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question on port forwarding


wldcat2

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Just want to make sure I understand this correctly. When I used ABC I had to forward a range of ports. But with uTorrent (1.1.4) I only have to allow 1 port? For instance, right now I have the port for incoming connections set to 49155 so in my router (Linksys WRT 54G) I have port 49155 set to forward to the IP of that computer. I also have the box checked (in uTorrent) that says to enable UPnP port mapping, however, I don't really know what that does.

The reason I ask is because the speeds seemed to be a little slower than I expected, and slower than I get with ABC. I would usually get around 1 MB/s with ABC but I'm only getting 112 kB/s right now. Also when I open a cmd prompt and do a netstat I'm seeing active TCP connections in the port range of 2120-2179. So how do I account for this in my router?

Thanks for your help.

Karl

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Heh, you sound just like me a few days ago when I first installed µTorrent. I know EXACTLY where you are coming from, dude. I switched from ABC to µTorrent when I read about the 1.1.4 update in Digg.com.

Anyways...

Yes, you are correct; there's no range of ports, it's only one. Not sure exactly how that works, but it does. Hehe. You can disable UPnP port mapping in µTorrent, it's supposed to configure your port forwarding stuff for you, IIRC, but you are doing that manually. So just turn that off. Now, check your µTorrent after leaving a .torrent file active and downloading for about 5-7 minutes. Do you see a "NAT Error" or "Listen Error" in the status bar for µTorrent? Or does it say "Network OK"?

-Karasuhebi

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First of all, just forwarding the single port should be enough, as far as I can tell. If you manually forward the port, as you have already done, you should probably uncheck the uPnP box in the network setup. Universal Plug 'n Pray opens the proper ports for you if you run both an OS that supports it (XP) and your router has it enabled. However, many people consider it a huge security risk. If you know enough to manually forward ports, you would be better off disabling uPnP in uTorrent but more importantly, in your router.

Your other observation is very interesting. I just did the same test and found a number of TCP connections to the designated uTorrent port, but also a number on other ports. The IP's resolve to clients that uTorrent is connected to, so we know where they come from.

My guess is that the connections on the other ports were initiated by the local computer, so the router didn't block them. Generally speaking, your router would not accept an incoming TCP connection on a port unless it was specifically allowed in the setup. Outgoing TCP connections are often allowed by default, unless your router has an unusually "strict" firewall.

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Hmmm...well I don't think it's a router issue anymore. Just for the heck of it, I turned off my firewall (Sygate Personal Firewall) even though I had it set to allow traffic for uTorrent. When I did that my upload speeds went from about 100 kB/s to about 250 kB/s.

So I restarted it and went to the advanced application configuration. I added port 49155 to remote server ports and local ports (TCP) and left the boxes checked for act as a server and act as a client. However, even though it says to add ports in that box so they won't get blocked, once I did that my speed dropped to zero and that port was completely blocked.

So apparently it's my firewall but I'm not sure what setting I'm missing....

I would really like to continue using uTorrent because ABC was a huge resource hog and 90% of the time when I closed the program it wouldn't release the resources until I manually went in and stopped the process.

And for the record, my status bar says network ok.

Karl

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If it says "Network OK", I ASSUME µTorrent should be working fine. I think/assume it means you have no connection errors (ex: NAT error or Listen errors). It sounds like Sygate is your problem here. I think you should post this in the "Found Bugs" forum, so the developers will know Sygate is causing problems with µTorrent.

Heh, it's still funny how much like me you are. I had the same problem with ABC, with the whole "I had to end the process manually thing", too. That's one of the reasons I LOVE µTorrent.

LOL, I just noticed we even have the same brand of routers. That's funny. Are you sure you are not my clone? O_O

-Karasuhebi

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Here's another interesting observation for the developers about open TCP connections. Some of the established TCP connections are for clients that uTorrent no longer shows in its peer list. Perhaps they will close eventually, but it is not a good idea to leave a TCP connection open when your business with the other host is supposedly done. As long as you eventually close it, I suppose it's OK. TCP connections are a limited resource in Windows, so they should probably be closed when you are finished. OTOH, if you are holding the connection open to do further business with the remote host, even if it is currently inactive, it should show up in the peers list.

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Curiouser and curiouser. Stopping the torrent did not close many of the open TCP connections. Exiting uTorrent similarly did not close these open connections. Once uTorrent exits, my software firewall starts to report incoming activity from those clients on the same ports. It looks like uTorrent is not cleaning up open TCP connections.

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As i take it, The single port is effective for INBOUND traffic. Connections from other peerseeds will be made to your IP in that port. OUTBOUND connections however, need to go to the respective ports the other clients choose for themselves. So these need to be allowed aswell. That would explain the upload speed jumping up when your firewall is stopped.

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