torrent downloading disconnects me from the internet

[badnat]

This started happening to me a couple days ago. I've made no hardware changes; done nothing different. I've successfully been using torrent clients for years. Suddenly I'm being disconnected from the internet every few minutes, and I have to unplug/reset my (cable) modem to reestablish a connection.

I've recently been using Azureus, and just switched back to uTorrent to see if the problem was software specific. I was getting great dl speeds for about 30 minutes, then suddenly the issue resurfaces.

I tried reducing max global connections to pathetic numbers--at about 10 it takes some time before I lose connection. I cut the max_halfopen to '4' and no difference. (no idea what this does; just been trying different suggestions in different threads) I've tried changing the port number... btw, I'm directly connected to a wireless router, which is in turn directly connected to my modem. I use static IPs and the proper port is forwarded.

I'm at a loss as to what to do. I've heard a crappy router can cause this, and while I won't deny the my router is crappy, it has been working fine for a couple years. Is it likely my ISP? Might giving them an angry phone call help?

[thelittlefire]

If your ROUTER must be rebooted then it could be dying, however if it's the modem which is resetting, the MODEM may be ending life early :/

So, can you test ONE torrent only with only 10 connections? http://slackware.com/torrents/

Also, have you tried disabling DHT?

[badnat]

At this point I'm pretty convinced it is my modem that's on its death bed. I just tried switching out my router for an older one to no avail. I've been on the phone with my ISP and they're sending a guy out this week to check out the modem and cables.