never a seed

[catt]

Hi, newb here trying to work my way through basic newb ("won't DL anymore") problems. To which end, I'll mention that I get great speeds and lots (from my perspective) of "peers". "SEEDS = 0(0); PEERS = 3(5)", that sort of thing.

Things seem to be DLing, but I guess that just represents distributed PARTIALS on those peers? Been a long while since I've seen anything wrap up.

For that matter, been a long while (2-3 weeks?) since I've seen ANY sort of non-zero number under "seeds".

Is this just par for the course? I'm working my way through the guides, but my impression is that if peers is non-zero and the xfer speeds are non-zero, then i really don't have any sort of "issue" to begin with. Yes? No?

I'll also note that on many wifi systems I'm getting the yellow circle and/or superlow numbers down next to it. That is, I drove around town trying to connect, and found like 2 "okay" ones (where i am right now, for example), and 30+ duds. When various troubleshooting paragraphs refer to "some servers" hinderiing or blocking uT, do you actually mean 95% of them?

I turned my AV (avira) off just to be sure. But it doesn't seem to affect anything. Again, I wouldn't even be seeing those "peers" if my AV/firewall were smacking me down, right?

Sigh. It didn't seem this way 2 weeks ago. I recall having 4 or 5 things DLing most every time I booted it. And most any PLACE I booted it. Now I have to go through 30 servers and even THEN I'm not sure if any of these DLs are GOING anywhere.....

#:<

PS: 20(100) seeds and 1.2M/s DLs on the SLACKWARE test, btw....

PS2: How do you SAY the app's name, btw?! It was obviously "micro torrent" in the beginning, but with everyone using "u" in posts (I understand the reasoning), I'm wondering whether it has actually shifted to "u" in speech as well?

[Switeck]

Wireless internet via wifi usually means some packetloss, firewalled-by-default (due to the router not port forwarding), and a connection that's probably shared too heavily to be good for torrenting.

Teredo/IPv6 can get incoming IPv6 connections even under those conditions, but it's weak at best...(it uses UDP packets) and that's assuming there's even any IPv6 peers/seeds present!

uTP likewise can get incoming connections...IF it's already connected to at least 1. However it uses UDP as well which can be pretty hard on networking, especially a "busy" wifi router.

1st link in my signature for troubleshooting stuff.

Consider also just how much upload you may have allocated to you. Even 20 KiloBYTES/second may be too much for the shared connection.

[catt]

i dunno...all i know is that i was getting abt 800M/day from a vareity of wifi spots up until last week. now i get nothing from 9 out of 10 of them, and the one "good" one might cough up 200k. *IF* i'm lucky....

yeah, i'll work through those troubleshooting links. unfortunately, i've got that catch22 re: not being able to open links once i'm at home debugging things. this could turn into 4 or 5 month project....

just wish i couud figure out what i *did* about a week ago to muck everything up!!

[Switeck]

So long as you know how to reset uTorrent's settings it should all be good.

...Or do you mean network settings for your computer, router, and/or modem?

[catt]

but i DON'T know how to "reset" uTorrents settings!

in fact, the more i read, the more confused i get. is it just a fact of life that torrents have short LIFESPANS, and that everything loaded up as partials are long since dead?

if i google up some fresh copies, some of them start moving anew. this is a welcome change after 2-3 months w/o a single BYTE coming my way.

and seeing as i have to wade thru 19 dead ends for every legitimate torrent offered (what are with all those meta-torrent sites pointing at each other? do they ever bottom out at an actual torrent anywhere?!) it takes me HOURS just to get ONE moving!

btw, i tried the "speed test" -- on most wifi zones i use, i get green up top with a yellow checkmark down the bottom, with the message "Port is not open; (you are still able to download)." here at the college, however, i'm not even getting the green up top. message: "Connection Failed error: A request to send or receive data was disallowed becuase the" (end of margin!)

And that port forwarding stuff, am i SUPPOSED to set it to something other than the 51692 it starts out with???? i rly can't follow the basics of that portforwarding stuff!

#:<

[Firon]

http://www.utorrent.com/faq/installation#faq5

[catt]

OK, I guess I do "know how" to reset those settings, but where does that get me? I've got the same list of dead partials, and the same negative test results.

I notice in some of the FAQs a reference to "requesting a seeder in the forum...". Is this whole bittorrent thing SUPPOSED to be used as a xfer tool between clients that more-or-less have realworld coordination with each other? The torrents I google up from scratch, otoh, are all 6 months to 3 years old, generally with "0 seeds".

This has struck me as being a problem, but is it in fact the way it SHOULD be? Is it unreasonable for me to expect to get a file more than once a month or so?

Honestly, I thought it was going gangbusters up until 2 or 3 weeks ago, but no amount of reseting DAT files or reinstalling components (or the whole app) can seem to recreate that magic.

I have, sadly, returned to reinstalling eMule....

#:<

[Switeck]

I haven't had much problem with torrents that are >1 year old.

But I do check how many seeds/peers are present...if seeds=0, I don't get my hopes up.

[catt]

How do you "find" the torrents, then? 9 out of 10 of the ones I google have seeds = 0.

And then, those that AREN"T, only get moving for 2 or 3 days. Before they ever complete, the seeds bottom out.

eMule may have been an overstatement, but I am truly GIDDY when I find one of them avail on rapidshare or depositfiles or the like. 90 mins direct downloading vs. 2-3 months of wistful "hoping".....

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let me ask...what's a typical number of torrents you have loaded and how many of them actively DL and/or have seeds?

is it just par for the course that any given torrent only "comes around" (has a seed jump in) every so often? so you load a few HUNDRED and hope a COUPLE are active at any given time?

i have about 10, none of which DO ANYTHING. i am online several hours a day lately, and maybe every 4 or 5 days i hit a spot where they go GANGBUSTERS. for 2-3 hours. and then NOTHING for 3+ more days.

is it my own fault trying to complete THESE, SPECIFIC, torrents? should i just keep piling on more and more new stuff and be grateful for w/e it is that DOES (occasionally) come alive?

have you ever seen "seeds" go to 2 or more? with me it's 0(0) all week, until that magic day when i hit 1(1). maybe 1(2), i forget.

again...rly wish i could find a 50 page "torrents for dummies" PDFs. not getting very far when FAQs tell you things like "limit number of parallel transfers" etc. yeah, i'd be happy for...ONE!

#:<

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sorry to be so long. after typing all that, i decided a CONCRETE EXAMPLE would be more useful.

here, here's an example of a torrent which has gone dead on me. i've tried "update trackers" to no avail, and i've tried googling a fresh copy...bringing me, for example:

http://www.onlytorrents.com/torrent/classic-heather-hunter-bulletproof-2000:22676d685f7294535714425d2a037113899b7ea9

it CLAIMS there are 2 seeders (even after clicking "update data"), but when i click on any of the linked sites (mininova/fulldls/piratebay) they in turn say either "torrent not found" or "0 seeds". i load the "0 seed" one anyways, but indeed, it remains "0 seeds" inside uT as well.

am i supposed to be clicking on something ELSE there, to get the recent, 2-seeder, version?

alternately, if i go inside piratebay, etc. and search directly, i get similar results. 0 seeds, 1 seed, many seeds, it matters not - by the time they enter uT, they are *all* 0 seeds....

[Switeck]

That torrent was supposedly made in 2008 on Transmission which isn't known for reliability or good seeding.

It could be what you're looking for is just too rare/old...but might be available on private tracker/s.

[catt]

i doubt anything i'm looking for is particularly rare. i google someone (heather hunter, say), load the 20 or so torrents i find, eventually get 18 of them, and am sitting with the last 2 "stuck" for 6 months now. but even those go to 30% or 60% etc before crapping out on me.

multiply by 4 or 5 "targets" and i have 8-10 dead torrents permanently awaiting flashes of life.

is it just luck of the draw that i've gotten *MOST* of the stuff loaded, and am now permanently left with the dregs? dang, some of them actually went to 85% or more before taking a dirt nap. i mean, that HH torrent up there, that's one lousy meg!

sorry, but 6 months per meg is a bit slow...even for *MY* connection....

btw, why is it that they all kick in at the SAME TIME? like i said, i get no action whatsoever for 3-4 days, then there is one magic day when 3 or 4 of the torrents have seeds and DL like crazy. this seems indicative of some DIFFERENT problem. like back to NETWORKING issues.

[Switeck]

A seeder may come back for a revisit sometimes.