Are there alternatives if port forwarding fails?

[706]

I have always had the 'no incoming connections' symbol on my Utorrent, but have still been able to download torrents at considerable speeds. Recently though my speeds have dropped to under 5kbps no matter what torrent I use and I once saw the red icon come up though it has since returned to the 'no incoming connections' symbol. I have followed the tutorials on port forwarding for my router, I have opened the ports in my firewalls and even tried disabling them, but I cannot get my speeds back up. Is there any port I can make Utorrent use that I know will be open on my computer already? Currently its using one between 55000 and 56000.

Or, what could at least help a little, can I test whether the port is open specifically on my computer, then test if its open on the router, then test if maybe my ISP is blocking it? The online tests I do don't say specifically where the port is being blocked, only that it is. If I could find out where it might help me to find the problem.

[Switeck]

Tell us more about your software firewalls.

Does your modem also contain a firewall and/or mini-router?

Are you using a separate router from your modem as well?

[706]

I have windows vista so it has its own firewall which is disabled (though it has an exception for Utorrent) as well as McAfee Secuity Centre which is also disabled though it has an exception. I have a dlink 624+ router which I read can have problems with global connections; I originally had global connections on 500 when it was working fine, but now even lowering it to 200 doesn't make any difference. I also have a dlink 502t modem, using the tutorials at portforward.com I've set the port to be open on both of these devices. I've run the check to see if my ISP is shaping Bit torrent traffic but it came up negative.

I don't understand why it has suddenly stopped working. The only thing that has changed is I plugged in my xbox 360, but no settings on the router/modem have been changed. Do you know of any way I can check where the port is being blocked?

[Switeck]

You'll have to do more troubleshooting...1st and 2nd links in my signature, we need more information to go further.

Can you temporarily completely uninstall McAfee Secuity Center?

Also temporarily disable: UPnP, NAT-PMP, LPD, DHT (both kinds!), and Resolve IPs (right-click in PEERS window on an active torrent).

Keep Peer Exchange enabled...though it only works with public torrents.

Lower bt.connect_speed to only 4 (outgoing new connection attempts per second.)

...And if that doesn't seem to help, lower net.max_halfopen to only 4 as well.

Reduce global and per-torrent max connections to 60 or lower.

Also possibly disable Teredo (IPv6) and uTP connections.

Disabling uTP is easiest to do on v1.8.3 betas.

[706]

Thanks for the help, I think I have things sorted. I tried the troubleshooting guides but that didn't help, however I did notice Utorrent acting oddly, settings changing after I closed and opened it. I have since upgraded to the latest version and changed ports (after finding several incorrect settings on my router for the original port) and I now have a green light.

I'm not sure about what I should set the connections to be though. I have an 8mbps connection, which if I have it right would give me 1/10th of that upload speed so 'conservative' settings would be 50 per torrent 160 total. However I used to run it at 200 per torrent and 480 total and achieve good speeds, so what would a non-conservative setting be?

[Switeck]

Effective max connections is severely limited by BOTH your max usable UPLOAD and download, whichever is lower!

So what's your max USABLE upload (in KiloBYTES/sec or kilobits/sec, whichever you know for sure)?

Even speed tests may report only burst speeds which your ISP may give for up to a minute straight but you cannot sustain in uTorrent.