Poor speeds in utorrent (Think it may be a Hardware issue)

[Xtreme2damax]

I already posted a thread at the utorrent forum on this, and decided to post this here as well, in hopes of solving my problem. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting this, and if I am you can close this.

Problem:

I recently got Sattalite Service through Hughesnet, as it's the only broadband service in my area, because of living in a rural area.

The Sattalite service was routed through a Belkin Router (F5D6234-4), and I noticed my speeds with utorrent were incredibly slow, only like 0.5 - 1 Kilobits per second, sometimes jumping to 5 kilobits. I also noticed the yellow or Red Exclamation light for utorrent's connection status.

I suspect a NAT Problem Might be the cause of my woes.

Anyways a Reply at the utorrent forum stated that most likely my modem has been permanently firewalled as well.

However I did check the Status of the Hughesnet modem, and Firewalling has been disabled, so that wasn't my problem.

I Since tried with a linksys router, with the same results as the belkin. The linksys router is a WRT-54G Wireless G router.

I have also Forwarded all the ports properly and necessary for utorrent and other clients as well to no avail. I have also tried the utorrent tweaks mentioned in a sticky on the utorrent forum, with little improvement.

I'm also adding that I use a RadioShack Universal Broadband adapter, which uses an electrical wall outlet to transfer data between a unit in my bedroom and a unit in the kitchen connected to the Router.

I shouldn't be getting such poor speeds, as the Sattalite Connection is rated at 512 - 768 kilobits per second, and my average download speed with any other download manager is between 75 - 125 kilobits per second.

I already know about the thing with hughesnet, that it zips through downloading the first 176 Megabytes, and then it gets FAP'D down to dialup speed (From what I've Heard).

However that is not my problem either, as I am getting poor speeds from the beginning in utorrent.

If it helps any, I'm using Windows XP Home Edition: Service Pack 2, with a Patched tcip.sys.

Just so everyone knows, I usually use utorrent to download freeware, and open-source projects, such as freeware applications, freeware games, and Linux ISO's, that are able to be freely distributed.

Thanks if anyone can help me solve my problem

[Samor]

Could be one of the following:
-Make sure Windows firewall is allowing utorrent, if you have that turned on.
-Not limiting your upload bandwidth in utorrent could drain download speeds
-Are you sure you're using one port for the incoming connections, and the same one everytime (not randomizing)?
-In the utorrent speed guide, there's a test for port forwarding. If the results are ok, it's not NAT.

It really sounds like either a firewall on your pc or on the modem is blocking it. Maybe it says it's not firewalled, but can you forward the port on the modem like you did with the router(s)?

[Xtreme2damax]

I think it's a NAT Problem, Seeing as Testing to see if the Ports are forwarded properly fails everytime no matter what port I choose in utorrent, or forward in my router configuration screen.


I have UPnP disabled in utorrent, as well as DHT and Randomize port each time utorrent starts, and the proper port forwarded on my router, however still my speeds are terrible.

I think the best speed I hit so far is 5 kilobits per second, and I should not be getting that low of a speed. That was dialup like speed, and seeing as my other download managers including the one with firefox download much faster than the speeds I am getting with utorrent

The Modem is a Hughesnet Modem, but I don't think it gives an option to forward ports on it.

Is there a software solution that may help me to bypass or solve my problem? It also might be that I'm configuring something wrong.

If anyone has a clue as to what my problem might be and how to solve it, I'd really appreciate your help

[Samor]

what's your hughesnet model?

Maybe this page could help:

http://kb.hughesnet.com/pf/12/webfil...978-0001_C.pdf

perhaps the modem can be accessed via telnet too? I think it's related to the modem.

[Xtreme2damax]

The Hughesnet Modem we got is a Model HN7000S

I can access the Modem via my Web Browser with the ip 192.168.0.1 . However it doesn't give any options to forward ports, and says in the System Status Screen that the Firewall is Disabled (From NOC)

[makotech222]

ummm is your upload speed > 5 kb? if its lower, than it will limit your download rate.

[Xtreme2damax]

My upload speed is set between 5 - 10 kilobits per second, So I don't believe that is my problem.

I am getting the Red Exclamation light for my Connection Status in utorrent, so my guess is it is a NAT Problem, or I may not be configuring something correctly.

My new Router is a Linksys WRT54G v6 . I found out that there is speed/connectivety problems with these Routers and the only way to fix it is by flashing the firmware with custom firmware called DD-WRT or something else (I cannot recall the name right now) to solve the problem.

However even though my Router is a WRT54G, the custom firmware is incompatible with the version of router I have, which is v6.

I'm not about to risk flashing the firmware, with it being incompatible and risk bricking my router, and getting in to a big mess or argument with my family because I ruined the new router they bought

[darth sephiroth]

i am sure it is the belkin... i have one of those and i averagely get 1/4 of the speed i am supposed to get.

But it might also be Telenor...

[Samor]

Originally Posted by darth sephiroth

i am sure it is the belkin... i have one of those and i averagely get 1/4 of the speed i am supposed to get.

But it might also be Telenor...

he's using a linksys now, and the problem remains... so I guess it wasn't the belkin.

[refraction]

i think the problem is more down to satellite internet access

if i recall correctly (without reading that too much cos im lazy ) satellite internet doesnt work like normal broadband or dialup, the latancies are much much higher due to the distance it has to travel. Mostly data for things like web pages etc is proxied and cached for quicker access, but for P2P to work quickly, you need direct access and fast, unfortunately with satellite it has a long way to travel, so this causes serious lag on the connection which results in lower download speeds.

That kinda connection just isnt made for P2P im afraid, better getting broadband

Edit: asked Zerofrog about it, this is what he had to say when i told him what i said.

zerofrog says:
the bandwidth is high, but satellites are not good at switching directions

zerofrog says:

ie: it can only send really fast, or receive really fast
zerofrog says:
thing with torrents is that you are downloading the same as uploading
zerofrog says:
ask him to try to set his upload speed to 0

[Xtreme2damax]

Thanks Refraction for your reply, and asking zerofrog. I really appreciate it.

I think I understand now. I was Finally able to open up my ports for utorrent successfully after Reformatting my Computer, and assigning the ports correctly. Now when I check to see if my ports are open properly for utorrent, it passes the check. I must of been forwarding the ports incorrectly.

I also had to access my satallite modem's configuration screen, and disable a Feature called Turbo Page, which proxies and accelerates the connection. This feature I found out, was interfering with my ability to properly forward ports, and access certain webpages.

About my Upload speed, how do I set that to zero, as zerofrog says in that quote? I thought that uploading was mandatory with any torrent client including utorrent. how do I disable the upload speed or set it to zero?

Thanks if you can let me know

[refraction]

glad youve sorted that, have you speeds improved? if so leave it as it is.

Zerofrog doesnt use torrents much (if at all) so he doesnt realise 0 means unlimited in these clients lol so setting it to 1 is the next best thing, you can always up it once the download is done so you can seed the file a bit. only other drawback is the upload rate of 1 may hinder your download speed considerably (due to how utorrent is programmed, leechers not in mind!)

[Xtreme2damax]

Thanks refraction. My speeds were going ok for the first minute or two, then they dropped again.

I believe I found my problem. The modem seems to be firewalled or something, without a way to open ports.

However I made a discovery with another p2p app called DC++ that has a setting for a Firewall with Manual port forwarding, to enter your External WAN IP. In my case My external Wan IP would be the modems IP 192.168.0.1 .

I found that after I entered this, I was able to flawlessly connect to their network.

However Utorrent doesn't have a feature to do this, thus limiting my speeds severly.

So therefore I would manually need to find the port # of my WAN IP in order to use these apps properly.

:EDIT: Actually the modem doesn't appear to be firewalled. The modems status in the configuration screen says: Firewall Disabled from NOC.

It however does say that NAT and DHCP are enabled on the modem itself. I still however need to know how I can find out my WAN Port or ip. I'm guessing my Wan ip is the modems ip 192.168.0.1 .

I think that may be the cause of my problem(s)

How can I find out my WAN IP port?

I have outlined what I am explaining in red in an attachment. Thanks to anyone that can help me figure out my WAN port

[thc]

192.168.0.1 - that's Your LAN IP. Your PC is getting something like 192.168.0.2

this will tell You what's Your IP (unless You're behind provider NAT).

heh, Your IP is also visible in my sig

For ports You'll need to setup port forwarding rule in Your router.

[refraction]

yeh utorrent has got a feature like that, its just a problem in the packets its sending to the tracker, you have to make it report your WAN IP instead of a LAN IP so they know where to send the packets back to.

in uTorrent if you goto the configuration, under the "Bittorrent" section, youll see "IP/Hostname to report to tracker" put your WAN IP in there, you can find it out from the link above or Whatsmyip.org

[Xtreme2damax]

Thanks. However that doesn't report what port the WAN Connection is using.

I need the WAN port number as well in order to make successful connections. The other p2p app mentioned in the attachment automatically retrieves the WAN port according to the wan ip entered. Utorrent doesn't seem to have the feature to automatically retrieve the Wan port number.

How can I check my WAN port number, those website that you linked me to don't give me my WAN port number.

Is there an app I could use on my computer that would allow me to retrieve my Wan Port number, so I can forward it properly in utorrent and my router?

[refraction]

the WAN port will be the ports you configure in the client, thats all they are.

[Xtreme2damax]

I'm about to request something, and I hope you at least have a bit of sympathy for me, and not push the close button. I really hope this doesn't constitute the same as asking for illegal material.

Well as I had stated a while back, my family used to have cable internet with speeds of 1.5 megabits down, and 690 - 768 kilobits upstream. We then moved and were forced to switch to dial-up.

We just recently learned about satellite broadband internet, and could now afford it, so we saw an advertisement for Hughesnet, and decided to get it.

However our main choices being either Dial-Up, or satellite internet, and no cable or DSL in our area, our choices were pretty limited between two options.

We mainly needed the Satellite internet because we wanted to work online or open up an online business, and plus me being the frequent downloader that I am (Mind you I don't download anything illegal or illegally), are still basically almost in the same boat as dial up.

What these Satellite providers don't tell you when or before you sign up is that your connection can be Fap'd (Fair Access Policy), meaning if you use too much bandwidth, they can essentially cut your speeds down to dial-up speeds, making downloading large files no matter if legal or not, damn near impossible.

On hughesnet, you can only download up to 176 megabytes before you get fap'd down to dial up speeds. Then you have to wait hours or even a day before your speeds return to normal.

If you continue to use bandwidth after you're fap'd, or go over you're alloted amount, they can terminate your service.

This poses problems especially on websites that don't allow you to use a download manager or resume your downloads.

I was really ticked when I was downloading a 250 megabyte file, after it hit 179 megabytes it slowed to a halt, making finishing the download impossible, especially since I could not pause and resume it later.

On top pf that, they block ports that P2P Apps use, and place you behind a NAT, making connecting to frostwire impossible, and not being able to forward you ports properly making speeds most of the time dreadfully slow with utorrent, emule, and other P2P apps.

We're in a day and age were this should not be happening, epecially with how sophisticated and advanced technology is becoming, I don't think there could be that much of a bandwidth crisis, that they would have to impose ridiculous restrictions and limitations like that.

Not only that, but satellite service is extremely expensive, considering you have to pay for the equipment as well as the monthly charge for service. Paying that much, we should not be subject to those restrictions, considering that satellite service is slower than your average cable or Dsl speeds that are usually offered at a lower price

My main question (I hope that it's not illegal to ask this or against the rules):

Is there a way to bypass or cheat a FAP limitation imposed by your ISP? Like a way to proxy or encrypt what your are downloading by sending it through multiple proxies or servers and the such, to virtually make it look like you are not downloading/uploading anything?

Also how can I check which ports are not blocked by my ISP, so I can successfully port forward all my apps?

Forgive such noobish questions, as I am unsure if there is or isn't even a way to do this.

I think the FAP is handled by the modem itself. I found this out by when I got fap'd, that unplugging and plugging back in the modem returned my speeds to normal. However this is too much of a hassle to do everytime I'm or we're fap'd, considering there are other family members using the network as well at the time.

Now that I learned about FAP (Fair Access Policy), am subject to it, as well as experienced FAP, it really wants to make me barf

It's nothing more than an excuse to prevent illegal activities, however most of us never have and never will download anything illegally, and maybe like to play games online, download the latest freeware and open-source software, or download linux ISO's.

This is a bunch of Bullshenanigans, baically all it's good for is surfing the web or ocassionally downloading a medium sized file.

If I needed this, I would be perfectly ok browsing the web at near broadband speed with a web proxy or accelerator and a download manager, this sux monkey bannanas big time

[thc]

"Is there a way to bypass or cheat a FAP limitation imposed by your ISP? Like a way to proxy or encrypt what your are downloading by sending it through multiple proxies or servers and the such, to virtually make it look like you are not downloading/uploading anything?&qu