Bittorrent issues again, with Added Twist

[Pipeless]

The issues that I raised in this thread earlier in the year have returned, along with some other rather strange behaviour.

I've not been using Bittorrent much over the last two or three months but I've noticed the "connection closed by peer" phenomenom has become commonplace when I do use it. Last week, starting on Monday Nov 22, I began closely monitoring the situation and have built up a picture of what's going on.

Everything's pretty much the same as what's in the thread, above, except that I've replaced my old USB modem with a Netgear DG834G router to try and improve things. Utorrent ports have been forwarded correctly (as per this page); I have the green "tick" on the bottom bar which gives the message "Network OK, Your network connection is working as it should".

Last week, up to friday (inclusive) I started torrents in the afternoons (1pm to 3pm), all with lots of seeds, using a variety of sources/trackers. With only a single torrent in the queue, none failed immediately (i.e. giving a "connection closed by peer" report) but downloaded/uploaded well (if very slowly!) ...... until the trackers began to update themselves for the first time. After the update, they all failed, which reduces download speed to a trickle and stops uploading, for some reason. If a second (or more) torrent is added to the queue it fails immediately - no traffic whatsoever.

Strangely, Saturday 27th was OK ...... all went well with no problems. Sunday I didn't use Bittorrent.

Yesterday, back to torrent failures. As I write today, same thing.

The "added twist" is that at 23:00 Hours exactly - and this has been the case since I've began monitoring - all queued torrents suddenly spring back to life. When the trackers update themselves, or if I can update them manually, the "connection closed by peer" message disappears and upload/download traffic resumes at a far better speed.

In a nutshell, Bittorrent has become virtually unusable before 11pm, because of 56K-modem-style speeds and the ongoing (!) "connection closed by peer" issue. I reckon Fast is charging waaaaaay too much for this kind of thing. What's going on?

 

[fast]

Hi,

Are you talking to us about this, as I can't work out who you are from your forum post? Eitherway please contact me directly via mark [at] fast.co.uk (include a ticket number if already raised) and I'll work with you on it.

I can assure you there is nothing at our end doing this - the more you use with us the better, as we charge you for usage !

Mark

 

[Kits]

In a nutshell, Bittorrent has become virtually unusable before 11pm, because of 56K-modem-style speeds and the ongoing (!) "connection closed by peer" issue. I reckon Fast is charging waaaaaay too much for this kind of thing. What's going on?

Looking at the new laws it could be bittorrents have had their day especially if downloading copyright programs is it really worth the risk of a court appearance.

 

[Pipeless]

Looking at the new laws it could be bittorrents have had their day especially if downloading copyright programs is it really worth the risk of a court appearance.

Thank you for that amazingly interesting observation. I feel honoured simply to be allowed to read it. Thank you.

Hi,

Are you talking to us about this, as I can't work out who you are from your forum post? Eitherway please contact me directly via mark [at] fast.co.uk (include a ticket number if already raised) and I'll work with you on it.

I can assure you there is nothing at our end doing this - the more you use with us the better, as we charge you for usage !

Mark

I'm going to keep monitoring the situation for a few days to see how things turn out. Coincidentally, at this very moment there are no "connection closed by peer" issues with 2 current torrents and one of them is coming down at decent speeds. No upload speed at all, unfortunately (the other isn't doing anything). This is the best performance I've seen in almost 3 weeks (at this time of day).

 

[fast]

Hi,

If you're having a problem please involve us as soon as possible, otherwise we're getting involved when you've had the issue for a while

Let me know if you want our assistance.

Mark

 

[rruwalton]

Thank you for that amazingly interesting observation. I feel honoured simply to be allowed to read it. Thank you.

Here's a frown for your attitude towards a much respected member

 

[timeless]

l would check to see other if other trackers cause the same issue, as lm only assuming here that the files were all downloaded from a single one.. if thats the case it could be a tracker issue... however if we are talking multiple trackers the ISP would be the first port of call especially since it sounds like traffic management at peak times.. but l could be wrong hence why its worth speaking to ones ISP first when concerning network problems.

 

[Pipeless]

Very soon after I wrote the last post, above, the problems began to manifest again, and continued for many hours, though this time traffic recovered at around 22:30 as opposed to the "usual" 23:00. Half an hour later, I stopped uTorrent and all other uploads/downloads and went on to the 'Glasnost' testing facility and initiated a test. The results are below, which show what I consider to be a "normal", problem-free Bittorrent connection session, typical of late-night behaviour. I've slightly altered my IP numbers and I've tried to format the text to allow for easy reading.......

Results for your host (dsl7x-14x-19x-24x.in-addr.fast.co.uk - 7x.14x.19x.24x):

Is your upload traffic rate limited?
There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your uploads.

Is your download traffic rate limited?
There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your downloads.

You can view the detailed measurement results of the test here...........

Detailed test results giving the throughput per flow Glasnost runs:

All BitTorrent and control flow transfers using port 6881

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth BitTorrent flow ------ Bandwidth control flow

Download #1 ----------- 1057 Kbps ---------------------- 1055 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 917 Kbps ---------------------- 831 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- 792 Kbps ---------------------- 1033 Kbps

Upload #1 ----------- 258 Kbps ---------------------- 271 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 279 Kbps ---------------------- 278 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 306 Kbps ---------------------- 270 Kbps

All BitTorrent and control flow transfers using port 39798

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth BitTorrent flow ------ Bandwidth control flow

Download #1 ----------- 920 Kbps ---------------------- 915 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 1057 Kbps ---------------------- 954 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- 907 Kbps ---------------------- 874 Kbps

Upload #1 ----------- 234 Kbps ------------------- 268 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 275 Kbps -------------------- 248 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 247 Kbps -------------------- 241 Kbps

BitTorrent transfers using port 6881 and port 39798

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth Port 6881 ------ Bandwidth Port 39798

Download #1 ----------- 1057 Kbps ---------------------- 920 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 917 Kbps ---------------------- 1057 Kbps
Download #3 ------ 792 Kbps ---------------------- 907 Kbps

Upload #1 ----------- 258 Kbps ------------------- 234 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 279 Kbps ------------------- 275 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 306 Kbps ------------------- 247 Kbps

Control flow transfers using port 6881 and port 39798

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth Port 6881 ------ Bandwidth Port 39798

Download #1 ----------- 1055 Kbps ---------------------- 915 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 831 Kbps ----------------------- 954 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- 1033 Kbps -------------------- 874 Kbps

Upload #1 ----------- 271 Kbps ---------------------- 268 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 278 Kbps ---------------------- 248 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 270 Kbps ---------------------- 241 Kbps


===================================


Today, at 13:00, I fired up uTorrent again, and once more all the problems I've been talking about were once more apparent. And again I stopped the client and took another 'Glasnost' test. The results speak for themselves............

Results for your host (dsl7x-14x-20x-2x.in-addr.fast.co.uk - 7x.14x.20x.2x):

Are certain ports blocked for all traffic?

1 out of 3 BitTorrent transfers on port 50451 failed to download any data. It seems like your ISP hinders you from downloading BitTorrent traffic on port 50451 to our test server.

Is your upload traffic rate limited?
There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your uploads.

Is your download traffic rate limited?
There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your downloads.

You can view the detailed measurement results of the test here........

Detailed test results giving the throughput per flow Glasnost runs:

All BitTorrent and control flow transfers using port 6881

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth BitTorrent flow ------ Bandwidth control flow

Download #1 ----------- 16 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 17 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- 16 Kbps ---------------------- 14 Kbps

Upload #1 ---------- 299 Kbps ---------------------- 232 Kbps
Upload #2 ---------- 233 Kbps ---------------------- 235 Kbps
Upload #3 ---------- 310 Kbps ---------------------- 286 Kbps

All BitTorrent and control flow transfers using port 50451

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth BitTorrent flow ------ Bandwidth control flow

Download #1 ----------- 18 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 16 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- failed ------------------------- 4 Kbps

Upload #1 ----------- 268 Kbps ---------------------- 244 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 255 Kbps ---------------------- 291 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 272 Kbps ---------------------- 270 Kbps

BitTorrent transfers using port 6881 and port 50451

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth Port 6881 ------ Bandwidth Port 50451

Download #1 ----------- 16 Kbps ---------------------- 18 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 17 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- 6 Kbps ----------------------- failed

Upload #1 ----------- 299 Kbps ---------------------- 268 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 233 Kbps ---------------------- 255 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 310 Kbps ---------------------- 272 Kbps

Control flow transfers using port 6881 and port 50451

Transfer Direction ------ Bandwidth Port 6881 ------ Bandwidth Port 50451

Download #1 ----------- 16 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #2 ----------- 16 Kbps ---------------------- 16 Kbps
Download #3 ----------- 14 Kbps ---------------------- 4 Kbps

Upload #1 ----------- 232 Kbps ---------------------- 244 Kbps
Upload #2 ----------- 235 Kbps ---------------------- 291 Kbps
Upload #3 ----------- 286 Kbps ---------------------- 270 Kbps

===================================

........ So something's going on. I'll be emailing Fast later today to see if we can get to the bottom of this.

 

[timeless]

just a weird question, how long has your connection been active? l have used netgears for a few years now.. the DG834G/N and currently use the DGN2000 and have noticed that when l get around a couple of hundred hours of uptime and have done a reasonable amount of bittorrent transferring that l need to reboot the router because it gets clogged in some way (lm assuming the routing tables are getting bogged down which l have heard can be a problem).

one way l found to tell was trying to access the config menu on http://192.168.0.1/ when it happened and l find sometimes at those points is damn slow to access.

 

[Pipeless]

just a weird question, how long has your connection been active?

A few minutes. I always switch the router (and the PC) off at night. I had just restarted the whole system again and began testing. Last night the connection would have been active for around 10 hours.

Can't say I've ever experienced any of the problems you were talking about.

I'm currently in an email dialogue with Fast and they're checking connections, etc. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Pipeless]

Things went well, yesterday. After a few emails between Fast and myself it turned out that there were (and I quote) "two entries for my username in radius, the system that authenticates me".

This extraneous entry was cleared, and after a router reboot the "connection closed by peer" problem disappeared immediately and the combined speed of the test torrents rose from an average of around 5 kB/s to 300 k/Bs. Amazing.

Now, why such an apparently simplistic and highly unlikely occurence (and its solution) should affect Bittorrent performance so dramatically is a complete mystery to me. And to Fast ..... "but honestly didn't expect it to make a difference, so thats very interesting!"

Someone more cynical than myself would perhaps suggest that there was more to the solution than meets the eye, as it were. Thankfully, I'm not as cynical as that; so there.

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today, the "connection closed by peer" problem came back for the first hour of tests. Speeds are better than they were at the height of the problem - two new test torrents, combined download speed around 60 kB/s. No upload speed at all. Tried a Glasnost test - no problems reported apart from slow download speeds.

As I write, both torrents have just updated successfully, and the "connection closed by peer" message is gone. Speeds still the same. I foresee a lot of work ahead. Time will tell.

 

[fast]

We'll get to the bottom of it with you Pipeless, we like challenges and don't like to give up

We're talking via e-mail, so I'll continue to work with you via that.

Mark

 

[Pipeless]

To provide a bit of "closure" to this thread, I ended up asking Fast for a MAC code as I felt that the solution to the problems I was having were taking too long to manifest. Shame, as I had no problems with them other than the Bittorrent situation. My new ISP went 'live' on December 17th, and since then I have not experienced any of the problems using Bittorrent I've written about here. And there you have it.

 

[rollinstone]

It sort of proves that your problems do not follow you as I was told when I decided to part company with the same ISP and move on to definate greener pastures.

 

[Captain_Cretin]

It sort of proves that your problems do not follow you as I was told when I decided to part company with the same ISP and move on to definate greener pastures.

It really depends on what the problem is; this sounds like an issue at the ISP end, something that is local to you will still be there when you switch ISP, unless you go unbundled.
Even then, if the fault is with the cables from your house, you can change ISPs until hell freezes over, you will never get rid of the problem until someone gets BTOR off their asses and up the pole to fix it.

 

[myozone]

It's good to know Fast.co.uk fixed it. I'm looking a new ISP for when we get FTTC in March 2012 and Fast is on my 'look at' list.

I'm looking at Adsl24, Fast, Vivaciti, Xilo I'm currently with Xilo but their FTTC prices seem high.... I'll start a new thread sometime raher than Hijack this one !

Dave.

 

[Pipeless]

It's good to know Fast.co.uk fixed it.
Dave.

Eh?!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink........