µtorrent kills the internet connection

[Destroyer]

I've allready read this thread and used search as well...

One more problem is: utorrent opens repeatedly port after port from approx. 1000 to 5000: 1001, 1002,... e.t.c. and tryes to do something. I gues peers try to connect to me. As a result i've got more than 1000 connections opened. And this is the problem. I can't find an option to control this. Please help me to solve this problem.

[Switeck]

No, connections on ports 1000 to about 5000 are OUTGOING connections made by µTorrent.

You probably told it to do so.

Did you disable DHT, UPnP, Local Peer Detection, Resolve IPs, and show country flags?

Did you change the half open connection max in advanced settings of µTorrent from 8 to something higher? That tells µTorrent to make outgoing connections faster (for >8) or slower (for <8).

[ericwoud]

Synbios,

I use a hp e-pc computer as a server, and totally taken the router out of my network. This e-pc is very small and uses very little power, almost like a router would. You could consider it as a router with harddisk running windows xp, utorrent and emule. The whole purpose is that i can leave it running/downloading all night without it getting stuck (like my router did eventually). The mediacenter directly plays the files over the network.

The network connection connects to a switch and is LAN port, the usb connection to modem is WAN port. On this e-pc there is no possibility to add an extra network card.

I am happy to report that with usb-hub installed, i've downloaded over 30 gig with utorrent at full speed that my internet connection allows (300kbyte down, 80kbyte up), without it ever getting stuck. Still do not know why it helps, but works excellent. The internet connection does not appear to be slowed down in any way.

[dinopl]

That's right, uT kills internet connection.

Happened an hour ago:

I came back to PC and tried to open a web page, firefox displayed an error (connection timed out, server is taking too long to respond, or something).

After several minutes I found what was causing the problem:

C:\Documents and Settings\Athlon1>netstat -an | find /C ":29242"

12664

Yes, 12664 connections!

I was running uT (version 1.7.5, running on port 29242, obviously) and downloading two torrents.

Settings:

*max number of connected peers per torrent: 80

*global max connections: 230

After closing uT, everything works again.

[DreadWingKnight]

Your "-an" causes the find to include incomplete connections (both opening and closing)

Your numbers are skewed.

[Firon]

And what's your net.max_halfopen set to?

[Ultima]

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=258231#p258231

[dinopl]

net.max_halfopen is set to 8.

netstat without "-a" was giving almost the same numbers (certainly >12k).

[Switeck]

Try "netstat -n" instead.

Also, try lowering net.max_halfopen to only 4.

I can only assume your Windows OS cannot handle µTorrent being set to 8...probably due to OTHER applications making lots of ip-to-ip internet connections as well. I had to use a popup blocker and spam site blocker to get FireFox under control so it didn't try to open as many as 30 connections (pretty much at once!) just when I go to 1 URL.

If you're not firewalled in µTorrent, then you should get LOTS of incoming connections anyway.

But what I don't get is why you're seeing so many FAILED connections on µTorrent's listening port!?

Did you also change µTorrent's settings so its outgoing port is also the same as its listening port?

[yee]

Hi all,

Had the same problem with my router and usage of uTorrent and BitComet.

I have a three PC's at home. Two of them are connected to i-net through Wi-FI, but mine through Ethernet and problems were only on "Ethernet PC".

Ethernet PC system: Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, router: Edimax BR-6204Wg - old one - and changed for now to ASUS WL-520gC, uTorrent: latest version 1.8 (without any modifications) and also BitComet.

It all started as I have read before it happened to others. Everything was fine till the day when uTorrent started to switch off my i-net. The only difference from other user situations was that it broke down my I-net only for browsers (Firefox, Iexplorer and etc.) , but all the downloads on uTorrent were still running. I didn't change anything in my system or settings of uTorrent, it just stopped working one fine day.

At first I tried to make changes in settings of uTorrent - changed net.max_halfopen to 4 - it didn't help, then made the latest updates to router (Edimax BR-6204Wg) - the same problem persisted, then tried to see what happens with BitComet - the same - after 10 - 20 sec I wasn't able to browse the web, wile BitComet continued to work. As I thought that problem could be in router, I changed it to ASUS WL-520gC, the same problem persisted anyway. So I decided to try other torrent client as my last hope - BitTorrent - and believe or not, but it HELPED , even without changing any settings - everything is set to default and works perfectly.

The only paradox, that I haven't solved yet is that on other machines (both that are connected to same router through Wi-Fi) there haven't been any problems at all, even when I used Edimax router and my i-net broke down, the other two stayed connected to the i-net and without any settings changed in uTorrent both machines worked.

Now I have both of those torrents on my PC and still if I try to use uTorrent it brokes down my internet, but BitTorrent works fine. So I would suggest to try switching between different Torrent clients, may be that could help

[Ultima]

FYI, BitTorrent is µTorrent -- only rebranded. If there's any difference between the two, then it's down to settings and/or firewall issues.

[Rekrul]

I'm having a similar problem.

I'm using Windows 98SE, a NetGear NIC card and a 2-Wire router supplied by AT&T. I also have the latest version of uTorrent, although this has happened with past versions as well.

First, because I inevitably get the same comments when I mention Windows 98, let me say right now that upgrading at this time is not an option for me. 98 is what I have, so telling me to get XP is not helpful. Besides, uTorrent works under 98, so I just want help finding the proper settings.

Unlike others in this thread, when my net connection dies, it's gone for good until I reboot. If it happens 5 minutes after I go to bed, it will be down until morning. The router itself does not crash though. I know this because my U-Verse TV service also runs through the router and the set-top boxes are still working fine. Only the computer is affected.

When this happens, nothing works. I can't even access the router status page. There are no specific errors, everything just hangs on the "connecting" phase.

Max TCP connections is set to the W98 default of 100 in the Windows registry. I had increased it at one point, but I was told that changing it doesn't work that well, so I changed it back.

I'm using settings quite a bit below what uTorrent's speed guide recommends. For example, I have the global number of connections set to 100, rather than the 750 it recommends for a 2Mbit connection (mine is 3Mbit).

Here are my settings;

Upload limit: 80 (my max is about 100K/s)

Upload Slots: 4

Connections per Torrent: 80

Connections Global: 100

Max active Torrents: 3 (I only have 2 active)

Max active Downloads: 2

I have unchecked the following: UPnP, NAT-PMP, DHT Network, Enable DHT, Enable Local Peer Discovery.

I have checked Limit Local Peer Bandwidth.

Max Half Open Connections: 8

Peer Resolve Country: False

Resolve IPs: Unchecked

Even with these setting, the connection still dies. It might work fine for hours, or it might die within 30 minutes. I like uTorrent as a client, but it seems that every time I run it, it kills my net connection. By contrast, I had eMule running pretty much 24/7 for over two months, downloading various files and my connection never died once.

[Ultima]

... Does your connection *really* have 3mbit/s upload limit? If not, then you misread the setup guide's instructions. And if your Windows connection limit is 100, you shouldn't be allowing µTorrent to use up to 100 connections in the first place.

[Rekrul]

... Does your connection *really* have 3mbit/s upload limit? If not, then you misread the setup guide's instructions.

I read the setup instructions when I first downloaded uTorrent, but that was a while ago. I've been using my custom settings ever since. When I looked at the speed guide the other day, I mis-interpreted the Connection Type setting. I was thinking it wanted your to select your download speed. I have 3Mbit download.

Regardless, I never actually used the 2Mbit setting, I only looked at it for reference. Using the 128K setting lowers my upload speed to 9K/s, which seems pretty low.

And if your Windows connection limit is 100, you shouldn't be allowing µTorrent to use up to 100 connections in the first place.

I've changed it to 90 now.

[Ultima]

9kB/s might seem low to you, but if your connection really is 128kbit/s, then 9kB/s is near the maximum of what your connection can handle anyway. Increasing the upload rate because you *think* it's not how it should be won't improve your situation, and would only serve to cause/aggrevate interrupted connections as you're seeing.

Global maximum number of connections... 90 is still too high. Try something like 70 global instead. It's low, but that's what you'll have to deal with if you're using Windows 98. There's always the semi-workaround described in the manual:

It should be noted that Windows 95 users must install the Windows Socket 2 Update in order to use µTorrent. Windows 95/98 users should have their global maximum number of connections set lower than the value for the MaxConnections value in the Windows TCP/IP Registry Entries.

The only drawback is that Windows 98 only allows MaxConnections to be set up to a maximum of 512.

[Rekrul]

9kB/s might seem low to you, but if your connection really is 128kbit/s, then 9kB/s is near the maximum of what your connection can handle anyway. Increasing the upload rate because you *think* it's not how it should be won't improve your situation, and would only serve to cause/aggrevate interrupted connections as you're seeing.

Trying to keep the relationeship between "bit" and "byte" straight always confuses me. Personally, I've never understood the need to describe connection speeds in xxxxbits, when virtually every single piece of network software in existance measures the speed in xxxxbytes, including uTorrent. It may be more technically accurate, but it just creates an unnecessary layer of confusion to the discussion. Which is why I keep looking at the wrong settings in the speed guide. From now on, every single speed estimate I mention will be in strictly, 100%, kiloBYTES.

My maximum upload speed is approximately 120K/s. This is confirmed by watching the upload speeds in uTorrent when uploads are set to unlimited, and also by my bandwidth meter, NetStat Live.

My maximum download speed is about 320K/s. This is confirmed by various other programs while downloading from sources such as web sites or newsgroups, as well as by my bandwidth meter.

I had my upload speed set at 80, but now it's set at 50. uTorrent confirms that I'm uploading at about 50K/s, which is less than 50% of my total upload speed.

I have run various tests by downloading from other sources and I have found that I can get full-speed downloads (300K/s+) even with uTorrent uploading at 80K/s.

Global maximum number of connections... 90 is still too high. Try something like 70 global instead. It's low, but that's what you'll have to deal with if you're using Windows 98. There's always the semi-workaround described in the manual:

The only drawback is that Windows 98 only allows MaxConnections to be set up to a maximum of 512.

I had done that originally, but I was told in this very forum that changing the registry entry for the max TCP connections wouldn't actually allow Windows 98 to handle more than 100 connections.

[thelittlefire]

The forum guides are different than Windows KB documents. Just because you can set it to 512 doesn't mean the kernel won't poo itself before you get there.

<I wish I had 3:1 parity of download:upload> You aren't alone in wanting/using 9X with filesharing, but you need to be gentle. Unlike the NT kernel which .. can fix itself when things go bad, remember in the 9x era, "when in doubt reboot". You want to change network settings reboot. You want to change your desktop resolution, reboot (until that addon came out, heh). I remember the first time I used Whistler... I went wired/wireless and then back again... no rebooting!!

So basically, you want to see the limit yourself. I highly doubt someone has tested/verified there is a hard limit ~ 100, but as the KB says, you can have up to 512 connections. This along with other data and user experience says it's not the speeds but the connections which causes the network stack to crap out. Unfortunately you're on dead code so noone can help you fix it except by saying "limit your settings further"

[Rekrul]

The forum guides are different than Windows KB documents. Just because you can set it to 512 doesn't mean the kernel won't poo itself before you get there.

I've tried increasing it to just 256, but that didn't make any difference either.

<I wish I had 3:1 parity of download:upload>

AT&T U-Verse 3Mbit "Pro".

You aren't alone in wanting/using 9X with filesharing, but you need to be gentle. Unlike the NT kernel which .. can fix itself when things go bad, remember in the 9x era, "when in doubt reboot". You want to change network settings reboot. You want to change your desktop resolution, reboot (until that addon came out, heh). I remember the first time I used Whistler... I went wired/wireless and then back again... no rebooting!!

Yes, there are many things I dislike about Windows 98, including the need to reboot every time you change something. Or needing the put the W98 CD in the drive every time you change any of the network settings, even though it doesn't actually need it for anything.

However, at the time I chose 98 because XP was still new and it was being reported that it had trouble running many older games, which was important to me. Technically, this system would probably run XP just fine, but I'd rather just get a new system since a lot of software that I'd want to run on XP would need a faster system and a better graphics card anyway.

So basically, you want to see the limit yourself. I highly doubt someone has tested/verified there is a hard limit ~ 100, but as the KB says, you can have up to 512 connections. This along with other data and user experience says it's not the speeds but the connections which causes the network stack to crap out. Unfortunately you're on dead code so noone can help you fix it except by saying "limit your settings further"

Well, I know that usng a limit of 90 total connections in uTorrent and a registry limit of 256 still doesn't work.

The thing is that the one torrent I now have active doesn't even have enough seeds and peers to reach the maximum of 90, let alone 256. In fact, I've been averaging around 35 seeds and peers connected at any given time, often less. Yet it still manages to kill the net connection.

[thelittlefire]

I don't know what to say other than lower your connections more. Unfortunately I haven't used ed2k in years, so i'm not apt to tell you likely numbers of concurrent connections it uses. What I'm guessing is it's like HTTP/FTP traffic and is magnitudes less than bittorrent. Given you've turned off all "extra" features, that you likely can't update your NIC driver, my only suggestion is to try something like 10 overnight. Also given the times of dying aren't reproducible I might even suggest setting up a clone uTorrent directory http://utorrent.com/faq.php#How_can_I_share_my_torrents_between_user_profiles.3F try to transfer between those both on localhost:port and my.internal.lan.ip:port to see if it's just the data transfer which causes it via bittorrent.

[yee]

FYI, BitTorrent is µTorrent -- only rebranded. If there's any difference between the two, then it's down to settings and/or firewall issues.

Ultima, I understand that BitTorrent is µTorrent, but it also didn't work with BitComet. Anyway there is also a question, that many users are asking, if even it is a matter of some settings/or firewall, then how can it stop working if nobody is changing nothing in settings of µTorrent or FireWall, today it works - tomorrow it stops working - without any system changes.

May be there is some kind of issue with Windows Updates, but again, there are bunch of people who have no problems, besides why then BitTorrent is still working without any problems, with default settings (the same as for µTorrent) and etc.? Anyway I'm glad that I've found some solution for my problem and it's working - for now.

[Firon]

Usually, people do stupid things like follow Youtube guides to "get better download speeds." The main thing they do is raise net.max_halfopen when they shouldn't, which causes lots of problems.

[pbizzle]

It really shocks me that so many people come on here with replies like "your router sucks, you nic sucks" etc.

Many ISP's in the UK now traffic shape P2P traffic aswell as penalise users who use P2P because of programs like Utorrent OVERLOADING their infrastructure. This never happened in the days of Kaza and Edonkey. File sharing used to be promoted with ISP's even setting up peer caches.

I spoke to a leading infrastructure analyst at BT, the UK's largest ISP and he told me they shape traffic because of badly written programs like Utorrent, not bittorrent. That was his actual words, he specifically mentioned Utorrent.

The problem here is not substandard routers, it's poor programming on behalf of the people that made utorrent. If not even the ISP's can support Utorrent then what difference does it make if you have a good router.

It's about time Utorrent just admits that Utorrent sucks because it uses an unrealistic amount of resources. I've since switched to azuerus and am always able to use my internet.

If you are using Utorrent your traffic will be shaped, even if you are not in the UK you will be pooling from UK users who are traffic shaped.

[DreadWingKnight]

If all of your claims are the truth, why do North American ISPs typically not throttle uTorrent specifically and go for more general blocks if they even bother?

Something smells of fish it does.

[Greg Hazel]

It really shocks me that so many people come on here with replies like "your router sucks, you nic sucks" etc.

Many ISP's in the UK now traffic shape P2P traffic aswell as penalise users who use P2P because of programs like Utorrent OVERLOADING their infrastructure. This never happened in the days of Kaza and Edonkey. File sharing used to be promoted with ISP's even setting up peer caches.

I spoke to a leading infrastructure analyst at BT, the UK's largest ISP and he told me they shape traffic because of badly written programs like Utorrent, not bittorrent. That was his actual words, he specifically mentioned Utorrent.

The problem here is not substandard routers, it's poor programming on behalf of the people that made utorrent. If not even the ISP's can support Utorrent then what difference does it make if you have a good router.

It's about time Utorrent just admits that Utorrent sucks because it uses an unrealistic amount of resources. I've since switched to azuerus and am always able to use my internet.

If you are using Utorrent your traffic will be shaped, even if you are not in the UK you will be pooling from UK users who are traffic shaped.

There is very little difference between the way uTorrent and Azureus consume bandwidth from the perspective of a network operator. My guess is he's reacting to the volume of traffic, which would make uTorrent appear to be more of an impact. Unless you can provide specific details on how he thinks uTorrent is "badly written", this claim just seems to be false. Exactly which resources are you talking about uTorrent using which Azureus does not?

[mcaspi]

Unless you can provide specific details on how he thinks uTorrent is "badly written", this claim just seems to be false

Greg, in my case I wouldn't say "badly written". I would say "wrong concept". I can upload to a remote client using TCP at a speed of X kB/s. If I see that uTorrent is insisting on making a uTP connection after each disconnection, where the upload speed is 0 kB/s, I would call this a "wrong concept". Insisting on this uTP connection, which leads to no upload, is the "wrong concept" in my opinion. But hey, everything can be changed (I guess).