Upload speed very unstable

I was wondering if anyone can help with my upload speed. Basically it's up and down in a very distinct pattern, almost like a heart rate monitor. I've tried changing a few setting that I'm confident with but the problem still persists. I've kept an eye on my upload to each peer and they all drop at the same time, so it's not like they disconnect or slow their speed down.

I've tested my upload speed to my webspace I get from my ISP and it's 110kB/s and very steady with less than 1kB/s variation. I've tried 2 different modem/routers, a TP Link TD-W8920G and a Billion 7401VGP R3 with the same results. I'm using XP SP3 on my laptop and PC and have used TCP Optimizer.

If there is more info that could help pinpoint the issue please let me know and I'll get on it. I just really want this sorted as it basically halves the amount I can seed and I'm keen to keep my ratio high.

Cheers in advance

Bob

I'll just add that I have disabled Windows Firewall and my AV, I even went as far as uninstalling the AV to be sure. Ports are also successfully forwarded and I have had a green light the whole time.

What's your uTorrent settings?

(CTRL+G speed guide ones and any advanced settings you changed.)

I used the default settings for 1Mbit upload (actual upload sync is 1024kbps). I lowered upload slots a few times until I was only uploading to 1 person, no change, so I put it 4 and left it there. Connections per torrent and global max didn't make a difference since I only upload or download 1 at a time.

I jump on torrents pretty quickly so I know I'll be able to seed back and keep my ratio up, most of my torrents are over 4:1, but as you can imagine, it takes ages to get there when a 1Mbit upload is constantly dropping to about 20kB/s.

I'll try another client.

I have the same problem.

Here's what seems to have helped, tho I also suspect my router for playing a part.

I'm on XP pro SP2.

Go into eventviewer: start -> run -> eventvwr

Check the system category.

If you got warnings there source Tcpip, it might just be, that you need to increase your number of half-open connections with both XP and utorrent. I seem to get best results with as high a number as 500 connections, but that's not recommended in the FAQs. Read about patching here:

http://www.utorrent.com/faq/network

The setting for utorrent is in options -> preferences -> advanced.

Good luck.

I get heaps of warnings about "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts."

I applied the patch and set net.max_half open to 50, I'll see how it goes.

Cheers for your help, I'll update my post with the results.

I applied the patch and set net.max_half open to 50, I'll see how it goes.

For this step, You have failed.

Decrease net.max_halfopen down to 4.

If you're only uploading to <10 total peers and many of them are on hostile ISPs, then even if there's nothing wrong with your line or settings...your upload speeds may be impacted.

Australia still has a few really bad ISPs.

Are there any/some/many IPv6 and/or uTP peers/seeds present?

Some routers and other networking hardware/software may have trouble with them...

Australia still has a few really bad ISPs.

Not mine. There are plenty that don't interfere with P2P traffic, if they did they would lose a huge chunk of their customers, much like most ISP's did when they started limiting P2P traffic.

Are there any/some/many IPv6 and/or uTP peers/seeds present?

Right now there is one uTP peer, but I'm not uploading to that one. Not sure about IPv6, how would I check?

My situation has indeed improved. I've have been running pretty steady since my last post.

I settled at 50 connections i XP and 40 with utorrent.

Besides what i explained, I also ran this command from the command prompt to restore my original settings in xp:

netsh int ip reset <filename>

(filename random string]

This does not affect your tcpip.sys patching.

To confirm the error in eventviewer is due to utorrent timing out, in the command prompt type:

netstat -no | find "SYN"

The number that appears in the last column (PID number) can be checked in Task Manager in the PID column. (view -> set coloumns)

*creds RaouR

Other peers/seeds could be on bad ISPs, causing your upload speed to be unstable.

It's usually pretty obvious which ip is IPv6, at least if you have Resolve IPs disabled in the PEERS window/tab. (right-click for menu)

The lone uTP peer can cause all sorts of upload speed estimate failures and short-lived upload speed drops to very low levels.

Try setting:

bt.tcp_rate_control to FALSE

bt.trans_disposition to 13 or 5 (to disable uTP outgoing or completely)

@Switeck

I haven't got that entry bt.tcp_rate_control in utorrent. It's v1.8.5.17414.

I haven't got no peers on IPv6. I use solely Private trackers.

Chaned the other entry from 13 to 5.

Thanks.

Other peers/seeds could be on bad ISPs, causing your upload speed to be unstable.

Could 1 peer with a dodgy download cause upload to all peers to drop? It seems too regular for it to be that, it happens on all torrents, on all trackers. Upload to all peers drops simultaneously, even if I turn uTorrent and connect to different peers and even if i connect to 1 peer at a time.

One thing I noticed which is probably means nothing, the Disk Statistics, namely the Read cache, is always full. I'm not at home right now but I'll note down what it reads if it means anything.

Try setting:

bt.tcp_rate_control to FALSE

bt.trans_disposition to 13 or 5

I don't have bt.tcp_rate_control and bt.trans_disposition is set to 13.

1 peer with a dodgy download could indeed cause upload to ALL peers to drop if that 1 peer is using uTP and nothing else is.

That's why I want you to try disabling uTP connections by setting bt.trans_disposition to 5.

Read Cache stays full if it's in use, unless you've checked reduce/empty contents options. Working as designed.

I want you to try disabling uTP connections by setting bt.trans_disposition to 5

OK, after changing this and monitoring for a few hours there were still 3 uTP users in my list, I wasn't connected to them as such, but they were there so I deleted uTorrent and all the settings and reinstalled. The outcome has been very good so far, I've been uploading at 92kB/s for the last 8 hours and looking at the speed graph there hasn't been a noticeable variation in speed.

Just curious though, if uTP peers can cause issues like this, why isn't the bt.trans_disposition set to 5 to begin with? Also, I don't think this was mentioned in any FAQ's regarding speed issues, but then again, I did read a hell of a lot and may have just overlooked it.

Cheers for your help anyway, this issue had me pulling out what little hair I have left.

"there were still 3 uTP users in my list, I wasn't connected to them as such, but they were there so I deleted uTorrent and all the settings and reinstalled."

You could've just stopped the torrents and restarted them to make uTorrent drop the uTP peers/seeds.

Changing settings in uTorrent doesn't normally cause it to break existing connections (unless you're loading a new ipfilter.dat)...it just prevents uTorrent from making more such connections.

uTP peers should work ok if you are connected to "enough" (2 or more decent ones). There are a few advantages to uTP peers/seeds -- they can bypass some types of firewalls, they can "defeat" some ISP throttling tricks, they can have lower bandwidth overhead requirements than standard TCP peers/seeds, and if everything's running ok they can even self-regulate their speeds without making web surfing impossible.

Right now, uTP is still somewhat experimental and unreliable.

You're quite likely connecting to the older uTorrent clients that support uTP (v1.8.x)...the v2.0's and even v2.1's should be much better at keeping speeds high and reliable.

You could've just stopped the torrents and restarted them to make uTorrent drop the uTP peers/seeds.

This was after changing the settings, shutting down uTorrent and refreshing my IP. It's very much stable since reinstalling and I can achieve a steady 92kB/s with very very little variation in speed, except when I'm downloading of course.

A hell of a lot better than the first graph aye? Before I started downloading it was almost a flat line for 10 hours straight, between 91-93kB/s.

Again, thanks for your help

Similar pics here to your first pictures: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=447580#p447580

I had the same problem with the upload speed. When i launch uTorrent im uploading with 6 MB/s and after few minutes it drops to constant 200-400 kB/s. Its pretty annoying... But i think its fixed by disabling bandwidth management