ISPs that throttle/interfere with BitTorrent

[nk33]

who's Bino?

[haruharu]

I've tried every single step in this guide one by one and still my upload speeds are throttled to around 10kb/s. Even when I am seeding two torrents and not downloading anything, even if there's thousands of peers (leeching), I can't upload more than 10 kb/s.

I tried the VPN, no luck.

(I have: a core 2 intel, a d-link wbr-3200 router that is set up perfectly, a green check in utorrent and all the settings suggested earlier in this guide. DSLreports give 5048 kb/s download and a paltry 408 kb/s upload. Service = Rogers.)

Is there a way to get around Rogers' throttling, short of switching to Bell?

I have a good friend who works for the enemy of Canadian internet users everywhere and I have complained to them of the throttling of upload speeds many times. They are in a position where they know the inner workings of the Internet Dept there and can now answer my complaints and all of ours:

The persons responsible directly for the Cable Internet department feel that they have to aggressively manage p2p, they refuse steadfastly to listen to everyone junior who tells them that maybe, just maybe p2p is the future of the internet and if they want to stop losing customers to Bell DSL like rats on a sinking ship maybe they should stop messing with torrents. Rogers can handle the bandwidth, they just don't want to.

Apparently this issue has been mentioned, many times to these people at meetings an in reports and despite their own stats (according to their own stats from a year or two ago close to 85% of internet traffic in this country is torrent-related!) showing that most of their customers who pay for Cable internet (regular/extreme) use torrents heavily, they refuse to change!

My friend says that the best way to get these people to change is to complain, loudly and directly- its just a few people directing these annoying policies and we need to show the company its more profitable to get along with torrent users.

If enough people with accounts in good standing complain to the right people about how they are switching services to Bell, the higher-ups will take the initiative and things will change.

Bell DSL doesn't throttle seeding. The best way to get this throttling to stop is to hit them where it hurts and change services. Then, find someone at Rogers to tell. We can find workarounds all we like and play cat-and-mouse but the only way to stop it for good is to let the company know we won't take it anymore.

[bino]

who's Bino?

I am Bino

[an_idiot]

Canada:

I think bell is starting to throttle torrent around a specific time. My torrents go really fast at night (midnight to noon), but during the day it caps at around 50 down/30 up.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19066934-Sympatico-throttling-Bit-Torrents-now <- looks like a bunch of ppl are getting the same problem as me.

[Newb111]

I use Time Warner Road Runner, US east coast, what should I be doing? or setting my port too?

I am also experiencing slow downloads and interruption in time it takes to load websites.

[markronan]

I Have Semetric Broadband 2mb Download 2mb Upload But It Wont Go Fast What Settings Should I Use In Utorrent If Som1 Knows Please Answer

[war59312]

Good luck Newb111, same here. No workaround has worked yet...

[asulwer]

there may be a solution to this problem, hope? i am using comcast, yuck. i noticed that when i change my upload speed to unlimited i get this huge upload speed but after about 5 minutes it slows down to about 1/5 of that speed until i manually restart the app, then i get fast upload speeds for a while then it settles down to 1/5 of that speed (only for uploading). if we put a more specific scheduler in the app say allowing us to turn upload on to max for 5 minutes on and then 30 seconds off things should work better (at least for me that is)

i have my upload connection speed set to max (options->connection->global bandwidth limiting->max upload rate = 0)

i had my upload bandwidth limited to 70kB (not kb which is different) which works fine for me. when i change that 70 to 0 my upload speed goes to 200kB for about 5 minutes then goes settles down to about 90kB until i repeat that process. a better scheduler might keep my upload speeds at the 200kB mark instead of the settling out point.

its my understanding that comcast has a speed booster which is probably why i am seeing the 200kB mark for about 5 minutes and then my speeds settle down after that. i could keep my upload speeds that high if the connection was cut for a few seconds and then restarted. start, stop, start, stop, etc sort of thing! any thoughts on this?

[coinflip]

I have the same connection as you do. Same speeds and all. My 200 kBs speed boost last only a couple of minutes then it is back to the 90 kBs. The 90 kBs is your actual top speed, if you continually try to max out this connection it will flush your torrents. When I say flush, I mean the upload and download will drop to zero for a few seconds then boost back up to the 200 kBs mark. You have seen this happen correct? So, I doubt there is anyway for utorrent to help since your top speeds are controlled by your modem.

[Switeck]

Really only sustainable speeds are usable as limits in µTorrent. Bursts such as Speed Boost are too erratic to use except manually disabling upload limit for a minute then re-enabling it.

[fattygordon]

@Switeck:

I have the same problem as asulwer and coinflip. Are you saying that the increases in upload speed we are seeing are because of some speedboost that comcast is using?

If this increase is because of throttling or speedboost, wouldn't it still be possible to implement asulwer's suggestion to take advantage of this? Thanks.

[Switeck]

No, it's not possible to gain that extra speed indefinitely/sustained.

The Speed Boost effect is temporary -- in my tests, the more often I set my upload speed to unlimited, the less of a "boost" I see and sometimes even the lesser burst lasts less than 20 seconds.

It's designed that way by ComCast.

...It's also perfectly designed to thoroughly wreck accurate connection measurements via online speed tests.

My default upload speed maxes out only at 43 KiloBYTES/sec.

The best one could hope for is to tweak the automatic upload speed setting so your upload speed gets redetected every 30 minutes or so for 5 minutes at a time. The first minute would be Speed Boost in action...hopefully, and then the next 4 minutes would be used to come up with the real average upload speed to be used by µTorrent for the next 25-30 minutes.

[the1darknight]

Just wanted to report friends, Comcast in the Houston, Texas, metro area, has begun throttling torrent traffic during evening/overnight hours since this past Monday, Oct. 29. I called my friend in the Comcast NOC tonight and he confirmed they had started doing it; never happened before this week. During business/daylight hours, things return to normal. Someone remind me to send Sandvine a Christmas quantum-torpedo. >;-)

Too bad µTorrent won't evolve into something that offers the protection of ssh and/or anonymous vpn.

I think I'll just move to Austin where I'll once again use the time warner cable broadband that never bugged me the entire time.

PS--

Good luck to all; it could be a bumpy road ahead, but to end this nonsense the U.S. Supreme Court would have to either exonerate all copying (not just taping off the radio at home) or strike down the Audio Home Recording Act, say we're all felons, and arrest us all, unless we're illegal aliens, in which case nothing would be done to us for fear of "offending La Raza," and we could continue not paying income taxes, and getting free welfare, hospital care, use of taxpayer infrastructure, education, etc. (I know, not a battle for here, but just illustrates there *is* a group the R*AA/M*AA gestapo will not go after!)

"Wherever you go, there you are, from my cold dead hands!"

**Update: Having been up at all hours now, the pattern seems to be whenever Comcast decides they want to limit torrent traffic, which ostensibly must be when they see the most traffic. -DK

[Aszbaz]

hi guys, im a n00b with torrents since in used to be an "expert" with them, but havent used em in over a year, and have forgotten everything. anyway, im on virgin media UK 2MB broadband, but the download rate for the latest version of utorrent is going at 25Kb max, and i used to get speeds of upto 300Kb! plz help, brothers (and sisters!)

[Switeck]

Aszbaz,

I doubt your upload max is anywhere close to your download max of 2 megabits/sec (about 200-250 KiloBYTES/sec). Because of that, if you TRY to upload anywhere over your real upload max limits, then your download speeds will suffer BADLY.

Barring that as a problem, have you tried Ultima's Troubleshooting Guide?:

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

[MarshaLLL]

Comcast Baltimore Resetting Cable Modems and ROUTERS: Documented !

On Saturday, 12:30pm, Week 40, I was watching a show I had recorded to our Comcast Digital Box. I was called away to answer a question my wife had on her computer (working to the office by VPN) when we suddenly lost everything. I noted that our Comcast Cable Modem was also resyncing.

When I returned upstairs to continue watching my recording I had NO ACCESS TO MY DVR AT ALL. NADA, NOTHING!

I called comcast and they said that I wasn't registered for Hi-Def digital channels. and insisted I had to pay another $15+ per month to get it along with my digital Hi-Def Box. I was already being charged on my account an $11+ fee for box and Digital HD Service... but this was the clue that something was up.

1 week later I got my BroadBandReport Monitor. When they reset my Digital DVR box.. they apparently passed thru their cable modem... to MY Linksys Router (BEFSX41).. Reset MY Router, and according to LinkSys also changed and LOCKED DOWN MY QOS settings. When I say "MY" router.. I own it.. Private Property, Comcast crossed the line from their equipment into MY System (where are the feds when you need them). What's even worse.. My wife is a Federal investigator on Health Care Fraud and the comcast Breach of my system could have/ May Have allowed them to access and violate HIPPA records security.

Since My system has a paid monitor on it.. what clearly showed that it had been reset was that for over a week BBR was unable to "Ping" my system as that was one of the changes made when Comcast Reset the modem. One whole week + for solid BLUE no connect. Stuck out like a sore them, and the time of loss was also clearly noted in the hourly detail... and I was on the computer on the lockdown reset, and on the phone with them about loss of my DVR recordings when they reset released the Cable TV box DVR access, after I agreed to the $15+ increase (which has already been removed and found to be wrong by a supervisor)

When I got the BBR on my paid for monitor.. I immediatly called comcast and advised them what had happened.. When I told them they had crossed the sacred line from the Cable Modem to MY router.. the agent on the line tried to tell me that was OK since the router was also comcast. When I informed him otherwise.. All He** broke lose and the agent got very nervious. When they checked and realized I was right, and told them what they had done, the call was very quickly terminated and I was told that they had no way to reset the modem back and unlock it.

Since that time at least 3 Comcast techs have shown up at my door, which I have not allowed in. The Router, even though both LinkSys support and I have tried, will not unlock. LinkSys did say they have run into this modem being locked down, and all cases were on Comcast.

The most important setting that they locked is my ability to control my Upload speed to my Load Balancer and keep it fed.

I have upgraded Comcast service (8 down and supposedly 768 up) but I was pushing Comcast with 1024 via the balancer successfully since the service upgrade.

Do we download via Bittorrent, torrent, etc., Yes.. My 35 Year Old Son will DL from time to time Discography's to decide if he wants to purchase the rest he doesn't have or to find out what he is missing.. What he needs, he really goes and purchases and then throws out what he DL'd (storage space issue) I am personally a history buff for old historic bluegrass (Carter Family, Clinch Mountain History, etc) and in most cases.. a DL is the only place you can find these Historic songs... so yes.. I use it for that also. I sometimes use torrents to transfer files to other that I do Volunteer computer work for. .. Valid Tax Exempt Canine and Health care organizations.

I have noted that on several other forums (not here but on BBR) that this has happened to others, I have the .CSV files, BBR is archiving the Graphs and Reports on their end for me (secure evidence trail as advised by HIPPA, who had to be contacted due to the possible medical records breach). The BBR reports on loss of ping and restoration of ping ability are clearly noted and coincide with the events and phone calls.

If anyone knows of this happening on their system, or on another monitored system, I'd really like to know.

I am a 60 year old, medically retired with Cancer, computer Admin and Network person with what I and others feel is a documented breach by Comcast. Since I have confirmed more cases of this out there than just mine over the last several weeks.. I thought I'd ask the question if anyone knows of such events with others.

I'm not a person to use forums such as this, I probably have only registered with 2-3 over the last many years, but I do a lot of reading of the forums to try to stay as current as I can. If this is not the right forum for such a posting, please forgive my aged stupidity.. just call it CHEMO brain syndrome.

Comcast has been pushing their phone service around here and I'm regularly getting calls from them. It's is clearly in my records that I am an Old Line VONAGE Subscriber for the last 4 years.. a Happy and Old Vonage customer with 4 lines by Vonage and we prevously caught comcast Packet Sniffing UDP.. so they really don't like me. But if they can do this to me, cross the line, they can do this to you.

The problem is now in the hands of the feds.. we shall see. And I am sorry for the long post and detail. As a newbie to the forum I should not have.. but it's best to keep it all the events and info together.

Thank You for your time

MarshaLLL

[BHG]

Note that Canada's Bell Sympatico has now begun to throttle all Bittorrent/P2P traffic in some areas of Quebec/Montreal - and surrounding areas. The throttling is worst between 5pm and 1am EST. Downloads will go from 400KB/sec down to 30KB/sec. Uploads from 82KB/sec to 30KB/sec. During this time, most web browsing / web file downloading will remain uncapped, however, anything upload intense, like large emails, will also be slow.

Throttling may begin after 4pm EST, but, it is not all the way down to 9% speed.

Lazy bitfield on & full encryption, plus, switching ports will only work for around 1 minute, however, once Sympatico's new traffic control confirms that the new port you are using has a single confirmed P2P similar packet sent on it, or, external flagged IPs in their database access that port, anything else on that port from there on in will be throttled.

I wish all those trying to find a stable & untraceable work around the best of luck. It'll make my day since I have no other ISP choice in my area.

[png19]

I've tried encrypting on utorrent and it does diddlysqaut. It's useless.

I'm on Virginmedia UK cable, which is shit. Already I've noticed that they're capping at 1mb after 5pm, and stopping p2p from working properly after that time. I get about 5kbs if I'm lucky, after 5pm. Since I bought into the service so I could use my p2p etc. the bloody thing is virtually useless to me. I plan on cancelling before the 28 days and getting a refund. If companies want to keep customers they need to get with the program. P2P isn't going away, so they're just going to lose customers by trying to restrict it.

Does anybody know a way around this problem? As I say, encrypt does nothing to prevent the traffic shaping after 5pm.

[apptransteam]

use a proxy server on your computer and configure the socket proxy in it and in uTorrent.

A good proxy server program: ccproxy

Maybe this future will solve your problem

[Softmod]

Glad I am with Virgin Media

[Gus]

I confirm Bell Sympatico now throttles p2p.

25-30k between 5pm - 1am

50-60k rest of the time

sigh

[silverstars1983]

damn it, mine is on the list I Knew it i knew it i knew it

this compagnie called Ono in Spain has run an experiment in an entire province of Spain (Zaragoza) to limit all p2p connections (average speeds did not pass 15kbps). Is this even legal? This is completely outrageous knowing they charge over 40€/month for a lousy 6mbps (that they just increased recently, before that 3mbps). They say they have the fastest connection available in Spain, say that the people of the province of Zaragoza.

[xerox6502]

I wish I had some suggestions that worked ... I will certainly post if I find one. For now, just let me confirm that Comcast New England, as far as I can tell, is blocking seeding. If you have any choice DO NOT USE COMCAST INTERNET (or TV for that matter ... bastards.)

Just for the record ... here is a link to the comcast site where they do admit (to some extent) to messing with P2P. (Though I believe what they do to bock seeds (forging disconnect packets) goes beyond what they admit to (and may be illegal, and definitely should be illegal.)

http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=Hot118986

[Mat_Glidden]

I have South Eastern Bellsouth Fast Access DSL Xtreme 6.0 6Mbps DL 512Kbps UL, with a Westell 6100 modem. However I am routed which now brings my connection being that it is split to the max of 3.3Mbps DL and 420Kbps UL bit-rate. Now that's with speed results straight from my ISP ( www.speed.fastaccess.com ).I also have my µTorrent Tweaked accordingly to what I have read all through out the Google search engine, and finally settled on the one I find the most comprehensive and in Depth guide (http://www.xtreme-source.com/tutorials-p2p-peer-2-peer/491-utorrent-tweaking.html). I have my TCP/IP patched, because I have XP Home SP2. With LvlLords TCP Patch. My question is could some one offer me there oppinion on what My optimal settings should be for µtorrent? Or maybe I posted this in the wrong thread of the µtorrent forum, and could perhaps guide me in the right direction. All HELP would be greatly appreciated!

><7r3/\/\3_|_0773|v_|_s

[Russel]

Hmm... For me SSH is not the real way to solve the throttling ISP. The VPN tunnel is what, the real surfer needs. It doesn't make your connection slower, it grows up. And more stable, then SSH. try http://strongvpn.com/