Cut down default Half Open connections?

[thelittlefire]

It DOESN'T use 8 by default. The default setting is 8. The setting ALLOWS 8 simultaneous connection attempts to be made every second. That windows' built-in setting is 10 means that theoretically you'll get no or very rarely an occurrence whereby the networking stack is overloaded.

Increasing the setting in windows, and in-turn in uTorrent allows you to connect to more peers FASTER, not at any greater number than before. It doesn't magically make peers connectable which are firewalled or give you faster SPEEDS to those peers which do connect.

5 torrents simultaneously downloading is fine as long as you've got > 512 Kbit upload. The more peers you connect to the more upload is wasted on overhead than actual DATA you want to download. But this is still irrelevant to the task at hand and instead I'll direct you to the more-reserved settings Switeck made http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=34259

[Switeck]

A high half open limit in uTorrent is absolutely brutal on your upload bandwidth because of all the handshakes...ESPECIALLY if they're encrypted! It hits your download probably equally hard...but chances are you have 4-20 times more download than upload.

If you're not firewalled, it shouldn't be too long before peers+seeds are trying to connect to you due to Peer Exchange. (Peer Exchange unfortunately is disabled on private torrents.) So at least for public torrents, a high half open rate is really overkill...especially considering it's mostly just retrying dead-and-will-never-work or firewalled peers+seeds which CAN'T respond.

[Firon]

I'm fairly certain that Vista's halfopen is really 10 and not 25.

[Serge]

Hi Firon! :-)

Has the problem been solved for XP users in uTorrent 1.8.1 yet?

Advanced users may have solved or prevented the problem by using the LvlLord-tool, increasing the XP-HOC-limit from 10 to 50, but I am still concerned about all these 'innocent' XP users that don't know about that, and install 'the wicked' uTorrent with it's own HOC-limit of 8. (of course other torrent clients may have the problem as well.) They may get the problems, without clearly noticing it, or relating it to the running torrent client.

Above I saw, plans were considered to find a solution in 1.8.1.

I saw your list of changes (Good job!) in the new 1.8.1 beta, until 2008-09-12 (build 12183)

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=44704

But I didn't see anything about fixing this problem. Has it been done yet?

If yes, I'll do the experiments again to see if it's solved.

If no, are there still plans to fix it? And if fixed, could you post it in this forum topic?

Some considerations..

- It's unknown how widespread the problem for XP and Vista users really is. There wasn't much response in this topic. But it seems likely it occurs, when many torrents are loaded.

- Setting the uTorrent HOC limit to 3 solved the problem in XP here. Should that be default?

- If yes, existing users that upgrade uTorrent, will still have a limit of 8, unless Settings.dat will be changed at the new installation.

- If Settings.dat will simply be replaced, users will loose all their custom settings, perhaps without noticing it. So it should be changed, rather than replaced..

- For users that already have increased the XP HOC-limit, the new default uTorrent setting of 3 is useless, and a disadvantage. Also for users that do so, after installing the new uTorrent.

Just a suggestion from an amateur:

1. At installation set the default 3, including change of an existing settings.dat.

2. When uTorrent starts, a small popup window, saying:

Strongly recommended for Windows XP, using any torrent client:

Change your default XP setting, using this tool: Link to LvlLord.

Vista users can use this tool: Link to the Vista patch.

Button "Read more", with a small explanation and instructions where to change net_halfopen.

Checked check box saying: show this window next time uTorrent starts.

[Ultima]

Do test the current beta build. Of course we've tried to fix the issue, but we need confirmation from users actually experiencing the problem (like you).

[Serge]

@ Ultima..

The problem seems to be solved.. :-)

uTorrent 1.8.1.beta build 12183 runs smoothly here.. :-)

I used LvlLord again, to set the XP HOC limit back to the original 10.

In uTorrent I set net.max_halfopen to the default setting 8.

In Process Explorer, uTorrent does NOT show any gaps.

I share 160 torrents, 60 GB data, at a symmetrical internet connection of 10 Mbit/sec (might be 20 Mbit)

Currently I upload to 50 peers, permanently about 1 Mbyte/s. (while no downloads)

Under Help > Show statistics (repeatedly pressed) it says in 8 out of 10 cases:

# Half-open: 8 (8 connecting).

So it is likely, more people tried to connect, and the limit is working perfectly.

All blue sky and roses in Process Explorer.. :-)

No delays while checking email or web surfing. I fooled around a bit, having several windows open with Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3. Working perfect.

Even eMule seems to do better. Currently it uploads 500 Kbits/s to 20 peers.

Seems you have done well, with that 'hacking around'.. :-)

For me it is only a pleasure, helping making uTorrent better. (also a form of 'being connected')

I'll keep on checking if it works all right..

Thanks! :-)

PS: Do you still recommend using LvlLord to raise the XP HOC limit to 50?

[Ultima]

Awesome to hear

We've never actually recommended that anyone raise their limit in half-open connection limit in TCPIP.sys -- at least not unless it was the last resort. So no, we don't "still" recommend anyone bother raising that limit (not solely for the sake of using µTorrent/BitTorrent anyway; if you have other applications that use tons of half-open connections, then that's up to you and/or the applications).

[mfong]

Hello,

I am new to this and need help installing the "UTorrent" software. I download the software and click run. When i open the software, I go to the pull down menu in the right hand top corner but there is only "bittorrent" and "google," things like "minnova" or "isohunt" are not available. So whenever I search something it takes me to this weird google site. Can anyone help me correctly download the software so I may use it? Thank you.

[DreadWingKnight]

Not related to the topic.

[Serge]

Hello mfong!

Greeting, and hope you are doing well..

But this is not the right topic for your question.

Your download and installation are OK. Look here for your answer:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=4169 and ask further questions there, not here.

Copy the list of Engines in the first post there.

Then start uTorrent > Options > Preferences > Advanced > UI Extras.

And paste the list in the lower box, Search Engines.

Thanks for asking: I had the problem too. But next time, search the forum first..

@DreadWingKnight

Yeah, but the guy looked a bit as if he has just entered the common Hell of the PC-joy..

That reminded me it took me 30 minutes to learn I could click the Start-button in Win95. Not to mention what came after that.. So sometimes I can't resist to be nice.. grinn..