Newbie needs help

[jackpiner57]

I am new to torrenting and I want to play by the rules. I have noticed that there is a red exclamation point icon in the lower bar. When I roll the cursor over it, it says "not connectable" "a firewall is limiting your network traffic.You need to open up a port so that others can connect to you." I wanted to know if this was a safe thing to do. I don't want a hacker to gain accsess to my PC. I'm running XP Home w/ service pack 2. I also have no idea how to open a port.

I forgot to mention that I can download files OK, but I noticed that I'm not uploading them at anything over 0.5 kb/s

[moogly]

You need to forward a port to use your BitTorrent client. Opening a port doesn't mean your create a back door in your router.

[Switeck]

For slow speeds, 1st and 2nd links in my signature.

How fast is your line, according to speed tests? (down AND up)

[jackpiner57]

I have DSL and have noticed my download speed is as much as 325 K. It can also be lower sometimes.

EDIT: I just did a speed test with my DSL provider Fairpoint Communications and it listed my download speed as 2.24 mb sec. and upload speed at 226 Kb/s. I can't believe those numbers. My PC doesn't download web pages very quickly.

This is what I read regarding the red icon with an exclamation point in it at the bottom of the uTorrent page:

"The red light means that µTorrent was unable to bind a listening socket. Most likely, this means a firewall is blocking it. It's also possible that another torrent client is using this port, which will require you to change ports, or not run both clients at the same time."

I checked, and both McAfee and Windows firewalls are allowing Utorrent full access. I do have Limewire, but that program is not running when Utorrent is.

[DreadWingKnight]

speedtests measure in *bit/sec, uTorrent displays in *byte/sec.

[jackpiner57]

OK then, what should I do about the red icon? I want to be able to contribute as a seed to the whole torrenting thing. Do I need to provide a port, and if so, which one?

[Switeck]

Did you configure your modem, which may be a mini-router/firewall as well?

[jackpiner57]

I don't know if it's a router/firewall. It's a VisionNet ADSL 201 modem.by DQ Technology, Inc. I'll goole it and see what I can find out.