Cut down default Half Open connections?

[Serge]

I can't check the problem with the firewall off, or uTorrent as completely trusted app, now my XP HOC limit is 50. I would have to change it to 10 again, reboot, and after that do it again. It's to much trouble, then usually I have a lot of windows open.

But I think I tried with the firewall off, to see if the problem would be solved? That is one of the first things you do..

But thanks anyway! I hope for another problem, then this forum is fun.. :-)

[Firon]

That being said, we've found the issue with why 1.8 is so much more likely to end up in a permanent state of offline trackers. It's a Windows issue (big surprise there), but we'll be hacking around it once again in 1.8.1.

[Serge]

YEAH!!

When 1.8.1 becomes available, I'll set HOC back to 10, and see if this problem is solved too.

I hope, the quacking doesn't have to start again then.. :-)

About insulting Windows: I am a Windows-Veteran ever since Win95, seeing my life go up in smoke. I can't recall Who or What I had to solve in my environment during these thousands of hours. I do admit it was great fun, but many of my other interests went to the trash can. And even now XP works pretty well, and problems are solved much more easily, after 5 years I can't get myself that far to buy a legal Windows version. If they paid me a dollar for every hour I had to spend to get things fixed, that should work well, I could buy Vista's for the whole street..

[Switeck]

For what it's worth, reducing half open connection limit down to 6 by default isn't a bad idea.

If you're not firewalled in uTorrent, incoming connections do NOT count against uTorrent's half open connection limit.

[Firon]

HOC needs to be set to 8, not 10, if your tcpip.sys is unpatched.

[Serge]

Yes!... I meant for testing I would temporarily set the XP HOC limit back to the original 10, by re-patching tcpic.sys, and of course set the uTorrent HOC limit to the default of 8.

Of course the only concern here is users, getting into trouble with standard values. (I wouldn't dare to bother you with anything else, like 'look ma!'-settings..)

[SawyerX]

I can confirm on this so called websurfing timeouts with utorrent at default 8 of halfopen connection settings. But I dont believe this has alot to do with utorrent itself but with the halfopen connection patch not working correct.

I do use Vista 64 SP1, my connection is fiber 20/20Mbit and I had also slowdowns until I decided to set it to max 2 half open connections. Now the problem seems to have dissapeared and I can surf normal again and I didnt notice any slowdown in donwload or upload speed at all. But Mostly I dont use torrents with more then 50 peers anyway, private trackers, very seldom torrents from open trackers.

I will try to apply the max half open connection patch and enable a 50k limit on this open connections in Vista, then set utorrent to a bigger number and select some torrent with lots of peers.

According to the patch. I should be able to surf normal if its supposed to work.

However when the peers are connected and no new incoiming coming or searching the half open connection stay at 0 anyway when going by the statistic menu in utorrent. Funny it needs to be reopened each time to get the current reading.

[DreadWingKnight]

The patch is for half-open connections only, not fully established ones.

If you're overloading your setup's fully established connection tracking limits, then increasing the number of connections won't help, and increasing the half-open connection limit in uT will only bring your surfing to a halt faster.

[SawyerX]

Alright I just set it to 25 like I believe is the Vistats Ultimate limit by default and it started to slow down web surfing already. They are all in use by utorrent.

I just need to boot Vista with F8 and disable the driver integrity check to test the 50k limit. But cant do that just jet from remote control so will have to test later at home.

[Serge]

Thanks SawyerX! Indeed the Windows XP HOC limit of 10 is causing the problems.

But I had to apply the LvlLord patch TWICE to increase that.

So I recommend to run the patch twice, just to check if the new value indeed is 50.

Thanks for confirming that also websurfing delays.

If you haven't done so: download microsoft's "Process Explorer". Run it. Double click uTorrent > Tab Performance Graph. If there is a problem, you immediately see the gaps of zero speed. That means here: uTorrent freezes.

[SawyerX]

I tried it now first time and it didnt work. I still get 4226. Error. Will try again the manual way.

EDIT:

It works now the manual way since no autopatch really worked. This method is the new one. Its even supported by my ISP as a speedguide when it comes to connection slowdowns

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/04/09/windows-vista-tcpipsys-connection-limit-patch-for-event-id-4226/

EDIT2:

I'm also noticing that a big number like 160 what seems to be the max in utorrent seemt to make my upload crawle into 512kbps (60kB/s) maximum. Whaist a low number 20 and under seems to push into 300kB/s+ Even a lower number like 2 seems to go all way to 2MByte/s. Could this infact be tha case? Sicne such things are hard to test in uneven conditions.

In most cases I even get a 0 upload to some peers which should 99% at last leech 10kB/s from me. Usuually all the way to 1MByte/s

EDIT3:

Alright the lower the number the faster my upload gets. At 1 half open its the fastest to date yet. So there seems to be something wrong with utorrent or my modem just cant handle more then 1 good. lol

[Serge]

What did you try? What didn't work? Do you use Process Exolorer to monitor traffic? What do you do manual?

I have some 4226 errors too, 3x per day at a XP HOC limit patched to 50. But I don't worry because Process Explorer does not show problems. And I have my uTorrent HOC limit at 30, while default is 8. I'm too lazy to set it back to 8. So I don't worry about some 4226 errors.

[SawyerX]

Well you could have set it higher then 50 also. I have mine at 50.000. Which comes with this patch as a registry entry.

But right now I found out that I get the best upload and download speed with half open set to very low 1-8 in utorrent. I connect to peers slower but the speeds are higher for some reason.

I can reach all the way to 20Mbit in one torrent in which I normaly reached only like 5Mbit.

But what I know for sure that a limit like 160 half open connection seems to kill utorrents speeds dramatically. I will just let it low 8 or so. I dont worry much about how fast I get the peers but how fast I upload

[Serge]

As long as you do not use Process Explorer, I can't tell you anything. You may have the gap-problem at higher HOC settings then 1, but you need Process Explorer to see that.

I had huge problems every 10 seconds or so, but it didn't show as a 4226 error in Event Viewer.

[SawyerX]

A suggestion for the admins. Has anybody thought about a TURBO button for this? Like enable it and increase the half open connections to 50 or so then depress it and put it back to default value. So you would get the peers really quick then reset it back.

Or maybe an option for this to enable on new torrent starts.

Dont worry its all ok now.

http://shrani.si/f/v/3i/18eBVhmd/browse.jpg

[Firon]

Has anyone actually even confirmed Vista offers different half-open limits for each version?

[Serge]

Sorry, I don't use Vista.

Does Vista have a system tool to watch or change HOC limits?

I don't know if LvlLord works on Vista. My guess: not.

[SawyerX]

I dont know if its confirmed but I think I read somewhere that home has 10 and Ultimate 25. Anyway I settled for 40 halfs now and seems to work all around. If it reaches 80. I get email connection slowdows to even timeouts.

And no Lvlord doesnt work with Vista. Not even the autopatches from the page I added work for me. So I had to use the manual way of setting it up and you also have to start vista each time with another boot setting due to driver integrity check optin which kind of sux abit.

In an ideal word. I would want my utorrent to start new torrents with lets say 50 HOC. Then drop them automatically to 8 or lower after some 10-60 seconds. Or even have an button to do this manualy. Maybe this can already be done with some quick keys I dunno.

[tjobo]

Vista 32/64bit and all other windows versions patch can be downloaded here:

www.half-open.com

[Serge]

Tjobo.. :-) That I call efficient posting! HOC Patch for Vista!

[SawyerX]

I didnt wanna use a russian patch tbh. Rather like to do it the manual way.

[thelittlefire]

Don't bother increasing it, it doesn't increase your speeds

[SawyerX]

Its not about the speed but respnosivnes of your web and email surfings. I also dont like to use that Russian patch for 2 reasons.

1. The explanation is very poor. What the crap about a watermark and so. It says nowhere that you have to use Vista with driver integrity check off.

2. It cant even read the actual number of half open connections right. Firstly it read 10 whailst it should be 25 according to several webpages. Now it reads 255 whailst it should be 50.0000. Now if MS has released another fix which prevents values over 255 I dont know. But better be safe then sorry and do it the manual way.

[thelittlefire]

... oh, in that case, HEY I'm not alone in browsing 30 tabs simultaneously in my Firefox <3

Btw, I think the HARD CAP is 2^24-1 but I could be wrong... 10 connections a second is STILL alot of connections. Does your computer fry an egg?

[SawyerX]

how is 10 alot if utorrent alone uses 8 by default. 10 is nothing. One webpage with some pictures can use this up preatty easy. Dont even compare Firefox with IE.

I just know that if I start 3 opentracker fullseded torents and 2 private tracker ones with 40 HOC. I get the peers very quick, they build up into 200+. But the upload remains very very very low, but if I restart with just one. They build up slow but the upload shoots up alot.

honestly I dont think now that there is much gain in having this higher then 1 now. Since the peers even at one build up quick still but reamin low at around 50-60.