Can wrong settings affect my modem?

[SoftVision]

Well, the question is sumed up in the title.

I just switched ISPs a couple of days ago and remembered I always used my own settings while I was on the previous one.

However, having remembered reading somewhere how wrong setting can seriously screw up the local hardware, I did my Googling and of course found this thread.

I'm on 768 up and now that I've applied the suggeted settings, it seems like I'm getting slower speeds from public trackers with lots of seeders and leechers than I did before (I had 600 global max, 200 max peers per torrent, 10 upload slots, unlimited up).

So I'm wondering what to do here.

If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd be thankful. I would like to achieve bigger speeds if it's possible, but not if it means screwing up my modem.

Thanks in advance.

[seeing]

in short, yes

if the problem is the connection device then...

some modems/routers can not handle the amount of traffic generated by peer to peer networking and the devices sometimes can get flooded and lose connectivity

to compensate for this, you can try reducing the max connections e.t.c. until you strike a happy medium between the connection devices capability and your peer to peer application

you can also invest in a modem/router that is not supplied by your isp

also, the problem can be your isp capping the connection

remember to set your firewall after changing isp as your peer to peer application may be being read as a different application after the change and therefore would require new connection rules

[Switeck]

2nd link in my signature and choose 768 kilobits/second upload settings for more conservative settings for uTorrent. These should tend to help BEST on smaller torrent swarms with slow peers and seeds.

(NOTE: Settings are UPLOAD based!)

You may be able to tweak the values a little, maybe even double per-torrent and global connection max. But anything beyond that should reduce speeds rather than raise them.

[SoftVision]

Thanks for your quick replies, guys.

seeing, my current modem is Thomson SpeedTouch 780WL, just got it from the ISP the other day. From what I've read on some domestic forums, that particular ISP does just about every tweak to that modem in the name of optimum performance, including closing every unneeded port. But I still haven't had any issues. Quite to the contrary, my internet works flawlessly.

Unfortunately, no other modem works with this ISP, don't ask me why. But there's no capping going on, this particular ISP cdoesn't even have a fair usage policy for flat rate.

Any word on that modem model as to handling bittorrent?

So, in what way can I do damage to the modem? And what could be the results of pushing it too hard?

Switeck, yes, your instructions were the ones I used. But it seems like ever since I configured like you suggest, I'm getting slower speeds. However, it's a rather big swarm it's happening in, I haven't yet tested smaller ones you mention.

If I double per torrent and global cons max., am I putting my modem to danger?

[seeing]

try running with lower not higher settings

you need to source the problem so doubling these values could actually slow things down as opposed to speed things up

for example: if you have 500 max connections then try running at 50 for a period of time and monitor any changes e.t.c...

keep experimenting with this approach until some stability is reached with your connection

if nothing changes after these tests then you have eliminated this as a possible cause to your problem

physical damage to your modem is highly unlikely as most are built to switch off / lose/drop connections when a certain threshold is reached

[Switeck]

I agree with seeing.

Please try what seeing said.

[SoftVision]

Thanks, guys, for your replies.

I have, however, tried doubling the two values as Switeck first suggested and within minutes my download speed increased by 400%.

Still, I will try running future torrents with even lower settings than they initially were and see what happens.

But I have a feeling, just like Switeck said earlier, that settings do depend on the swarm size, at least to some extent.

That's good news that modems have protection schemes, I really wouldn't want to see it malfunction because I was killing it with torrents. That was actually my prime concern when I opened this thread.

Thanks again, guys, I will bump this thread back when I make some tests with different values.

[Switeck]

Too few or too many upload slots can also hurt your download speeds.

EACH upload slot really needs to get about 3-5 KB/sec while downloading.

Any slower and peers may ignore you or upload mostly to others.

Any higher...and few peers can or will upload that fast back!

While seeding, upload slots can be far fewer and average upload speed per upload slot can be much higher. But it's still best to use at least 3 total active upload slots across all your torrents...if you can upload at least 10 KB/sec total.