Yet another speed issue.

[windscryer]

I downloaded utorrent two days ago. Set it up as directed in the lovely n00b guides, got my ports forwarded, and started a download. For the first, oh, six hours or so it was AWESOME. I had right around 160 k/Bs download speeds. It took *ten minutes* to download a 350MB file, just like I was promised by the friend who pointed me this way. I was in heaven.

Then, without changing ANY settings and in the middle of a torrent that previously had been running these same speeds it dropped. Drastically. I'm now down to about 4 k/Bs with a rare max of 14-15.

I *was* using pretty much default settings for everything at first, but in the interest of self-help I used the tips in the sticky here the Speed forum, double-checked it was set to the proper speed and all that. My ISP does not throttle. I even tweaked the max_half_open (it's now at 2) and tried the net.bind_ip trick since I am running Vista.

Nothing.

Now this torrent I've had problems on is significantly larger (5.46GB) and just a little older (38 weeks to 4 weeks) than the other torrents I had screaming (for me ;D) speed on, which may be the issue. (If it is you can tell me honestly and I'll try to cowgirl up and find some paint to watch dry while waiting. )

But for the first few hours it was running this torrent it had the same high speeds and then it suddenly--for no reason I can see--dropped to almost nothing.

Here's a screen shot from which I'm sure some of you can glean information that's necessary to figure this out that I probably don't even know exists.

Any help that can be offered would be appreciated. If I have to I'll wait the two weeks to download this, but I'd really rather not. Thanks in advance!

Oh and I did try to search the forums for a similar problem, but beyond some of the more general tips didn't see anything useful or similar. If I missed it, feel free to point me in the right direction and stick a sign on my back that says 'n00b. plz kick meh in teh CPU.' ;D

Windscryer

[thelittlefire]

Well 350 MiB / 1.5Mbit/sec is almost 40 minutes to transfer that much data. So you're mistaken.

If you aren't uploading you won't get any reciprocal download from peers. On the other hand seeds will send you as much as they have available WHEN they unchoke you and you can't force the issue. To verfy it's not the torrent, try http://slackware.com/torrents/

It is highly possible you are right about your ISP which you don't mention, however the ISPs they partner with may not be so forgiving of torrenting traffic. In all cases follow the sticky, list your Ctrl-G settings and any limits you put.

[windscryer]

Oops. Sorry. I always was bad at math! I'm not sure what the download speed was then, because I know it only took ten minutes for those files. But right now since I'm running less than 1kB/s I'm looking at another two weeks for that one torrent to finish downloading. And it's at like 73.8% complete right now.

Okay, on that slackware torrent I do get up to somewhere around 93-105 k/Bs which isn't the speed I was at before, but is still better, so it may be partially the torrent's fault.

My original settings were at xx/1Mbit (UL:92 k/Bs, UL slots: 6, Conn/torr: 100, conn/globally:600, max active torr: 6, max active dl: 5) because I had no idea what I was doing and that sounded good.

Yeah, I know. *slaps self*

But after it died and I followed the guide to setting it up for n00bs, I tested out at the Dial-Up 56K level (which I don't understand as I have broadband and according to my provider *should* be much higher, but whatever.).

I'm now at the 56K level still with all Ctrl+ G settings at default except for maximum active downloads which is at one because it would take me a *year* to download the three torrents I want at that rate according to the ETA meter.

I used the Glasnost test link provided by Firon to verify that my ISP, Qwest, wasn't throttling and it says I'm good in that respect.

I don't think I put any limits on anything, except for the number of active downloads allowed. I just went with the default settings.

Uh . . . was that everything you needed?

One more thing: Can you tell me why on the slackerware torrent am I seeing 24 (56) for seeds and 6 (11) on peers, but for the other torrent it's more like 7 (111) for seeds and 6 (395) for peers. I get that I'm connecting to a higher percentage of both for the slackerware torrent, but is there anything I can do to see similar results for the other torrent that I want? Or does that not matter and I should stop trying so hard?

Thanks again!

Windscryer

[thelittlefire]

Well you see higher numbers comparatively because those torrents are hosted and configured correctly to allow for incoming peers. Due to NAT problems many peers cannot be made incoming, and many people don't bother setting themselves up for incoming for whatever reason. I forgot to ask is the port still showing as forwarded, I'm not sure when that screenshot was from.

However I have some bad news, Qwest isn't as "giving" with their bandwidth as you may think or be led to believe. It's possible you tripped their shaping mechanisms for utilizing a quota over what they think you should use. ALSO the fact on Qwest you speedtested at... DIALUP levels troubles me. Call them up and ask why your speedtests on their fiber line... suddenly took a nosedive. You may even get someone at the help desk who can tell you about traffic shaping policies for bandwidth usage. However don't count for it unless you ask for escalation :/

I would try stopping all traffic in uT for 4-6 hours (you can even use the scheduler) and see what happens then. Honestly some shaping mechanisms like Comcast's 15 minute rule are more likely but with that timeframe it allows things to calm down. You know you can scale the Speed tab to 5 minute intervals and see up to 10 hours of data... which would be very useful if say you set this for today while you're out

Here's hoping for a logical and swift solution.

[GunsNRoses]

sorry to interupt you guys, i have the same problem with my WIMAX. When I started downloading Slackware, its giving me the exact speed what my ISP offers. 50kb/s.

Honeslty, its beyond my understanding why it happens with the other torrents. I never got speed more than of 15kb/s and its very annoying.

I am observing this thread in order to see if there is any solution.

By the way this started after i got 1.8.1.

[thelittlefire]

If the test torrent works @ .5Mbit/sec then your line is going as well as can be expected. Did you update your firewall/AV/security software for the new update? Many silently block in-place updates.

[windscryer]

I occasionally seem to lose the forwarded port but it comes back on its own after a minute or two. I'm not sure what that means, but it's not a frequent occurrence. Maybe once every few hours that I've seen. Mostly it's green.

As to your suggestions . . .

Okay, I hope I'm understanding this. My ISP may be throttling so I have to trick it into *not* doing that by pausing my download for a few hours?

Well it's annoying, but worth a shot at this point.

Okay, I've set my scheduler and my speed chart is set for the ten hour log so we'll see what happens.

Oh and my internet does seem to work at the indicated speed for most things. Or at least it's fast enough for me to not have a problem with it.

Which is probably just another indication that Qwest does indeed throttle. *headdesk* Darn it.

Thanks so much for your help, thelittlefire! I know it can be annoying working with a total moron like me, and I appreciate you taking the time, even if it doesn't end up fixing anything. *hugs you*

Windscryer

EDIT: Nope. Still crappy speeds. But I'm beginning to suspect it's more to do with the torrent itself, than my connection or settings. When this one finally finishes--because if it's going to take a WEEK then I'm not going to delay it any more by bumping it out of place in the queue--I'll try a different, more popular torrent. We'll see then, hopefully.

Again, THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP! :D:D

-W