troubleshooting/optimizing uTorrent for Mac beta

[Schelry]

Hi, i have spent considerable time going through and following all the wonderful advice online, first elsewhere and then going through all the agida from here (setup guide, faq, troubleshooting, etc.) so bear with my long post. it is this long only so that i can answer all the detailed questions identified in the 'if that doesn't work' link at the bottom of the various guides.

The Problem: i have uTorrent 0.9.2 beta for mac installed and have had it working with downloads up to over 500 kbps, but that only ever lasts for maybe 5 minutes and then i'm back down to somewhere roughly 25 kbps if i'm lucky. I have uTorrent 1.8.5 for windows installed on another network computer and have had it working with downloads over 500 kbps, but that is also inconsistent. I am clocking the downloads for only one computer at a time, not expecting high dls on one when the other is powering away. THE IDEAL SOLUTION would be for me to run utorrent for mac on the mac at high download speeds and not to run utorrent for windows at all, having that pc on and running only when a visitor is using that pc -- not intended for filesharing.

As of this post my windows pc is able to clock over 500 kbps when i have it dling, and my mac when it is set for dl is only at about 17 kbps, even when the download specified is the openoffice.org recommended download.

Needing suggestions. Here's the lowdown:

The mac is a brand spankdy new Apple Mac Mini 2.56 Ghz 4 GB ram purchased within the month running os X 10.6.2 snow leopard, and the other pc which is a Dell Dimension running Windows SP3. Both utorrent installations have been optimized following this site's setup guide, faqs, specific information and router/modem/firewall guides.

• EVERYTHING you've tried so far, including ANYTHING listed above (please be as explicit and specific as you can). Tell us what your changed settings are.

I have followed the setup guide, i have established a static ip connection, i have forwarded my ports, i have established my download and upload speed averages and set an upload speed limit that is appropriate for my connection, i have configured uTorrent for both of the computers on my network with the same settings (where available, as the Mac beta doesn't have all the same options as the windows version) as indicated in the guides i've read, i have configured my firewalls, i have configured my router, i have configured my cable modem, i have checked and confirmed in various locations that my isp does not throttle my connection (i understand they limit seeding but that all other traffic they do not shape; the glasnost test had a result in over a 1.1 Mbps upload and a consistent 3.9 Mbps download during their multiple-test 8 minute traffic shaping diagnostic). However, i am only able to achieve between 0 and 74 kbps download and between 0 and 20 kbps upload using utorrent on the mac.

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• The state/value of all of the options you were recommended to change up above.

For the mac, the uTorrent version is the latest "stable" beta, 0.9.2, the port forwarded is 17748, the port forward checker site indicates success at port forwarding, the uTorrent smilie for that port is green. the upnp and nat options are unselected, the upload limit is set at 80% of my average upload rate, which is 380 kilobytes/s, the download limit is not implemented, as i find that if i implement it with a "0" value as suggested in some optimization guides, i get exactly zero download rate, i have played with setting the download rate at 2064 kilobytes (90% of my averaged download rate according to dlsreports' speed guide) and at not setting the limit for download at all, there appears to be no difference whether the dl limit is set or not. I have seeding set to 1.0 however changing seeding ratio does not appear to have any affect on download rate either.

for the pc, the uTorrent version is the latest stable version, v1.8.5 build 17414, the port forwarded is 17750, the port checker site shows forwarding success, the utorrent smilie for that port is green, upnp and nat options are deselected, the upload limit is set at 80% of my average upload rate -- which for both computers will be the same, 380 kilobytes/sec. the download limited as above is not implemented for the same reason. Seeding ratio is also likewise set at 1.0.

With the pc implementation of utorrent i get varying download rates but they vary from 100 kbps to over 500 kbps. with the Mac implementation of utorrent i get varying download rates rarely above 25 kbps and often showing zero download with up to 25 kbps of upload, or worse zero download and zero upload while somehow the seed ratio ticker keeps upping itself (?!?)

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• Color of the network status light in µTorrent's status bar (at the bottom of the µTorrent main window)

green, both installations

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• What the port checker from the Speed Guide writes

success, both installations

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• What the Speed Guide shows your settings to be (press Ctrl+G in µTorrent)

there is no speed guide for the mac beta however all the relevant settings i have already supplied above for both the pc and the mac. to be due diligent, here are all the speedguide specs for the pc:

upload 380 with 8 slots; 50 connections with global 200, max active at 9 with max dls at 8 (same settings for the mac)

port 17750 checks out green on first attempt at canyouseeme.org, shows closed on first attempt at port checker but with no changes just a page reload it checks out green.

add windows firewall exception is checked, and incoming legacy connections are permitted, and outgoing encryption is permitted.

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• What you have net.max_halfopen set to (Preferences > Advanced in µTorrent), and if you ever modified TCPIP.sys, what you patched the limit to

i have not made any changed to advanced settings, primarily because there aren't any in the mac, and the pc doesn't get used for downloading very often, most of the time its off or at least offline. Also, the pc DOES DL at a very high rate when the swarms are good -- that's not the installation that needs the tweaking. The pc, furthermore is old and has a small hard drive so its basically just got utorrent as a backup to check if things work on one computer and not the other (configuration problems) vs. not working altogether on either (networking/connectivity problems).

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• Operating system installed (Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95, NT? Something else?)

for the mac, it is running Os X 10.6.2, for the pc it is running Windows XP SP3

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• Security software installed (firewall, antivirus, antispyware, antiadware)

osXs its own firewall that i do nothing to change and everything works and i get no errors. windows xp i run comodo firewall and the settings all work, however at the moment i have comodo firewall disabled. enabling and disabling the firewall on the pc have no apparent impact on the functioning of my utorrent installation.

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• Exact router model(s), and exact modem model

Belkin Wireless 54g model f5D7050 v 6002 being used not for wireless but as an ethernet router. cable modem is motorola surfboard 1641. i am not having routing/networking/connectivity problems either with my ISP or between/among the two computers on the network, if that makes any difference.

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• ISP (Internet Service Provider) being used

Comcast Cable which shows running the speed guide an average (on the low end actuallly) of 2064 kilobytes download and average 500 kilobytes upload. when testing for these speeds no other internet active programs were running on either computer.

For what its worth, while nitpicking my way through all of the settings, making the change to max global connections 200 and max per torrent connections 50 did seem to have a momentary affect on the mac's download speeds -- it went from about 17 kbps to about 400 kbps and then in a moment or two back down to about 45-70 kbps. It definitely made a difference, if only minor. further tweaks to those two numbers (downwards) have not had any further impact.

Can you help? I'm am thrilled that its working (there were a few days i was getting nothing at all) but it seems like i'm losing a lot of bandwidth, especially* after seeing the results of the glasnost test (almost 4 mbps dl and 1.1 mbps ul on their tests of bittorent and tcp protocols on bt and non-bi ports vs. my actual experience of less than 100 kbps either direction)

Thanks in advance,

Michele