1.8 Slowness!

[nijiro]

I was doing great speed-wise using uTorrent. It kept bugging me to update to 1.8 so I did, and now suddenly my speeds are DESTROYED. Like, speeds of 50-400 kb/s have fallen to 0.1-3 kb/s with the only change being that I updated. It's simply unacceptable.

I've tried a variety of torrents and my speed is staying bad. I have FIOS for the record.

I think that maybe, my problem could be fixed if I could port forward? But when I try to do so in the way I have in the past with other ISPs, it takes me to this page with the Verizon logo and asks for a password. I live with my parents and asked them about it and they said they don't have a password for the internet, so either, do they not know what I'm asking for, or would I have to call Verizon and set one up? In that case, how do I justify asking to port forward? I just don't want to make my parents look suspicious because it is in their name, you know.

Or will porting forward not fix the problem? Keep in mind before updating I got speeds of up to 400k without doing so, so theoretically it appears that the update, which was supposed to make things better, made them worse!

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[Switeck]

Port forwarding should help...but if it's REALLY slow, doubtful port forwarding will work on the main problem...whatever that may be.

Try the 1st and 2nd links in my signature -- they're for troubleshooting and setting speeds.

[Firon]

Do you have a software firewall? What is the tracker status?

Post a HijackThis log please.

Port forwarding will help speeds once you resolve the other issue.

[nijiro]

I have a firewall that comes with Norton's, will the update have taken utorrent off of my "allow" list for some reason? I'll take a look at it and see, I hadn't thought of that.

I'm afraid I don't know what a HijackThis log is. :/

I'll also check out the links, thank you!

[Firon]

Because utorrent updates in place, firewalls tend to block it silently. You'll have to take it off the allow list and readd it in Norton.

That being said, Norton is a pretty poor firewall... Comodo is a better choice.

http://www.google.com/search?q=hijackthis

[nijiro]

uTorrent was still on my allow list, so I took it off and then put it back on again as suggested, then tried one of the Linux torrents, and it works, I got over 600k, so I am satisfied. So either every other torrent I had tested had issues, or Norton did something weird, or some combination of the two I figure. I can work on the port forwarding issue if it comes up but I'm not hurting for speed as I figure, and I can seed just fine. Thanks so much to everyone for your help!

[Switeck]

You can share better with others if you aren't firewalled via 1 forwarded port on your router to minimize security risks.

You cannot upload or download from firewalled peers/seeds if you are also firewalled.

MANY torrents are over 75% firewalled peers/seeds...eventually, you'll find a torrent you can't complete because the 1 seed is firewalled.

[nijiro]

The port I use for uTorrent is not firewalled under my current settings. Do I HAVE to port forward for it to be effective at all? Because I don't know how feasible porting forward/port forwarding (I've always used the previous term but I'm not sure which is more correct) is for me, given that I'm working on a connection that is not under my name, and I'd have to work with my parents (the ones under whose name it is) and Verizon in order to be able to do so. I went through the steps at one point and came to a wall, I apparently need a Verizon password to alter the settings of the router, and as I said before my parents don't know of any password, therefore I would have to call Verizon, and along with them, set one up, or maybe even have a "guy" come out (I don't know because I've never had FIOS so I don't know their policies on that sort of stuff), and I will probably need to explain to Verizon why I want all this, and I just want to be sure that they won't find my desire to port forward for the use of a P2P program dubious. For myself I wouldn't care, but it's my parents, you know, and they don't need any hassle about it, especially because being older they don't understand any of it.

I never pursued it further because everything seemed to work fine without me having to.

If it's the case that I pretty much MUST port forward (I mean, I have the green icon, and I've never encountered any issues that seem to come from the fact that I haven't done so, but of course no one wants to inadvertently be a "bad seeder" either), can you give me any advice on how work that properly, given my situation? Thanks in advance.

[Switeck]

Is UPnP enabled in uTorrent?

That can auto-forward your port from your router to your computer.

If that doesn't work, I guess you'll just have to live with the yellow light for now.

[nijiro]

Yes it is, that may explain why I get the green icon without having ported forward manually... Good to know either way, I didn't know that was what that does >_>;