Neither "Network OK" nor "NAT error"

[erikp]

I went from using Azureus for my torrenting and to uTorrent a few days ago. uTorrent installed nicely and really appreciate the less memory hogging, but unfortunately I can't get it to transfer anything.

First of all, I'm behind a router with built-in firewall that I'm not allowed to alter. With Azureus I got different comments ranging from "NAT OK" over "NAT was OK, however no incoming TCP connections" to "NAT error". Most of the time it said "...no incoming TCP conn.." though. With uTorrent I find lots of seeds, peers and DHT-users, but it's not transferring anything. I'm wondering why I get neither "Network OK" nor "NAT error" in the taskbar of uTorrent.

Here's a screenshot of uTorrent to help identify my problem.

I tried to follow the "Important checklist and proper format for asking for help here!", but feel free to ask for more intel if neccessary...

UPDATE: The subject is bad: It has been asked before and it's not really my problem. My actual problem is what setting to alter to make uTorrent act like Azureus...

[erikp]

It just hit me that I got the beta verson (build 411) off the uTorrent site, so i tried with the stable version (build 402) and it has found to seeds now. Will report back whether or not it's able to transfer anything...

[Firon]

http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#What_does_the_no_entry_symbol_mean_on_the_torrent_status_icons.3F

[erikp]

Yeah, I read that Firon, but unfortunately my problem can't be caused by the trackers, because I tried loading the exact same torrents in Azureus and it works flawlessly.

[Firon]

Azureus has a DDB to let trackers work when the tracker is down. µTorrent has one too, but it's on a separate network from Azureus', so there may not be any mainline compatible DHT peers on that particular torrent.

[erikp]

The 250 DHT peers I'm connected to, do they all leech or seed the same torrents as me or is that all the DHT peers in the network? So if none of them have loaded the same torrents as me they are no good?

[Firon]

They're just peers you're directly connected to on the network. Everyone (including you) carries data about torrents (usually a few hundred), regardless of if they have those torrents or not. It doesn't matter who you're connected to, you'll always get DHT peers for your torrents if any exist, since it propagates throughout the network.

[erikp]

Well how come I don't get any connections with uTorrent then? I've loaded one of the same torrents in Azureus and it has no problem getting connections. Is it simply because the DHT network of uTorrent is not extensive enough? uTorrent has been online for 2 days with to relatively popular torrents and no data has been received, but with Azureus I got 32 MB down from just one of the torrents in 3-4 hours.

You still don't think there's something wrong with my settings?

[erikp]

Something is all wrong.

I tried installing uTorrent on my laptop instead of my server, and after running 5 min it's almost max'ing out my connection - with the same torrents as my server hasn't been able to get a single bit from over 2 days. I went through all of the settings to make sure they were the same, made sure uTorrent.exe was excluded in Win XP firewall and finally disabled the firewall but no luck.

What do you think is wrong? Is there any way to reset all of the uTorrent settings because they do not seem to be stored in the exe itself.

[Firon]

Any software firewalls or anti-virus programs? Anything in this list? http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#Incompatible_software

Delete settings.dat and settings.dat.old in %AppData%\uTorrent

[erikp]

At first I tried deleting the two files you suggested, then all of the files in the folder and then i tried copying the files from my laptop to the server - but they were all no goes. I've also tried shutting down the anti virus services I had running.

[Firon]

What anti-virus is it?

[erikp]

AVG 7.0 but I've shut down all of the services it runs normally.

[sk1]

I have the same problem before it was working properly now its messed up i dunno whats wrong with it

[bluenotes]

I also have the same problem: neither "network ok" nor "nat error" are present. There are zeros for seeds and peers showing outside of the parentheses, but very busy inside, and after conference with friends using the same torrents, their results are showing very much activity in the same torrent. In my case, I also show zero availability and in highlighting the torrent, it is accompanied with the solid red bar as far as availability when I know that they are active. I've adjusted all the parameters to optimize according to your advisements. The program worked beautifully for the nine days that I used it when I first discovered it but now it is just sitting there...dead. This is very frustrating. There is no firewall blocking, Zone Alarm has all the right allowances, and Avg is right also. I get the "ok" from the port forwarding tests. My OS is XP pro SP2 on cable that is supposedly a 3mb package(overrated). Is it possible to get a port "ok" and still be cut off by my ISP as far as this activity? Everything else on my system works fine. I've also gotten rid of every trace of u torrent including the specifics in Application Data in order to start fresh, but still no activity. I've tried two different versions also, but to no avail. I don't seem to be having any revelations about proceeding. I know there is probably some tiny detail that's been overlooked and I love this program, so would very much appreciate any way in which I can be enlightened. I need to fire it up! Thanks.

[typ2]

I was having this problem too. I deleted the settings.dat and settings.dat.old files and it did the trick. My downloads still seem to be a bit slower than normal but it's way better than nothing.

thanks Firon

[erikp]

typ2 you lucky bastard..

I'm having exactly the same problem as bluenotes described so thoroughly, and I think I've tried just about everything. I can definely rule out my ISP/router setup being the problem as I get great speeds with uTorrent installed on my laptop and with Azureus installed on any PC on my network.

Somehow bluenotes, sk1 and me most have some weird faulty settings hiding somewhere since deleting settings.dat and .old won't do the trick.

Update:

I GOT IT TO WORK!

I deleted my old uTorrent install folder, all old shortcuts, the files under %AppData%, removed the exception in XP's firewall, did a search for uTorr and deleted everything I found and finally I restarted Win before continuing. Reinstalled in a new folder and now it's running like a dream!

If I were to make a guess as to which of my actions made uTorrent work I'd say removing the files that had been prefetched by Win XP. Those were mainly the files I found when searching my entire harddrive for anything uTorr related.

[erikp]

I've redone all of my old settings and restarted uTorrent for each setting and still running smoothly. I believe there could be two reason for the error staying even after deleting settings.dat+.old:

1. There was an error in uTorrent.exe and it was being stored in the Prefetch folder (eg. C:\Windows\Prefetch\UTORRENT.EXE-03165BB8.pf), so that even deleting uTorrent.exe didn't erase the problem.

2. The restart wiped out some temporary files somwhere that had the error in them.

I do not know which of the above is the most likely solution but

bluenotes, could you please try just doing 1. (that means performing all of the steps I mentioned but NOT restarting Win)

and

sk1, could you please try 2. (all of the steps but NOT deleting stuff in the Prefetch-folder)

I've had my problem solved, so this is just for helping others with the same problem.

[bluenotes]

Glad to hear you are up and running Erik. Thanks for your help and consideration. I've gone over every step again and also found no trace of utorrent in Windows/Prefetch folder. I continue to be at a standstill. I also have a friend who is going through the same ISP and he is experiencing very similar, if not the same problems. Neither one of us has a "network ok" nor a "nat error" visible, although he did find utorrent related entries in Windows/Prefetch. It leads me to think it could possibly be the ISP in common. They have oversold their product as a 3mb package without having the router capability to back it up. The best I get out of them is on an average of 500kb on any given day. The fact that it worked in the beginning, makes me wonder if they thought that it was too much band width being used and throttled me. The port forwarding still gives me an "ok", and it always does. Any ideas, anyone?

[erikp]

Well the Net OK/NAT error messages will only display when you transferred some data (dunno how much but more than a few hundred kB). I think I also had good succes with allowing more half-open-connections in Win. Now that uTorrent has been running for 48 hours straight I only have 3 half-open-conn but in the startup fase I believe it helped to increase the max number of conn from 10 to 50 with the "EventID 4226 Patcher" from http://www.lvllord.de/

Btw if you wan't more background on the above try googling it.

[Firon]

NAT Error only shows on torrents with a decent-sized swarm, and Network OK only shows up if you receive an incoming connection, I think.

[bluenotes]

Why would the very active torrent show zero availability even after careful consideration of all tweaks and settings and multi-renewals of install and setup carried out to the letter in detail. When I click on the logger tab and right click in the space that brings up "log peer traffic", all incoming connections disconnect: timed out or disconnect: bad header (not sure what that is yet), or disconnect:peer EOF. I'm not sure if this is normal or if it could be the description of a symptom. I feel that I have tried everything and I don't want to be relegated to using another more cumbersome program.

[Firon]

That sounds like ISP meddling...

[bluenotes]

Firon,

Your idea about "ISP meddling" is a general consensus arrived at by a few of my friends and myself as well. Can you advise me how to go about approaching them to find out and get it straightened out without them deciding to monitor my future actions. I do live in a small town and they have the monopoly here. I can think of several reasons to create torrents that are in the nature of original songs or business data that could be transferred as private torrents, but if I am monitored, then there goes the fun of discovery. A lot of times I am thrilled at the prospect of finding remastered new versions of the vinyl that I have already purchased at some time or another, and in general happening upon talent that is new and fresh to me. I am not enterprising this material for f***'s sake. I think the whole idea of a trading community is life itself!

update: Succcess. I went directly to the Inet provider in my area and it all came down to one person who makes decisions about who gets capped and who doesn't. Suddenly all unsuccessful torrents began showing full availability and my speeds were adjusted to give me double of what I'd previously had, not quite up to par according to the package I've been paying for, but I'm not complaining at this point. Utorrent is up and running beautifully. Thanks to all for their opinions, directions, and help. In this case the problem was with the ISP.