Im new to this whole thing...

[remmy]

...and I was wondering if someone could help me get some better d/l speeds? I went through the FAQ, TRIED to portforward my router, and even did some Windows SP2 firewall junk. But, I'm still getting a "NAT error".

My download speeds (according to the site given in the FAQ), change dramatically each time I run the test. Last night at about 1am, I had 2.4MB/s, and now I'm sitting at 984.5kb/s.

Anyways, heres the rest of my settings.

Max Upload: 20

Max Download: 0

Global Max Conn: 100

Max # Peers: 25

# Upload slots: 2

And I'm only trying to d/l one torrent at a time. I also havent touched my advanced options because I have no idea what I'm doing in there yet, and I dont wanna muck things up.

Thx for your help, Rem

Ohh, on a side note, last night, i was getting d/l speeds of 100-130kb/s at my current settings, while still having that NAT error, and BEFORE i portforwarded and all that jazz. Then I started up my computer today, and it couldn't get higher than 30-40.

EDIT: I just did the NAT test (followed the link on one of the stickys), and I got a fail.

[silverfire]

http://www.portforward.com/

Follow the appropriate steps for your modem/router.

[Firon]

And once you deal with that, make sure you set an appropriate upload cap, 20KiB/s seems awful low for someone who was downloading at 2.4MiB/s.

[remmy]

silverfire: I already followed the appropriate steps. I said that in my original post, in case you didn't read it.

Firon: Whenever I increase my upload cap, my downloads slow down. And just like I said above, my downloading speed WAS at 2.4MB/s, but when I tested again today, it had dropped horribly.

Can anyone ELSE help me?

EDIT: Just for you guys, I went through the portforwarding thing again, AND took the cap off my u/l speeds. I'm still sitting at about 10-15kb/sec.

[1c3d0g]

What port are you using? I heard some ISP's are throttling down some high-numbered ports, so maybe your ISP is into this kind of crap. See if you can find out what their VoIP/NetMeeting/XBox Live ports are, if you use one of those we can pretty much rule out problems with a specific port. :|

[remmy]

Uhh, I would be using port... 32459 I'll try contacting my ISP to see about that. Although, my internet service in general has been shit the past month or 2. Repeated crashings of the internet. My modem box thingy will either reset itself, or just not respond so i'll have to do it manually. It will always happen repeatedly within a short time span, then work fine for a while.

Is it possible that my router cannot be portforwarded? Because I went through the steps for doing it, and I don't think it worked. I still get "NAT Error".

EDIT: I just read something about static IP addresses. Do I have to give static IP addresses to EVERY computer on my network? Because right now, there are 4 of them connected to my router. Could that be what is causing my portforwarding problem?

[1c3d0g]

Hmm..sounds like your ISP and modem have some severe connectivity issues... If it's possible for you to upgrade to the latest firmware available for your modem, that would be a good start. Complain with your ISP and tell them how crappy their service is. Threaten them that you'll go elsewhere (even if you aren't), and see if you can get a suit on the phone. Usually those poor suckers answering your calls can't do much, if anything about your situation, but if you bring it to the attention of Upper Management, maybe you can get a break. :/

[remmy]

Yeh, I actually called a couple days ago. They told me that they were having problems all over my service area, blah blah blah, trying to fix it, blah blah blah. The only other option just got off strike about 2-3 weeks ago (i think).

How would I go about upgrading my firmware. Also, what IS firmware? (lol, sorry, i'm new to all this).

[1c3d0g]

Well, according to Wikipedia:

In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. Often it is provided in flash ROMs and can be updated by an end user.

Examples of firmware include:

* the BIOS found in personal computers,

* Open Firmware, used in computers from Sun Microsystems and Apple,

* the computer program in a read-only memory (ROM) integrated circuit (A hardware configuration is usually used to represent the software.),

* the erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip, whose program may be modified by special external hardware, but not by an application program.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

Unauthorised modified firmware is sometimes used to provide functionality not intended by the manufacturer, for example to defeat the region encoding of DVD players.

First of all you need to find out the exact brand & model of your modem. Then, a Google seach usually brings up some links where you can download the firmware for your specific modem. Reading back your first post, I see you also have a router (or is it a modem/router combo?). In either case, you'll have to check that one out as well.

Also, you say you've tried forwarding your port, well...did it succeed? Can you see your port being added to the list of ports forwarded? Let us know what's happening.

[remmy]

Well, I followed the instructions on the site given pretty much exactly, but when I tried to download on UTorrent again, I was still getting a NAT Error, and I was getting even crappier download speeds.

I'll try doing the firmware thing.

[Firon]

Make sure you don't have a firewall. This includes the Windows Firewall.

[chaosblade]

Well, If you're saying they are having problems all over your area, Then you cant expect to fully utilize your connection until they sort that out. Besides that, Try all the usual advice in the FAQ and in this thread to get rid of the NAT Error message. when thats gone, wait for your ISP to do its job and then test some more :]