Downloading slows or prevents browsing

[fredrock46]

I have a problem browsing while downloading even a single file. Often I can not browse at all while downloading. uTorrent has always worked perfectly on this PC and I have tried most of the troubleshooting and setting adjustsments I find in this forum. The ones that were not completely beyond me anyway. I'm using v2.04, IE8, Windows 7 x64, Motorola cable modem, Linksys WRT310N router and AVG free. When I test with pingtest.net I get an "A". The same test while downloading in uTorrent gets an "F" and usually I can't even get the test to complete. Thank you for any help. Fred

[DreadWingKnight]

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=15992

[Ryuzaki]

ciao a tutti! proprio adesso ho scaricato da voi la versione 2.0.4 di utorrent.

ma è già da settimane che lo lascio in download e nel giro di 10 minuti mi cade la connessione(le frecce diventano rosse..errore di tracker ho letto qui) e non riesco nemmeno ad aprire la pagina iniziale di google..sapete dirmi perchè?

con le serie tv regge..ma appena metto un film(I mercenari ad esempio) cade la connessione e devo spegnere e riaccendere il router =(

cosa devo fare per poter scaricare come prima?

[paintball9]

Ryuzaki, Don't thread hijack

Post in your own thread (in the international section if you aren't gonna post in english)

[Switeck]

fredrock46,

You seem to be on ComCast, which has temporary speed bursts (SpeedBoost it's called) that make speed tests of your line seem *MUCH* faster than it can actually sustain.

Confirm the REAL sustainable speeds of your line, at least from what speed tier you're signed up to ComCast with...or by doing longer duration (over 5 minute) speed tests.

Then do 1st and 2nd links in my signature.

[fredrock46]

Yes, I am on Comcast.

I ran this: Glasnost: Test if your ISP is shaping your traffic

The results:

There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your upload traffic.

There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your downloads.

Attention: The first TCP port used (6881) changed during the test. This was done at the measurement server as the port was occupied. Be aware that this can affect the correctness of the results.

I can't get this test to complete without that TCP port 6681 error.

I do have a Motorola SURFboard modem. Model SB6120 which is the latest with DOCSYS 3.0.

Router IP Address: 192.168.1.1 My Router is a: Linksys WRT310N

DHCP Server: Enabled

Start IP Address: 192.168.1.100

End IP Address: 192.168.1.149

My firewall has 4 entries for uTorrent. Two each for downloading and uploading. I have all of them checked. Is that correct?

uTorrent Settings

The net.max_halfopen set to: 100 (Not been changed)

Bandwidth: New York#2

Current Settings (3.93)Mbit/s

Upload limit 480.0 kB/s Upload Slots 8

Connections 100 Connections Global 500

Max Active torrents 7 Max Active torrents download 6

Network: Current Port (0:random): 21571 Auto Port Mapping: On

Speedtest.net Pingtest.net

Without uTorrent Downloading Without uTorrent Downloading

Download 25.01 MB/s Line Quality "A"

Upload 3.31 MB/s Packet Loss 0

Ping 16ms

Jitter 2ms

Speedtest.net Pingtest.net

With uTorrent Downloading With uTorrent Downloading

Download 16.05 MB/s Line Quality "F"

Upload 1.43 MB/s Packet Loss 17%

Ping 19ms Ping 171ms

Jitter 313ms

Actually uTorrent works fine. It's just that I can't browse the Internet while it has an active download. If I click stop on the download browsing works returns to normal.

[paintball9]

First of all the glasnost test isn't completely accurate, it is possible for ISP's to fake the results.

I believe switeck can help explain comcast's situation better than I can.

Secondly I'm guessing that your browsing problem is probably sending you server could not be found errors.

I've come across this before on my own equiptment, it comes down to DNS queries being cached by the modem, for relay. But in instances of large amounts of traffic it holds the requests too long, resulting in timeouts.

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=515308#p515308

Your dns server is probably a local address (your router)

run nslookup google.com in a run dialog to see what the server is listed as.

When running that test during high bandwidth usage times. chances are you'll be getting timeouts more often than not.

If you need help changing your dns servers manually just ask.

[Switeck]

"I can't get this test to complete without that TCP port 6681 error."

I don't know what would trigger that error in Glasnost...I never got it.

Your router probably doesn't need such a large DHCP ip range (192.168.1.100-192.168.1.149), as I doubt you plan to have more than 10 devices connected to it that needs to be automatically assigned an ip address.

"My firewall has 4 entries for uTorrent. Two each for downloading and uploading. I have all of them checked. Is that correct?"

I don't know, I don't use your firewall.

1st and 2nd links in my signature still apply.

Confirm the REAL sustainable speeds of your line, at least from what speed tier you're signed up to ComCast with.

[HairBear]

Same here.

Normally my ping is 21.

When i use uTorrent it goes up to 850!

I started crying with laughted at one point.

[rafi]

well, the devs claim that the solution for getting unaffected ping is using uTP. If you like to try it:

set advanced->bt.transp_disposition = 26

[Switeck]

HairBear,

Quit laughing and get angry about this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16/virgin_bittorrent/page2.html

Berkett was clear yesterday that application-based restrictions would form part of a broader strategy to "monetise the intelligence" in the Virgin Media network.

...said the firm intends to lead the ISP industry in new network services that exploit customer data.

"application-based restrictions" means restricting BitTorrent apps!

"new network services that exploit customer data" means they're probably making money selling your clickstream data (gathered by their DPI equipment that also screws with BitTorrent) to 3rd parties.

Pingtimes probably won't be so bad once you follow the 1st and 2nd links in my signature.

[fredrock46]

From an elelevated Command Prompt I get this:

nslookup google.com

C:\Windows\system32>nslookup google.com

Default Server: cns.manassaspr.va.dc02.comcast.net

Address: 68.87.73.246

DNS request timed out.

time out was 2 seconds.

DNS request timed out.

time out was 2 seconds.

Request to cns.manassaspr.va.dc02.comcast.net timed out

If I just use Run: the results do not display long enough for me to read but I think they are the same.

==================================================================================

I do show several errors in Event Viewer that may be related. For instance:

The client was unable to validate the following as active DNS server(s) that can service this client. The server(s) may be temporarily unavailable, or may be incorrectly configured. 68.87.73.246

Name resolution for the name www.microsoft.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Name resolution for the name pub.clicksor.net timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

The client was unable to validate the following as active DNS server(s) that can service this client. The server(s) may be temporarily unavailable, or may be incorrectly configured. 68.87.73.246

=================================================================================

I ran the ipconfig /all. Is there a way for me to send you a screenshot or Snippet?

I went online with Comcast for the connection information.

The speed is 12Mbps and it does include a feature called Speed Boost.

I am still not sure how to do a sustained speedtest and they don't seem to know what I as talking about.

I have gone through steps 1 and 2 under Switeck's signature. I must admit though, that some of it is just beyond my capabilities.

[paintball9]

Well either your DNS server is overloaded/ignoring your requests or your hardware is actually causing problems. It's not the same problem I expected. Is it possible for you to try this with a different modem?

The other option would be to run the modem in bridge-mode and use your router for the authentication.

If you want to post screenshots just use an image host, imageshack.us will work fine.

[Switeck]

I went online with Comcast for the connection information.

The speed is 12Mbps and it does include a feature called Speed Boost.

I am still not sure how to do a sustained speedtest and they don't seem to know what I as talking about.

Here's the problem -- my settings guide/chart is based on sustainable UPLOAD speed max. Instead of that being 12 megabits/second (download) speed...your upload is probably only 1-2 megabits/second.

I recommend only using the 1 or 1.5 mbit/sec upload settings...and then only adjusting the upload speed limiter in uTorrent to whatever it can sustain. It'll require 200+ MB size torrent/s with "hungry peers" and few seeds to verify what your line can sustain upload-wise. Such trial-and-error could take a couple hours, though most of that can be done with only quick checks of how it's doing across those hours.

[fredrock46]

Switeck, I think I understand a little better now but let me check. Is it the case that when I run the uTorrent Setup Guide the Bandwidth measurements may be fooled by Comcast Speed Boost. That the results of sustainable UPLOAD speed max are shown to be higher then they actually are? That too, since the Setup Guide uses the Upload speed to adjust the download speed it too is probably inaccurate?

My current Utorrent Setup Guide results are: Upload:4.92 Mbit/s (601.5kB/s) Download:21.06 Mbit/s (2.5MB/s).

There is a Current Settings bar beneath the results. You are recommending I change it to 1.5 Mbit/s then save and close. Is that correct? Fred

[fredrock46]

paintball9

I don't have an alternate modem. I don't know how to go about runing the modem in bridge-mode.

I want to ask about this first. I didn't think this was related to the problem but after reading you posts I now think it possibly is.

I have a new TV. It is a Vizio SV422XVT. It is Internet-Ready and has an eithernet port and now that I think about my uTorrent problem may coincide with the date I installed it. I had not been able to disconnect it from the wireless connection. The network it used could only be found in the router device page but on my PC did not exist. Network and Sharing Center showed that there was no wireless connection at all. In fact I could not even create a wireless connection that worked. I have since reset the router to it's factory defaults and created a new wireless connection. I can connect to it, but I still can't use it. Anyway, I just checked the TV and although it is not connected I think it may still be trying to, because the network (name) I removed has now been replaced with the one I just created. I don't know how to prevent that TV from connecting to my network. I don't use a workgroup. Then again, it may be nothing as I am so limited about network matters. I did want to run it by you though, before I try to figure out Bridge Mode. Is there a tutorial I could use to set all networking and connections to defaults and start from scratch? Thank you all for the help, Fredrock

[Switeck]

This is what ComCast's SpeedBoost does when I turn off the upload speed limiter for about 1 minute:

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/4795/comcastspeedboost201008.png

It should be apparent that I cannot sustain upload speeds significantly higher than I have set.

So your speed test reports your speedboost, which is way above the sustainable amount.

Either use the Speed Guide's 1.5 Mbit/sec drop-down box save+exit or use the settings from 2nd link in my signature instead. The numbers differ a bit, but mostly on per-torrent and global max connections -- which I deem the uTorrent's Speed Guide ones to be excessive. (Many weak routers, wireless cards, or software firewalls cannot handle 200 connections.)

[paintball9]

paintball9

I don't have an alternate modem. I don't know how to go about runing the modem in bridge-mode.

I want to ask about this first. I didn't think this was related to the problem but after reading you posts I now think it possibly is.

I have a new TV. It is a Vizio SV422XVT. It is Internet-Ready and has an eithernet port and now that I think about my uTorrent problem may coincide with the date I installed it. I had not been able to disconnect it from the wireless connection. The network it used could only be found in the router device page but on my PC did not exist. Network and Sharing Center showed that there was no wireless connection at all. In fact I could not even create a wireless connection that worked. I have since reset the router to it's factory defaults and created a new wireless connection. I can connect to it, but I still can't use it. Anyway, I just checked the TV and although it is not connected I think it may still be trying to, because the network (name) I removed has now been replaced with the one I just created. I don't know how to prevent that TV from connecting to my network. I don't use a workgroup. Then again, it may be nothing as I am so limited about network matters. I did want to run it by you though, before I try to figure out Bridge Mode. Is there a tutorial I could use to set all networking and connections to defaults and start from scratch? Thank you all for the help, Fredrock

You should be able to prevent the TV from connecting by putting a password on your network, (it has no way to figure it out, but may try to connect to unsecured networks)

For running in bridge mode you can try goggling that with the model number of your modem. (from what I can see there should be an option somewhere in the modem configuration screen)

Your router is very capable of handling bittorrent traffic (I have one just like it)

The idea of bridge mode is that all the modem does is handle the conversion from analog to digital. you let your router handle the authentication protocol (dsl login). and everything else from a gateway's perspective.

[fredrock46]

paintball9

When I google "Motorola Modem SB6120 Bridge Mode" the closest I come to this subject is " Bridge...to make your router the boss instead of the bitch". Which I gather is what I am trying to do. The writer unfortuneately follows that quote with only "...I have never tried it."

The Cable Modem configuration page displays the following. There are no changeable options on any of the pages.

There are however, 2 interactive buttons. Reset All Defaults and Restart

Frequency Plan: North American Standard/HRC/IRC

Upstream Channel ID: 4

Favorite Frequency (Hz) 537000000

MDD IP Mode Override (MIMO) IPv4 Only

Modem's IP Mode IPv4 Only

DHCP Server Enabled

The Status Page shows all tasks done and operational.

The log page shows several T3 Time out errors.

Should IPv6 also be listed here?

Thank you some more, Fredrock

[Switeck]

The modem may not have any native IPv6 support.

You may be locked out of the router portion of the modem by the ISP.

Many of them have both Ethernet and USB connectors and can use both at once like a router.

Does the router see the ip coming from the modem as a LAN ip (10.x.x.x?) or WAN ip (your internet ip)?