High UL speeds (40 kb/s) Slow DL Speeds (under 20 kb/s)

[MnMike1981]

Hi, I'm new to the whole torrent thing and I seem to be experiencing slow downloads. I will try to be as specific as possible. If I don't list enough or too much, I'm sorry. Let me know and I can provide more info if needed.

My speed tests at dslreports.com are as listed: 3372 kb/s download, 620 kb/s upload and 20ms latency. Currently I have Embarq DSL modem (660R) hooked up to a Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router for my laptop and my girlfriend's laptop. I am running Win xp w/ sp3 and my Anti-Virus is Norton 360 with Windows firewall turned off.

Here are my UTorrent settings and what I've tried:

Connection Settings:

Port Number: 63707, which is not forwarding properly

Enable UPnP port mapping (unchecked) I've tried checked too

Enable NAT-PMP port mapping (unchecked) I've tried checked too

Add Windows Firewall Exception (unchecked) Windows firewall is off

Bandwith Settings:

Maximum upload rate (kb/s): 43

Global maximum number of connections: 50

Maximum number of connected peers per torrent: 30

Number of upload slots per torrent: 3

Use additional upload slots if upload speed <90% (checked)

Bit Torent Settings:

Enable DHT Network (unchecked) Tried Checked

Enable DHT for new torrents (unchecked) Tried Checked

Enable Local Peer Discovery (unchecked) Tried Checked

Protocol Encryption:

Outgoing: Forced

Allow incoming legacy connections (checked)

Advanced Settings:

Net.max_halfopen changed from 8 to 4

Peer.lazy_bitfield is set to true

I think those are most of my settings on UTorrent if I forgot anything let me know. Currently I am uploading faster than I'm downloading, just like the subject says. When I download in another program such as Limewire I get marketably faster DL speeds i.e. 100-150. Just a note I did follow the steps for port forwarding on portforward.com for both my DSL modem and Linksys Router and I did follow the instructions for Norton 360 on this Forum. I've also tested to see if my ISP is throttling the bittorrent traffic on Glasnost and it is not. After all of it I still have a yellow caution on the bottom of the UTorrent screen.

I am probably overlooking something simple, so any suggestions or comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

MIKE

[Switeck]

Some software on your computer may be acting as a (badly-written!) software firewall, blocking/slowing uTorrent.

Antivirus and antispyware security suites are prone to doing this...

[MnMike1981]

any suggestions on what type of software would do this?

[Switeck]

Yeah, Norton.

[MnMike1981]

What do you suggest for an Anti-Virus software that will work with UTorrent and do it's job?

[Ultima]

Avira AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com)

[MnMike1981]

Thank you, Good Sirs. Thank You. So your saying if this doesn't work I should toss my computer off my balcony?

So I just uninstalled Norton 360..Out of curiosity I started UTorrent without any antivirus or firewall on just for about 15 minutes. And it tells me that my port is still not forwarding properly. I've double checked the setting in my wireless router, which has the port forwarded to my computer and my modem, which has the port forwarding to my wireless router. I'm going to download and install Avira as mentioned and will update you with the status.

Okay here is what I found out on the port forward forum. http://forum.portforward.com/YaBB.cgi?board=Knowledge;action=display;num=1139203841....basically my "modem" is actually a router so I'm double Nat'd! I can either buy a wireless access point or try and convert my linksys router to one! YAY! FUN!

Converting wasn't that hard it was a couple of easy steps. This might be a quick fix for ADSL subscribers, like myself. Now all of my gear is on the same subnet of my Embarq router. UTorrent is still not forwarding my port correctly so I am going to do a complete uninstall and delete all settings and reinstall. Hopefully that will work

[Sandy01]

OK but there is more than one complaint about this problem in various parts of the forum and it can't all be software of varying types gone bad all at the same time. I'm using none of the software mentioned and I'm having the same problem and I have changed nothing in weeks. Two days ago, all was great but for two days straight, I've had massively slow downloads and increasingly great upload speeds which is great if I want to upload from myself. I'm in Australia where our bandwidth speeds aren't great at the best of times but I've gone from a regular 50kb download for the past six weeks to average of 6kb and that's ridiculous. What REALLY happened - it has to be something we ALL have in common and I'm guessing that would be utorrent.

[Switeck]

www.portforward.com ROUTERS section also contains info for many modems with mini-routers and/or firewalls built into them.

Sandy01,

Your ISP may have started severely disrupting BitTorrent traffic.

1st and 2nd links in my signature...we need more information if we are to troubleshoot it further!

[MnMike1981]

I was able to get my port to forward correctly finally!! But I am still getting slow download speeds...I have all the settings that all the forums suggest. DHT off, Uncheck resolve IP's etc...I'm pretty sure my computer is being bogged down by stuff running in the background. I'm going to do a complete reinstall of windows xp hopefully cleaning the software and junk will allow me to download faster!