Difficulties Downloading

[TheBritt2001]

I have had a good look around for someone with the same problem but it seems different things cause the same kinds of problems so I figured it would be best to ask outright and see if anyone can help with my situation directly.

Before that, though, I would ask is there a kind of 'definitions' page or thread anywhere? I have no idea what the likes of DHT actually means but have seen such terms used an awful lot without clarification.

Now, onto the actual problem.

My BitComet is downloading, however it's awfully slow and sometimes doesn't download anything. I try to get my head around how it actually works but it's not quite getting through on certain fronts.

On my BitComet program I see the heading of Seed/Peer[all]. Now, as far I could make out from other threads, seeding is what happens when you finish downloading the file (so you can upload to others), peers are those you download the information from (so others using the service) and all... I assume is all the peers on who are seeding and uh... peering. Well, the 'all' reads as, for example, 0/5. I assume that means there's five people out there with the file I want. However, outside of the 'all' box, it says 0/1. Why can't I connect to the other four?

I have checked the 'Peers' tab, which keeps showing a bunch of people with greyed out dead faces. Some will say 'dead' ( :blink: ) whilst others 'connecting' but then failing.

I checked the 'Tracker' tab as suggested in another thread and I find the error; "Tracker Connection error: 10061 No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it'. Am I the target machine or is that the people I'm downloading from?

I also checked http://canyouseeme.org/ as per a suggestion and input the port my BitComet says it is using and; "Your ISP is not blocking port 18056". So I'm not having issues with that.

I did read that popular files may have trouble and be slow because everyone is downloading them, but to be honest I'm downloading Farscape music; it's a great show but not everyone is as lame as me and wants the theme music from it. ;)

Now, it does connect to someone every once in a while so I am getting it slowly, but I was wondering about these issues and is they could be resolved. I'm happy to settle for the slower speed if I have to, but there's no point sitting on my hands if there's a way of cranking up my speed and resolving these issues.

As for information on my computer; I'm using BitComet 1.16. Windows Vista. Wireless BT router. AVG Anti-virus.

Hope someone can give me some suggestions about what might be happening. Thanks in advance. :)

[greywizard]

Before that, though, I would ask is there a kind of 'definitions' page or thread anywhere?

Yes, there is. Actually, most of your questions find their answers on the Wiki Help Pages.

I have no idea what the likes of DHT actually means but have seen such terms used an awful lot without clarification.

On the same Wiki you have an brief explanation of DHT.

I try to get my head around how it actually works but it's not quite getting through on certain fronts.

The same Wiki help pages might aid you in understanding the basic things about BitComet. Also make sure that your BitComet settings are consistent with the guidelines from this settings guide. There are, also, other guides in that Guides section of the forum.

On my BitComet program I see the heading of Seed/Peer[all].

The meaning of the TaskView pane's columns is explained in the Help pages too, here.

Why can't I connect to the other four?

They may not be present in the swarm anymore or they may refuse for various reason the connection with you.

Am I the target machine or is that the people I'm downloading from?

No, the target machine is in this case the tracker server which your client was trying to connect to. The tracker server is responsible with supplying your client with a list of IPs of other peers which have joined the swarm of the torrent you're downloading. Or, so to speak, it tells you who your potential trading partners might be.

If the swarm has an [all] value of 0/5 it means it has 5 peers but no seeds which is an extremely low value, a.k.a the torrent is nearly dead. At least for you, since you cannot connect to the tracker, which maybe has some more peers available for this torrent. There is a very high chance that among those 5 peers there is not even one aggregate copy of the torrent's content so there is a very slim chance that you will finish downloading if some seeds don't revive the torrent. In these cases it's usually a good idea to search for a more healthy torrent which might grant you a higher success probability in finishing the download.

[TheBritt2001]

Nice one for the help there. Much appreciated.

That torrent in particular has gotten to 99.5% and stopped. :P . Ah well, fortunately it's several music albums so most of it downloaded and I only missed a few files from the B-Sides album. I've left it there anyway, just in case and maybe someone will want to get some of the files from me. :lol:

Otherwise I don't really know what the error was about. People I connect to now seem just fine with the exception of trying to connect to people on piratebay, which seems to rebound me for some reason. Otherwise things are fine now!

I went through as much of the info as I could that didn't make my head melt. It's all pretty new stuff to me, after all. I did find that some of it seems out-of-date, including the set-up guide. Managed all the same though and put in my upload speed. That certainly seems to have helped at least for the uploading speed for files to others.

One thing I'm still puzzled over is the Peers tab. My own 'face' is a happy green face but most of the people I connect to are sad yellow faces. Then there are lots of dead greys that I can't connect to. Are these the ones refusing to connect to me and why are the other guys sad yellows? Is it something to do with speed quality?

Another thing that really bothers me is the inaccuracy of the 'time left'. Mine will often say five minutes and then take HOURS. What's wrong with this?

Finally one thing I did notice was under the Statistics tab.

If you recall I did check whether my port (18056) was being blocked by my wireless router and the website said no it's not. However the Statistics tab suggests otherwise stating that ; "Listen Port of TCP: 18056 (Blocked by Firewall/Router)". It says the same for UDP. I made sure that BitComet was being let through by my Windows Vista Firewall (which it was). I only use AVG Free for my anti-virus, which doesn't seem to have a Firewall on it. Which means it can't be getting blocked by a Firewall and yet it's apparently not being blocked by my router. Strange situation, could that router blocker website be wrong? Of course, it's still downloading, just slower than I think it probably should be (which means I'd rather it was going slow and being blocked than being open for trouble).

Oh and one last thing to query. I'm at 37% EXP and a Score of 116 (which I assume are linked, one is representative of the other) so I'm almost half way to a 'level-up'. I did read, however, that the score system is reset every month? Does this mean I'll go back to 0% and have to start over? :(

[greywizard]

People I connect to now seem just fine with the exception of trying to connect to people on piratebay, which seems to rebound me for some reason.

You do not connect to other people. It is your client that automatically negotiates connections with other people's BitTorrent clients.

Piratebay has gone trackerless, as of this month, so you need DHT and PEX enabled in order to find other peers for any torrent you download from them.

I did find that some of it seems out-of-date, including the set-up guide.

The guide is old, indeed, but not outdated. The basics of the BitTorrent protocol have not changed, almost, at all since it was launched. And the settings, addressed in that guide, deal with core functions of BitComet, which are basically, more or less, identical with other's BT clients functions and which deal with BT protocol, mostly. So there was not much to update on that matter, so far.

One thing I'm still puzzled over is the Peers tab...

Everything that apears on the Peers tab is explained on the Wiki pages, here. As I said, take your time to search the Wiki and the forum... most of beginners' questions are already answered there.

Another thing that really bothers me is the inaccuracy of the 'time left'. Mine will often say five minutes and then take HOURS.

For this, already, you will need to provide more info. There is a Read This Before Posting topic, on top of this section. That is the minimum required.

As for your blocked port, along with the above required info, tell us: Is there a yellow or a green light in the lower right corner of BitComet (the status light in the status bar)?

I did read, however, that the score system is reset every month?

Where did you read that?

[kluelos]

Another thing that really bothers me is the inaccuracy of the 'time left'. Mine will often say five minutes and then take HOURS.

(From the webcomic XKCD.)

It is (because it has to be) how long it will take at the speed it's reaching this microsecond. Next microsecond is another matter.

[TheBritt2001]

You do not connect to other people. It is your client that automatically negotiates connections with other people's BitTorrent clients.

Piratebay has gone trackerless, as of this month, so you need DHT and PEX enabled in order to find other peers for any torrent you download from them.

Hum. I had a look at my settings and it says that the DHT is enabled already. I searched (sorry I do tend to just resort to the search bar a lot) for PEX and could only find a brief mention of it as a footnote of another article, so I have no idea what it actually is! I also searched for tracker, so I know what it is and the difference between tracker and the DHT, but I don't quite get the advantages/disadvantages of either or. What does it matter which you use? Is one more trustworthy?

The guide is old, indeed, but not outdated. The basics of the BitTorrent protocol have not changed, almost, at all since it was launched. And the settings, addressed in that guide, deal with core functions of BitComet, which are basically, more or less, identical with other's BT clients functions and which deal with BT protocol, mostly. So there was not much to update on that matter, so far.

Aye, sorry, it wasn't meant as an out-right criticism, more of an observation in case no one had noticed. Apologies!

Everything that apears on the Peers tab is explained on the Wiki pages, here. As I said, take your time to search the Wiki and the forum... most of beginners' questions are already answered there.

Sorry about that! I got it now! Cheers. :lol:

For this, already, you will need to provide more info. There is a Read This Before Posting topic, on top of this section. That is the minimum required.

Hmm, I know I did read that and put the details that I had into my first post already <_< . Unless I missed something? :o

As for your blocked port, along with the above required info, tell us: Is there a yellow or a green light in the lower right corner of BitComet (the status light in the status bar)?

Nope, it's green! There's one that says DHT and one is WAN, but both are green. It's weird though, I started up BitComet just before and it came up with the 'Windows Firewall is blocking BitComet' again. Obviously I pressed 'unblock'. So, just now, I thought I'd take another look. It says that 'Listen Port of TCP' is unblocked! Yay! However the UDP is still blocked! Madness. I have added BitComet to the exceptions list twice now (thrice actually if you count when I tried to add it and it told me it was already on the list!). I put it down to Vista being a pain, but it's still a nuisance (why can't thing just 'work', eh? :lol: ). Oh and that green orb was there even before Vista let me unblock the TCP, it's always been green. <_<

Where did you read that?

Ah, I'm sorry, I got the words wrong. Shows what happens when I try to assimilate too much information about a new thing all at once. I only half-get-it-right. :P . It was 'refreshed' every '24 hours'. I still find this strange because my Score goes up as I'm sat there watching it, or is there some kind of database for it?

Also, I have a new question!! (Sorry, you're probably fed up of me by now :P ). This eMule Plugin. I searched for eMule but only found out information about installing the plugin and getting it to work. However I don't even know what eMule is, what it does, why I would actually want the Plugin for it in the first place or why I need to install and set it up at all (that is to say, why isn't it automatically installed). I understand preferences of individuals, however it would usually suggest that there's a down-side to the application for some people, hence why it's not already there to begin with.

(From the webcomic XKCD.)

It is (because it has to be) how long it will take at the speed it's reaching this microsecond. Next microsecond is another matter.

Hahaha, my gf loves XKCD but I've not tried reading it myself, she tells me it was written by a mathematician... and that's why I haven't read it (and probably why I have so much trouble on program sites like this! :lol: ).

Of course, I do understand what you mean, however it makes me question why bother having the timer at all that? We can see how much is downloaded through the percentage. The time is just... taunting us. :lol:

[greywizard]

The original way of bootstrapping a swarm as it was designed by its inventor, was the tracker server. The only problem with the tracker server is that it must be setup, run and maintained by someone. And if it's down then you can't download any torrent tracked solely by it, because you can't get a list of peers, to connect to in the first place.

These are some of the reasons why additional methods of acquiring peers were devised later, namely DHT and PEX.

DHT doesn't rely on any server, its entirely distributed. All you need to download it's the hash value of the torrent.

PEX stands for peer exchange. It is a method by which already connected peers in a swarm exchange info about other peers they are connected to at the same time. It's a means of augmenting the pool of peers to trade with.

I've mentioned these as related to your TPB question not to your slow speeds.

Hmm, I know I did read that and put the details that I had into my first post already <_< . Unless I missed something?

Well, I meant all the info there. Such as:

What model of modem do you have?

What model of router?

Is it integrated in the router?

What test speed results have you got?

What firewall are you using?

Have you forwarded your port or is it automatically forwarded by UPnP?

None of these are given in your first post. I've managed to fish from the rest of posts that you use Windows firewall but it's difficult to skim through all the topic's posts when you want to review somebody's specs. Besides, I don't know if it's the only firewall installed on your computer.

Obviously I pressed 'unblock'.

I'm not that familiar with the little things BC offers under Vista. Is there an "Unblock" button in the Statistics tab of BC, under Vista? (It is not present under Win XP).

So, just now, I thought I'd take another look. It says that 'Listen Port of TCP' is unblocked! Yay! However the UDP is still blocked! Madness. I have added BitComet to the exceptions list twice now (thrice actually if you count when I tried to add it and it told me it was already on the list!).

Just look under the Peers tab, on a torrent which has lots of peers and see if you find any "Remote" peers, under the Initiation column. If you do, and there is still a UDP or TCP port blocked message in Statistics then there may be a bug in the interface. But we need to make sure of that. Also post a screenshot of the Statistics tab, here.

It was 'refreshed' every '24 hours'. I still find this strange because my Score goes up as I'm sat there watching it, or is there some kind of database for it?

Refreshed, doesn't mean reset. It means, updated. The CometPassport statistics and parameters are held on a Comet server, not on your computer.

This eMule Plugin. I searched for eMule but only found out information about installing the plugin and getting it to work. However I don't even know what eMule is, what it does, why I would actually want the Plugin for it in the first place or why I need to install and set it up at all.

eMule is a client for another famous and world-wide spread P2P sharing network: the eDonkey Network. It uses different methods protocols for sharing files thus it is not natively accessible by BT clients. This plugin is a modified version of the eMule client which is able to work together with BC in order to enable searching, finding and using download resources for the files contained in a torrent, from the eDonkey Network in order to collaboratively download the same content.

This can be helpful when you are trying to download a certain torrent which lacks seeds and which you couldn't finish otherwise. If BC finds eD2K resources for those files, you might just be in luck and finish your download from the eD2K Network. Of course you can use it just to boost your download speed too, for any torrent. Just keep in mind that you need to upload too, in the eD2K Network, as well. Since it is not a part of the BC software but, as it name suggests rather a plugin, you are given total freedom whether to install/use it or not. Some love it, some hate it.

However, the Wiki pages of BitComet were never started with the express intention of being an exhaustive resource about every notion related to the P2P world. The authors of that article (about eMule plugin), probably, assumed that everyone would have heard about the major P2P networks and their major clients. Obviously, it is not so. ;)

Anyway, when in doubt about any term or notion you encounter on the Wiki pages, you can also use a Internet-wide search engine such as Google to find additional information about a thing you don't understand not just the Wiki's. A simple search on Google about eMule returns lots of resources among which:

http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/general.cgi?l=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMule

You could also try to brush at least, some articles about other P2P networks such as Gnutella or FastTrack in order to form a general opinion about the P2P scene and where BT and other technologies stand on it.

Unfortunately we can't possibly guess what everyone knows or not, so, whatever level of detail the Wiki will reach, it'll never be enough.

I'll try to add a header to that article, though, as well as some links towards some external resources.

We can see how much is downloaded through the percentage. The time is just... taunting us.

For most of people which have stable connections and steady upload speeds, that results in fairly constant average download speeds for a given torrent, so that estimate time is a good estimate of how much longer the download will take to complete, actually.

[TheBritt2001]

Well, I meant all the info there. Such as:

What model of modem do you have?

What model of router?

Is it integrated in the router?

What test speed results have you got?

What firewall are you using?

Have you forwarded your port or is it automatically forwarded by UPnP?

None of these are given in your first post. I've managed to fish from the rest of posts that you use Windows firewall but it's difficult to skim through all the topic's posts when you want to review somebody's specs. Besides, I don't know if it's the only firewall installed on your computer.

I see, sorry! I had no idea about most of them, I think.

I am using just Windows Firewall. I have AVG Free Anti-virus and I don't think that has a firewall on it. Otherwise I guess I rely on my router Firewall.

I think my router is my modem. It's a Wireless BT (British Telecom) HomeHub.

I did my speed test after you showed me to that set-up guide. It was roughly, if I remember rightly 700 kBs. Which game me about 500-600 for my upload speed.

As for this Plug-and-Play thing (had to look that one up) I haven't the foggiest. How would I find out?

I'm not that familiar with the little things BC offers under Vista. Is there an "Unblock" button in the Statistics tab of BC, under Vista? (It is not present under Win XP).

No, no sorry. I meant that the Windows Firewall came up and I pressed unblock on that. This was after it already told me it was unblocked. That's the strange part. It was already unblocked by Firewall and then came up again days later and let me unblock that one TCP. BitComet just tells me whether it's blocked or not in the statistics tab (it says 'Open' for the TCP now but said blocked before, even though BitComet was on the exceptions list and that light in the corner was green). Now it's opened that TCP port but the other one is still blocked.

Just look under the Peers tab, on a torrent which has lots of peers and see if you find any "Remote" peers, under the Initiation column. If you do, and there is still a UDP or TCP port blocked message in Statistics then there may be a bug in the interface. But we need to make sure of that. Also post a screenshot of the Statistics tab, here.

There were two Remote Peers right at the bottom, most were TCP. Screen Shot links;

Statistics Tab Screen Shot

Peers Tab Screen Shot

Hope they help figure this one out.

Refreshed, doesn't mean reset. It means, updated. The CometPassport statistics and parameters are held on a Comet server, not on your computer.

Ah, makes sense then. :lol:

eMule is a client for another famous and world-wide spread P2P sharing network: the eDonkey Network. It uses different methods protocols for sharing files thus it is not natively accessible by BT clients. This plugin is a modified version of the eMule client which is able to work together with BC in order to enable searching, finding and using download resources for the files contained in a torrent, from the eDonkey Network in order to collaboratively download the same content.

This can be helpful when you are trying to download a certain torrent which lacks seeds and which you couldn't finish otherwise. If BC finds eD2K resources for those files, you might just be in luck and finish your download from the eD2K Network. Of course you can use it just to boost your download speed too, for any torrent. Just keep in mind that you need to upload too, in the eD2K Network, as well. Since it is not a part of the BC software but, as it name suggests rather a plugin, you are given total freedom whether to install/use it or not. Some love it, some hate it.

I see, so it's sounds like it's well worth installing then! I don't have to do anything special then, do I? It will download and upload automatically (just as though I were using BitComet normally) so long as I have the Plug-in? I honestly don't mind uploading to others. I wouldn't have gotten my downloads if others hadn't seeded to me, least I can do is the same for others that are in my former position. :)

However, the Wiki pages of BitComet were never started with the express intention of being an exhaustive resource about every notion related to the P2P world. The authors of that article (about eMule plugin), probably, assumed that everyone would have heard about the major P2P networks and their major clients. Obviously, it is not so. ;)

Anyway, when in doubt about any term or notion you encounter on the Wiki pages, you can also use a Internet-wide search engine such as Google to find additional information about a thing you don't understand not just the Wiki's. A simple search on Google about eMule returns lots of resources among which:

http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/general.cgi?l=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMule

You could also try to brush at least, some articles about other P2P networks such as Gnutella or FastTrack in order to form a general opinion about the P2P scene and where BT and other technologies stand on it.

Unfortunately we can't possibly guess what everyone knows or not, so, whatever level of detail the Wiki will reach, it'll never be enough.

I'll try to add a header to that article, though, as well as some links towards some external resources.

That's fair enough, I guess. I think, though, it might be somewhat important to just mention what eMule is since it's a related program to the BitComet software. I really do understand though, sorry I guess I'm too used to the likes of Wikipedia. I'll be sure to make that my second port of call in future :P . Thanks for the info on that, I'm sure it'll be useful! :lol:

For most of people which have stable connections and steady upload speeds, that results in fairly constant average download speeds for a given torrent, so that estimate time is a good estimate of how much longer the download will take to complete, actually.

Haha, I guess you must be right! I guess it's just my buggered up Internet/Computer. :lol: