µTorrent doesn't start downloading

[Masku-Meen]

I'm using the client in my school and it gets the number of seeders and downloaders but it doesn't start dowloading. How to get it working?

[thelittlefire]

It's very likely you can't download on-campus. Many campuses have IT policies about things like filesharing and p2p --generally banning it. However most don't care/monitor streaming sites like youtube... go figure.

When you're behind the campus NAT (at minimum, likely also QoS and packet filtering) you must rely on people being connectable. It's possible you might be able to increase connectivity by reducing features as shown in the speed problems sticky.

[Masku-Meen]

O...kay! I just wander why isn't it possible to download because µTorrent is able to get the number of seeders etc. So it is connected to servers somehow? It just doesn't start downloading?

BTW all websites are working in school's computers. Does that tell anything?

[Flippie]

uTorrent works mostly trough other ports through a router/firewall. Website's go through port 80 (standard)

uTorrent uses another port. (for example 8888) The administrator on your campus has probably shut all ports and has opened only the ones that are needed (for security reasons). So port 80 is opened en port 8888 is closed. In this way, all the data of uTorrent will simply be thrown away because the port is closed

[Masku-Meen]

I tried the port 80 and it said in the port test that the port doesn't seem to be open.

Is it possible to solve out which port is open?

[Sandy01]

I'm having the same problem on my home pc. I have downloaded the latest utorrent when it first came out and had no problems with it but am finding some things will download while others won't even start and only in this past week. Either that or they have started to get partway through and then just stop while other things work perfectly. That tells me my ports and all other settings must be right so I checked the info about trackers, seeders etc and find while there are some offline, there seem to be plenty of others online and working who would or maybe even should be able to keep the download going. For example, there might be ten trackers or seeders or whatever they are called, two of whom aren't working or aren't available but that still leaves me with eight, for example, that are. In fact, the program even says it is downloading yet nothing is happening. It is also seeding perfectly so someone is obviously able to get it from me - at least up until the point where mine stopped. I'm no expert on this so if anyone can help, they'll have to use basic terms that a novice like me can understand. It mystifies me why part works and part doesn't. I've never had a problem with utorrent before - in fact it's been the best of all that I've used but I haven't heard of this problem before in any forums (I could have easily missed the thread). I can't even blame my isp - they sometimes slow downloads down but then that would mean I'd have the same problem with every download and I don't and the problem is currently with three files all from different torrent sites - there just doesn't seem to be anything that's a common thread between them. Any help appreciated - thanks.

[thelittlefire]

You can't download more % than Availability * 100 (check the General tab). You can't download from no peers. Tracker errors are denoted by the red icons in the far left of the main torrent pane and can be seen in the Trackers tab.