Slow Upload Speed

[Pirate4Life]

I used to be able to upload 750kB/s+ before noticing slowdown, but am now only getting up to 80kB/s before noticing major slowdown. The maximum speed uTorrent reaches, which renders my internet almost unusable, is around 110-120kB/s. I've checked all the guides, changed a lot of settings around, and done everything I've found online, but still can't get a good upload speed. I did a speed test and got 300072 kbps down and 946 kbps, so it's not my internet. The torrents are live and in demand, so it's not that either. According to Glasnost my ISP isn't throttling at all. This has been going on for a while now and I've just started to take care of it. I don't remember clearly, but I'm 90% sure it started when I upgraded to Vista earlier this year. I did the TCPIP patch a while ago to help with slow browsing while using uTorrent. Could that be the problem? Or is there something with Vista I need to fix? Maybe it could even be my motherboard's LAN? I have a DFI Lanparty DK with the current drivers, which were created before the first service pack. If not, what else could it be? What other information should I give you guys?

[TheProfileth]

I have a very similar problem, for me it happened after uploading about 350 gigs in 1 month. My speed used to be 500-750 but then it slowed down. I could only get 150 max for a while. After about a 3 weeks my speed suddenly went up to about 250 kb/s and just like you said I am not being throttled and I have a high upload speed via speed tests. And slowly every couple of weeks my speed goes up like between 5 and 10 kb/s. I now can upload at 260-285 max. I have no idea about why this happens are you using comcast west aswell? I also have vista. I hope someone can help, I host like 10 torrents on Demonoid so this is not good for my ratio (I require myself to maintain a 4 and my goal is a 6)

[DreadWingKnight]

Also, uTorrent displays in *byte/sec and a LARGE majority of speed test sites display in *bit/sec.

[Pirate4Life]

Speakeasy.net gave me those results. DSL Reports says 15,046Kb/s 933 Kb/s.

I'm not exactly sure. Is Kb/s bits or bytes?

It couldn't be the speed test, because my speed has actually increased since switching to Vista and uTorrent used to top out at almost 1Mb. One thing I noticed, if I put a limit on the upload for a bit, then remove the limit the upload speed spikes into the hundreds, then jumps back down. WTH?

[DreadWingKnight]

I'm about 98% sure dslreports gives in *bit/sec

What about speedtest.net ?

[Pirate4Life]

Speedtest.net uses the speakeasy server in my area, so it comes out to around the same. Even taking the speed test out of the factor though, what could have caused me to go from a 1Mb max to a 100Kb max? It just has to have something to do with the Vista upgrade, but all my hardware new and Vista compliant. Is there some setting in Vista that causes problems normally? I went to the Marvell site and updated my LAN drivers, which did no good. What could be causing this?

[Switeck]

~100 KiloBYTES/sec upload speed in uTorrent will take about 1 megabit/sec upload bandwidth (which is 1024 kilobits/sec upload bandwidth).

[Pirate4Life]

The thing I don't understand is how did I have speeds in the 700's with XP, but am only hitting 120 with Vista?

[Switeck]

I don't know where you saw "700's", but that may have been in kilobits/sec...

How fast is the line supposed to be?

(You're paying for it right?)

[Pirate4Life]

The 700's was what uTorrent said it's upload speed was back when I had XP Pro with the TCPIP patch. I'm paying (way too much) for my service with Time Warner and am supposed to be getting a maximum of "30 down 1 up" which comes out to almost exactly that when I use the Speakeasy/Speedtest.net test.

I just read that Adelphia (my previous providor), which was bought out by Time Warner, limited seeding. Could Time Warner be limiting my seeding? And if they are, is there anything I can do other than the protocol encryption?

Also, I'm trying to reset my settings by deleting those two settings files, but when I do uTorrent opens the install dialog and hangs on the last step, basically not allowing me to do anything unless I close uTorrent and put those settings files back. How do I get around that?

I tried uninstalling and reinstalled uTorrent to reset the settings and have a major problem. The program is now standalone. It's uninstalled from my computer, but the quick launch icon is the standalone program. When I download uTorrent from the website it's standalone, not an installer. Is there an installer I could download or will I have to use the program standalone?

[ckuklbac]

I cannot get utorrent to upload at anything like the line max according to the speed tests which give an average of 850kb/s.

I use the recommended settings (72 kB/s) but can only upload at +- 30kB/s no matter how I fiddle around with the settings.

Download speeds are good- up to 1.8Mb/sec with enough seeders- I use a private tracker mostly (The Box.bz) and am seeding 50-60 torrents constantly but only get upload speeds of +- 6kB/s on +-10 active uploads.

Any ideas?

[Switeck]

Pirate4Life, It's possible that Time Warner is still throttling seeding somehow...at least in areas of heavy contention/congestion.

"Uninstalling" uTorrent requires manually deleting (or hiding) the uTorrent settings .dat files as far as I know...

"uTorrent opens the install dialog and hangs on the last step, basically not allowing me to do anything unless I close uTorrent and put those settings files back."

SERIOUS bug...I'll point the uTorrent devs to it.

What exact version + build of uTorrent are you using?

ckuklbac, Shaw Cable in Canada probably is limiting your BitTorrent upload speeds.

[ckuklbac]

Is there a work-around to overcome the throttling?

[Switeck]

More about Shaw Cable:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=47537

You can try 'extreme' hiding tricks to get better speeds:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=361747#p361747

(Note: My post immediately following that one explains what settings in uTorrent are similar to the Azureus ones.)

I certainly do not promise they'll work...they could make speeds lower.

[Pirate4Life]

The version is 1.8.3 and the build is 15772. I really think I'm being throttled, because my speed is dipping even more. It goes up and down, but is usually under 60 now, dipping to under 20 at times. I'm trying the extreme hiding tricks and it's not helping. The only two tricks I haven't tried are ones I can't figure out. I don't understand the firewall blocking uTorrent thing and can't find the option to disable "Resolve IP."

Is there anything else I can do or am I going to need to switch ISP's? There's really nobody else in the area except U-verse, which goes to 15 down 1.5 up compared to my current 30 down 1 up with limiting. FIOS, which is super fast and from what I've heard doesn't throttle, isn't in my area yet so that's really the only option other can Comcast and Charter, which are known for being anti-P2P.

Am I better off with U-verse without limits? And how much slower would my wed-surfing be with half the download speed?

I noticed that my IPv6 is limited according to Vista. Could that be the problem and how do I fix it?

[Switeck]

Right-click in the PEERS window of a torrent to disable Resolve IPs.

You're running probably the best uTorrent version at this time.

ComCast has discontinued most of its anti-P2P activities...at least in my area, as I'm on ComCast. Supposedly, it stopped using Sandvine BitTorrent connection killing RST packets at the end of December 2008.

The problem with U-verse is it's either ADSL 2+ or VDSL, which both lose speed with distance. You may only get 5 megabit/sec down and 768 kilobit/sec up with them. You could try a slower package with U-verse and then upgrade. But do note that U-verse probably has a nasty-low monthly bandwidth limit!

I web surf just fine with a 6 megabit/sec down and 1 megabit/sec up line on ComCast, while uploading at 120 KB/sec and downloading at 300+ KB/sec (I'm usually seeding tho). Conservative settings in uTorrent AND good networking hardware+software helps immensely. The connection is also shared with another computer which is often web surfing (and doing youtube videos) at the same time.

[ckuklbac]

I read through and tried all tips as you suggested, but none made any difference that lasted longer than a few seconds.

Under bandwidth, I am now using 1000 global max, 250 max per and 10 upload slots per. DHT is disabled, Protocal encryption is enabled incoming lagacy connections checked. All advanced settings are non modified.

This evening for no apparent reason I have had 2 peers downloading at 35 kB/s each and half a dozed others at nominal speeds. My connection has been maxed out at around 80 kB/s upload for several hours. Question: What is it that enables/governs the speed of individual peers. If these two can get 35 kB/s, why not two or three out of each eight or ten that connect? Their flags, btw were "UIE" and both were using uTorrent 1.8.3

Lastly, I am one of only 13 seeds on that torrent, and there are only 2 peers downloading.

It seems to me to be a completely random process with no rhyme or reason to any of it!

Any info or further reading that might help me understand a bit more, much appreciated!

[Pirate4Life]

Switeck, what do you mean by good networking software? I have ESET in that manual mode with uTorrent allowed, but don't have anything other than that. Is there a program that will help? And your username, do you watercool with Swiftech products?

[Switeck]

Pirate4Life,

ESET = bad networking

MOST software firewalls, such as found in antivirus products (that should've stuck with "pure" antivirus software instead of trying to make a firewall) are horrible.

Swiftech water-cooling products are far newer than my nick.

ckuklbac,

Still, your settings are not fair to anyone...least of all to yourself.

1000 global connections are excessive for anything short of 100 megabit/sec upload lines. The ISP throttling will probably be far worse after you've got more than 100 connected peers+seeds.

10 upload slots per torrent means you're trying to upload to 10 people at once on EACH torrent. If you already have the "use additional upload slots" option checked, this is both excessive AND redundant. It also means you're possibly subjecting others to <1 KB/sec download speeds from you.

I max out my 120 KB/sec upload speed with only 3-7 peers, and I don't normally see 1 or 2 peers getting 90+% of all my upload. I seldom have more than 20 peers total, due to the torrents I'm running.

Try instead 100 global max, 40 max per torrent, and 4 upload slots per torrent.

A few or even only 1 or 2 peers might get faster speeds than that due to being on the same ISP as you (or an ISP which your ISP has a favorable peering arrangement) and not subject to the extreme BitTorrent throttling that everyone else gets.

The flags of "UIE" mean Uploading, Incoming connection, ENCRYPTION ENABLED. The encryption may be hiding that connection's BitTorrent properties from your ISP...but success even with encryption is no guarantee, especially if it's an incoming connection! Your ISP identifying your BitTorrent/uTorrent incoming listening port isn't too hard if you're allowing incoming unencrypted BitTorrent connections...and once that port is identified, the ISP could harshly cripple ANYTHING connecting to that port and be reasonably assured that traffic was BitTorrent in nature. It is fortunate for you that your ISP is not doing that to the extreme it could!

[ckuklbac]

Switeck,

Try instead 100 global max, 40 max per torrent, and 4 upload slots per torrent.

I tried these settings and my upload rate dropped to low teens/sec.

I have restored default settings and am now upping at +-35kB/s

I guess there is no solution and Shaw cable wins another round . . .

Thanks for you input.

[Switeck]

Toss me a screenshot or text copy+paste from your peers list of your most busy torrent...I think I might spot something there.

[ckuklbac]

Switeck,

I have captured a screen shot, but it will not paste into the "quick post" window, also cannot copy and paste anything except a list of peers ip addresses. Is this what you want? If not please advise and I will try again.

here is all I can copy and paste.

68.9.228.184:60497

86.151.226.1:34763

93.182.137.23:49033

220.233.194.238:62446

125.214.176.186:37208

188.4.252.82:29247

90.219.220.49:62147

90.213.47.177:62147

75.21.124.238:27363

[Pirate4Life]

Switeck, what firewall do you recommend? Instead of buying NOD32, could I just disable the ESET Smart Security firewall and use the one you recommend?

I tried those settings (100 global max, 40 max per torrent, and 4 upload slots per torrent) and the speeds are back up to 120 max, averaging out at 105-110. It's noticeably better, but is there anything else I can do to increase speeds or am I already at my limit? Since I don't understand the conversion process, is 1000 on Speakeasy/Speedtest equivilent to 100 or 10 in uTorrent?

[Switeck]

ckuklbac, more like this from the PEERS window:

(Formatting is terrible with a copy-and-paste of all the peer lines, but it gives FAR more information that way.)

IP Port Client Flags % Relevance Down Speed Up Speed Downloaded Uploaded Reqs Inactive Hasherr Peer dl. Queued MaxUp MaxDown Debug Waited

66.190.153.206 19688 Azureus 3.1.1.0 U IXE 7.6 0.0 285 MB 48s 0.1 kB/s 0.5 kB/s 2| -1

84.42.57.64 6881 µTorrent 1.8.2 U IXE 40.3 0.0 12.7 kB/s 35.8 MB 0 | 2 1s 27.4 kB/s 39.4 kB 15.2 kB/s 0.5 kB/s 4| -1

90.34.212.23 8688 BitComet/0.0.7.0 U IX 48.6 0.0 12.8 kB/s 210 MB 0 | 2 1s 17.5 kB/s 35.1 kB 15.4 kB/s 0.5 kB/s 0| -1

125.238.148.189 285 Azureus 4.2.0.4 U XE 13.9 0.0 0.5 kB/s 448 kB 16s 3.5 kB/s 0.5 kB/s 1| -1

I'm wanting to see if you're actually transferring much of anything to anyone, how long on average peers are inactive, hash errors, flags, ip address (ISP throttling may be ip specific!), and even port numbers as a clue to "good" and "bad" peers.

Pirate4Life,

Comodo Firewall...is probably the best, though a little hard to configure. But it's covered here:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=7862

I am almost positive that those speed tests return results in kilobits/second.

Speakeasy shows both, bits at top, and then below it in smaller lettering bits followed by bytes.

[ckuklbac]

Switeck,

Sorry to seem so dumb, but there is no way it will let me copy and paste anything from the utorrent window, except the IP's list. Perhaps there is a trick I don't know?

I did get this stats window open from somewhere- but I have to transcribe it:-

Total downloaded: 823 GB

Total ratio: 0'614

Total running time: 4419:20:05

Number of torrents added : 575

Program launched: 114 times

Last launch: 8/10/2009

#Incoming conns since start: 1510

#outgoing conns since start: 6535

#Handshakes:10922

#Connections: 28

#uTP connecting: 0

#TCP connecting: 2

#half open : 2 (0 queued)

Cheers