uTorrent activity seems to prevent any internet access

[Kirgo]

I just changed computers from one running Win2000 to one running Win7.

On Win2000, I could operate uTorrent with up to 6 torrents active, and - by dipping the upload speed a bit - still access websites while things uploaded and downloaded. Websites would download slowly, but they'd get there.

That is no longer the case. At most I can have ONE active torrent or else every website I try to visit simply can't load and I get connection error messages.

Now I have to pause all activity, and wait for the up/down area by any active torrents to go silent before I can connect for internet or e-mail.

My upspeed tops out usually at about 50-60kB/s, my download is usually about 250kB/s. Same as when W2K was on my main machine (now deceased).

I presumed the difficulty was related to "number of connections"[per torrent] but I tried cutting those in half and it didn't change anything, so I tried again: still no connectability.

Something that seems related, while uploading, even at reduced levels (only 40 of the potential 60kB/s) my laptop cannot connect to the internet using the wireless router that uTorrent goes through. But it ALSO cannot access the shared drives and directories on the main machine (where uTorrent is active). So I know it isn't 'inside' the computer (the one that uTorrent is running on) that the limitation is taking place (besides the fact that it is massively faster and more powerful than the W2K one was so should have less difficulties than the prior one).

Any ideas?

[Switeck]

1st link in my signature, slow speed/interrupted internet section.

[Firon]

What is your router?

You might be overloading the router in 2.0 with uTP.

[Kirgo]

Sorry... had a rough couple days here. Thank you for the response.

I have a Lynksys-802.11g Wireless Router-WR754G

But I am using the same router/settings as before my previous computer died and there was no issue with it before (hard to believe that they'd both have troubles at the same time, since there was no 'event' that caused the computer to die).

I have since found that I can have ONE torrent active and still surf the web/get e-mails. If I activate a second one I'm SoL. And that is even if the one is using 80-90% of my bandwidth, both up and down (slow as hell, but not getting connection-error messages). Before the computer change I could have a total of up to 8 active torrents and still get internet/e-mail, with the same number in uTorrent's "Global maximum number of connections".

Hopefully that info may help. [And, worst comes to worst, I pause all but one before I get personally active on here and unpause when I am done.]

Thank you!

[Kirgo]

It seems that with playing around further (MUCH further), I was able to get things stably able to access the main computer from the laptop and the internet while uTorrent was operating.

While uTorrent set itself up (for # connections, connected peers per torrent, etc.) when I installed it, by dropping most of those settings substantially (by 1/3-1/2) it seems to be functional again, while not causing substantially noticeable changes in downloading/uploading. I guess with my internet speed, fewer connections is adequate to max out when not otherwise occupied, even though more might be ideal (if nothing else was going on).

Thanks to those that suggested things to try.

[Switeck]

If you're on AT&T ADSL, you probably don't have a fast line.

Overloading upload or download using uTorrent will likely make web surfing difficult/slow.

That's why the slow speed section (and 2nd link in my signature) can help -- they tell how to set uTorrent so low other things aren't flooded out.