.

Now I can download at 3Mbps with µTorrent and still can browse without problems.

Any explanations?

Now I have:

Download limit - none

Upload limit - none most of the time ... sometimes 300KBs(2,4Mbps)

Global Connections 400

Maximum peers / torrent 200

DHT network enablen

DHT for new torrent enabled

Ask traker for scrape info enabled

peer excange enabled

Encryption enabled

But most of them where the same on µTorrent v1.7.5 too.

[Ultima]

Bad settings, regardless of how it worked under 1.6.1. Read the first link in my signature regarding interrupted connections.

[jewelisheaven]

... 1.6 and 1.7 aren't the same, therefore identical settings don't mean everything. Not following the process laid-out in the How-To makes me think you didn't update the rules for your software, or are running hardware which can't handle DHT (how-to post #2)... I've said it before 98.9% of problems are configuration.