Cannot download ANYTHING with BThomehub

Hi all,

About a month ago, I upgraded my BT service to the "unlimited package" with unlimited downloads (I also replaced my router with a BThomehub 2). I forwarded a port and uTorrent was working fine again (228kB/s...pretty good!), but now, downloads have almost completely stopped working.

I haven't changed ANYTHING with uTorrent or my connection in the past few weeks, so I have no idea why all of a sudden I try downloading stuff with hundreds of seeds and peers, and cannot connect to any of them...

What I have noticed happening is that when I test the forwarded port to see if it's open, often it is not. I don't know why, as I followed all the instructions on PortForward.com for opening a port, and I get the little green icon at the bottom of uTorrent telling me my connection is fine. Sometimes, it does say the port is open. My latest attempt at opening a port has worked fine so far, but download speeds are still near zero.

I don't know where to start, does anyone know what is happening and why I'm now unable to download anything? (And hopefully how to fix it, whatever it is...)

1st and 2nd links in my signature, we need more information!

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I checked out those links and adjusted my settings slightly. My broadband speeds are: 4536kb download, 368kb upload and my settings are now: 36kB/s upload, 228kB/s download, global maximum connections 90, maximum connected peer per torrent 40 and upload slots 4.

I also set up a static IP address, which worked fine. However, I am still having the problem of the port checking utility telling me my port (47272) is closed most of the time. I have opened 47272 (followed all the instructions for opening the port) and also restarted my Homehub and left it unplugged to see if the Homehub would "accept" the open port.

I can see that the port is open, because when I delete the settings to open 47272 my download speeds completely fall. After opening the port (despite the port checker telling me it is closed) I get download speeds of about 25kB/s. When I check with the port checker, it seems to alternate between telling me 47272 is open or shut. All the while, uTorrent has still been telling me my network is OK... :S

A few nights ago, my download speeds were at more than 200kB/s, so this is not a permanant problem, I only wish I could get it working like that again.

I also have very few peers and seeds, one download lists 212 seeds and 781 peers, but I am only connected to 37 seeds and no peers.

I'm running Windows XP, everything is up to date. I have disabled Windows Firewall with no luck.

If you need any more info just ask. Thanks.

Your modem may be acting as a router/firewall. Maybe UPnP works on it...sometimes?

BT Central ADSL ISP in the UK is known to throttle BitTorrent traffic really low during most of the day.

Encryption-wise, you might get better results doing this:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=46778

or this:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=58714

(NOTE: Those settings were a special case for a wireless ISP, so understand them before you try them!)

Thanks again for your reply

It seems BT is throttling my downloads...I recieved an email today from them which explained that as my broadband usage is over 100GB (wow, only managed 16GB before I upgraded to unlimited usage...) a month, my broadband speeds are now restricted during peak times.

Whilst this isn't great, at least I recieved an email about it. Thanks for the links you suggested, I did suspect that my speeds were being throttled, and at least now it is confirmed. I guess I will only be seeding during peak times from now on, or, at most, running very slow downloads. I will have a go at trying out the methods you suggested in the posts

Once you discover the limits, there's not much point exceeding them.

That's where 2nd link in my signature becomes valuable -- less overheads using fewer connections = more bandwidth "spent" actually uploading/downloading the torrent.