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What happened to my speed?


jblindy

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I'm having a speed problem that I can't figure out.

My isp is insightbb and I have the broadband plus package which was upgraded to 15 meg download and 1.5 meg upload last week.

Now when it was first upgraded I was downloading torrents at an average of 1000kB/sec, but here in the past few days I can barely reach 400kB/sec. For example, right now I am downloading a well seeded torrent from a private tracker (103 seeders and 146 peers) and am only downloading at 465kB/sec.

I am an experienced torrenter and have used utorrent exclusively with never a problem. To my knowledge everything is setup properly. Tcp/ip is patched, I use cablenut to tweak my connection settings, port is forwarded properly and I'm connectable. I tried to turn encryption on but it didn't help and as far as I know Insight doesn't throttle speeds.

58831524.png

Does anybody have any suggestions?

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http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Try a torrent from there -- how does it run? What does the Speed Guide show your settings to be?

I'm not at home at the present but will try later and post the results. I have utorrent set to upload at 94kB and 110kB when not downloading. Download is set to 1000kB. I can't remember what the other settings are but they are whatever speedguide set them to for a 1Mb connection.

What speeds has your previous package (nominal and actual)?

What are your upload and connection settings?

How does your upload (and download) behaves? Typical screencaptures from speed tab are welcomed.

My previous connection was 6Mb download with 512Kb upload. Actual average was just over 5Mb down and just over 400Kb up.

Upload and connection settings are whatever speedguide set them to for a 1Mb connection with the exception of alternate upload of 110kB and 1000kB download.

My upload is fine.....I consistenly peg the max upload and at night while I'm snoozing, I have the scheduler set for unlimited upload which regularly hits 250kB.

My download is inconsistent. When I first start a torrent it'll stall at around 20kB for about 5 minutes then SLOOOOOOWLY climb to between 200-400kB. Then for some reason it'll fall all the way to 0 and stay there for a few seconds before repeating the process.

But this has only started happening within the past few days. As stated previously I could hit a stable 1MB download with a simultaneous 94kB upload.

Before the upgrade of my broadband package I was downloading at around 500kB and uploading at 45kB.

I hope any of this helps.

EDIT: Also, with the above mentioned torrent that I'm downloading, it's from Torrent-damage.net, with just over 100 seeders and 150 leechers. I'm only connecting to about thirty of these.

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No, it was not.

Please correct your previous post with adequate speed units, because now nobody can be sure when you really mean bytes (as you are always writing it) or only bits (which should be noted as lower case 'b')

You're right, I meant kilobits and megabits on my connection speed. My bad, corrections made.

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How can your upload speed hit 250 KB/sec if you only have 1.5 megabits/sec total upload bandwidth?

This just goes to show how bad my memory is! :/ I'm really sorry for all the confusion, I was at my inlaws before and was going off memory, which as you can see, isn't the best. I'm at home now and have posted some clickable screenshots of my settings.

Now does anybody have an idea as to why I'm not making use of my full download potential. As stated before, I'm pretty positive that Insight doesn't throttle speeds, at least they never have before. I use cablenut to tweak my internet connection. I have this problem on both xp pro and vista rc2. TCP/IP has been patched on xp, can't do it on vista yet. Net.max_halfopen is set to 8.

Here is a copy of my latest connection speed.......

60694169.png

And here are some screenshots of my utorrent settings.......

th_screen5.jpg

th_screen4.jpg

th_screen3.jpg

th_screen2.jpg

th_screen.jpg

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Try a torrent from there -- how does it run? What does the Speed Guide show your settings to be?

I tried this and within a few seconds I was at 850 kB/sec and it stayed there. But when I dl from the private trackers that I belong to.....td, bn, demon, oink, and bs.....I am having trouble hitting those speeds?

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Once again, your screenshots don't make sense in regard to your upload speed. You've supposedly limited upload (while seeding) to 110 KB/sec, yet clearly the picture shows you uploading at over 130 KB/sec.

Are we missing some other important facts here?

No.

Check out your post where you pointed out my 250 kB mistake and you'll see why I'm uploading at 160 kB. I have my scheduler set to unlimited upload from 11 pm to 7 am, and from 8 am to 10 pm it's set just as the screenshots show.

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Ok......during the time I have the upload set to unlimited I do not download. I have the scheduler set to unlimited download during the time frame posted above. As seen in the screenshots, my upload hovers around 150-160 kB when unlimited.

During the day when I am doing my downloading I have the upload capped at 94 kB, as set by the speedguide. I don't have a problem with my upload, as it seems that I easily connect to people who want to download from me.

But when I download, I can't connect to any seeders/peers. At least that's the way it seems.

edit:

I suggest some screencaps from speed graph

Speed graph?

Speedtest while uploading................

60764753.png

Speedtest while downloading............

60766415.png

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me: "Are we missing some other important facts here?"

jblindy: "No. ... I have my scheduler set to unlimited upload from 11 pm to 7 am, and from 8 am to 10 pm it's set just as the screenshots show."

For one, the screenshots do not show that. There is no screenshot link for your scheduler window. The Connection window screenshot shows upload set to 92 KB/sec with alternate rate of 110 KB/sec while seeding. Whether these are values you have just entered but not yet clicked OK or Apply for, I can only guess.

Secondly, at the time you're showing the high upload speeds ...strangely absent from the bar at the bottom of the window is "Limited by scheduler". It may seem odd, but even if the limit is 0 (which means no limit), that message should still appear on the bar. Are you running one of the beta versions or hacked versions of µTorrent?

I think you may need to enable Protocol Encryption. Although you may not be on an ISP that throttles BitTorrent traffic, (though previously as a BearShare Beta-tester, I've known for a long time that Insight BB messes with Gnutella traffic!) you're no doubt connecting to many that do. That alone may explain why speeds aren't so good anymore.

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Secondly, at the time you're showing the high upload speeds ...strangely absent from the bar at the bottom of the window is "Limited by scheduler". It may seem odd, but even if the limit is 0 (which means no limit), that message should still appear on the bar. Are you running one of the beta versions or hacked versions of µTorrent?

Since you seem to like pointing out mistakes instead of trying to help, I'll point out your mistake. You're wrong in this statement! When the scheduler is unlimited it DOESN'T say "Limited by scheduler", Mr. Jackass. It doesn't say "Limited by scheduler" until your up/download is actually being limited by scheduler.

I think you may need to enable Protocol Encryption. Although you may not be on an ISP that throttles BitTorrent traffic, (though previously as a BearShare Beta-tester, I've known for a long time that Insight BB messes with Gnutella traffic!) you're no doubt connecting to many that do. That alone may explain why speeds aren't so good anymore.

I already said that I tried that and it made no difference. My very first post. But you were to busy being a smart-ass to notice.

For one, the screenshots do not show that. There is no screenshot link for your scheduler window. The Connection window screenshot shows upload set to 92 KB/sec with alternate rate of 110 KB/sec while seeding. Whether these are values you have just entered but not yet clicked OK or Apply for, I can only guess.

If you would have taken the time to read my posts instead of pointing out my unintentional mistakes you would have clearly seen, in one of my above posts, that I pointed out that at night I have the scheduler set to unlimited. Now all it takes is common sense to figure that one out.

So really, if you don't have anything helpful to say then shut the hell up and stay out of my thread!

To the others who are trying to help, speeds have come back somewhat, but it seems to take forever to connect with any peers/seeders. There are plenty that the client wants to connect to but am unable to. Why is this? I've never noticed this before.

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I tested my copy of µTorrent v1.6 in Scheduler to see if I could duplicate what I'm seeing in your screenshots before I made my posts. Quite frankly, I cannot duplicate your results. When I put in 0 and 0 for upload and download there is a "Limited by scheduler" at the bottom. This seems like a *SEVERE* bug in µTorrent that probably is causing your problem, but as you say...it's just me attacking you.

Getting to the bottom of this weird behavior may be KEY in solving your problem. What's more, it's all that I see out-of-the-ordinary to go on.

I read and reply to a lot posts with canned responses. Missed the bit about you trying protocol encryption enabled or forced, however I am saying even if it doesn't help *YOU* it can help others for you to have it enabled because they are on ISPs that do throttle BitTorrent traffic.

I'm not here just to help you, so whether I post a reply or don't post a reply on this thread is TOTALLY BEYOND YOUR CONTROL. Because I'm doing it to help others. Not just you.

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I tested my copy of µTorrent v1.6 in Scheduler to see if I could duplicate what I'm seeing in your screenshots before I made my posts. Quite frankly, I cannot duplicate your results. When I put in 0 and 0 for upload and download there is a "Limited by scheduler" at the bottom. This seems like a *SEVERE* bug in µTorrent that probably is causing your problem, but as you say...it's just me attacking you.

This first screen shot is of my scheduler settings. From 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., I have the scheduler set to unlimited, hence the dark green squares. I took this screenshot at around 9:30, so you will see the "Limited by scheduler" at the bottom, because indeed the bandwidth is being limited as seen in the Scheduler Settings box. I have the upload and download set as the speedguide recommends. 92Kb up and 1050Kb down.

th_screen6.jpg

Now, in this box, I ticked the square the corresponds with 9:00-9:59 Sunday night and set it to unlimited. Since my down/upload is not being limited, there is no "Limited by scheduler" at the bottom. Does that satisfy your curiousity?

th_screen7.jpg

Maybe in your own way you were trying to be helpful, but to me it seemed as if I were being attacked needlessly. All I want is some help so that I can take full advantage of my broadband connection. So let's call peace and see if we can figure this out.

edit: With regards to the encryption enabled. Should I turn it on and leave it on then, if it in turn helps others? How does it help others? Does it help them connect to me? In what circumstance, then, would I want to turn it off? I always thought that encryption just disguised activity on my end?

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Your pre-scheduler screenshots didn't jive with what you were saying.

So without knowing why, I asked "Are we missing some other important facts here?"

So to confirm once-and-for-all 2 important facts:

Your upload speed max as reported on the Connection page is 0 = unlimited?

The scheduler is set to 92 KB/sec max upload?

If both of those are true, then my best guess is your upper limit for upload speed is actually only around 160 KB/sec with your current setup. Any speeds you see higher than that are probably just 1-second bursts. The difference between the torrent's reported upload speed and µTorrent's total reported upload speed can almost be viewed as how much overstrain you're putting on your connection -- and may roughly correspond to the amount of upload traffic your ISP is randomly deleting. It won't do much good to try to upload faster than that and setting a significantly higher upload speed can even make the BitTorrent protocol misread+misreport the conditions, possibly resulting in peers and seeds snubbing your connection! These same peers+seeds may still have your connection snubbed hours later when Scheduler's limited upload speed of 92 KB/sec kicks in...and your connection is actually uploading as fast as reported.

This may seem silly, but maybe you've just already downloaded all the 'fast' torrents out there so all that's left now is slower ones. Ok, not likely. But with the recent uptake of BitTorrent-throttling hardware and software by numerous ISPs, the case may be that the good old days are waning fast. Even the many ISPs that don't throttle BitTorrent traffic often have monthly bandwidth quotas, thus strongly encouraging/forcing people on them to download+upload slower. Also percent-wise, more and more broadband connections are using software firewalls and routers that are misconfigured so they're firewalled on file-sharing networks. After all, your speeds on the test torrents were 850 KB/sec -- so if the problem isn't with you is with the trackers, seeds, and peers you connect to.

BitTorrent requires specific handshakes that are spotted by throttling technology used by numerous ISPs around the world. Protocol Encryption can only hide those if used from the onset. Without encryption, a throttled connection that you get as a peer or seed will naturally be throttled on both upload and download speeds as a result. It is, in short, a 2-way communication setting -- either both sides are using encryption or not. There may be a special case where the handshake is unencrypted "in the clear" but after that everything is encrypted -- that too is likely to be throttled by "BT-hostile" ISPs.

Not only can the endpoint ISPs throttle "undesireable" traffic, so too can ISPs in the middle! AT&T is believed to have done so for the Gnutella traffic delivered to/from Insight BB. This was awhile back, but it's possible AT&T's still trying to shrink Insight BB's customer base for their own personal benefit...or just to save on their bandwidth costs.

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  • 2 weeks later...
So to confirm once-and-for-all 2 important facts:

Your upload speed max as reported on the Connection page is 0 = unlimited?

The scheduler is set to 92 KB/sec max upload?

The settings are as follows.....

Connection page

global max upload 92kB/sec

alternate upload when not downloading 110kB/sec

global max download 1050kB/sec

Bittorrent page

global max connections 600

max num connected peers per torrent 100

number upload slots per torrent 6

use additional upload slots checked

protocol encryption is enabled

allow incoming legacy connections is checked

Advanced

net max halfopen is set to 49

Using winXP with patched tcpip.sys set to 50

I have the scheduler set to unlimited during the early morning hours and limited to 92 kB up and 1050 kB down during the day.

My upload isn't the problem, I can regularly hit my max upload. My download is what's bugging the hell outta me. I can't seem to break 200 anymore, no matter what torrent I'm downloading. Here's a screenshot of the most recent try at the ubuntu.com test torrent.

th_untitled-1.jpg

I recently tried uninstalling utorrent, deleted the settings.dat and the settings.dat.old files and reinstalled....didn't help.

What the hell is the deal!

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"Advanced - net max halfopen is set to 49

Using winXP with patched tcpip.sys set to 50"

Those values are too close to each other, it's actually possible to cause overloads (where Win XP starts blocking would-be connections). It's not recommended to go higher than 80% of max.

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Yes I did have it set to eight, but then I read somewhere to set it higher. At one point I had it at a hundred, but that went nowhere fast. I've set and reset everything and tried different combinations all to no avail. That's why I uninstalled utorrent, deleted the settings.dat/old.dat files and reinstalled. The settings are as I just posted above with the exception of the net max halfopen which I will set back to eight. Would it be beneficial to set the patched tcpip.sys higher?

It would be plausible to think that insight is throttling my connection but my brother-in-law has the same connection I do and is having no problem downloading 700-1000kB/sec. I can't even break 200kB/sec.

I have the same problem with xp pro and vista rc2.

Here's what I have:

Static IP

Intel pro/1000 on asus mobo

Linksys wireless router wrk54g.....I'm connected via ethernet

motorola cable modem sb5101

nod32 av

windows firewall.....utorrent and corresponding port allowed

tcpip.sys patched to 50

cablenut was installed, uninstalled it and tried tcpoptimizer set to maximum available bandwidth of 12000kb/s.

Everything was working fine. I was happy with my settings and never changed anything until I started having this problem. I guess I'll give insight a call and see if they limit connections. Why pay a premium for my 1.5MB up and 15MB down connection if I can't take advantage of it.

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Well, I called Insight and spoke with a tech who just happened to be an azureus user. He told me that insight doesn't shape, limit or in any way throttle or restrict internet usage. He asked if I had my wireless secured, which I do with a wps pre-shared key. Other than the normal questions, av? Firewall? Port forwarded? he couldn't offer any help. So back to square one.

Ultima, I couldn't find anything in my nod32 setup that dealt with p2p filtering. I excluded utorrent from the imon (internet) monitor but I don't think I'm comfortable with that and am going to change it back.

I'll keep digging.

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