Vista Ultimate 64x + BitComet = Low Download Speds

[Zargogo]

On my Windows Xp I download with about 600-900kb/s and with Vista I download with about 20-140kb/s. This is a drastic change. Please help me sort this out. I am using Widndows Ultimate 64 bit edition. I have a Dlink connected to my Motorola Router because my mom needs to use my internet (laptop wireless connection and no she does not download) and I need internet for my PS3. Thank you and please tell me any additional information I am forgetting to post here.

[greywizard]

Unless you're totally, positively, absolutely convinced that everything in your setup, starting from the point of entry of the Internet into your house down right to your BitTorrent client is perfectly configured, you shouldn't start blaming Vista or pointing fingers at anything, for that matter.

Therefore, the only reason I didn't remove your poll is because I'm curious if there are many other users with poorly configured connections or clients, out there.

As for your problem, you can start by reading and providing an answer to every question from this announcement. (It was on top of the section, by the way. ;) )

[Zargogo]

I put the poll there because I was curious too. I'll look at the announcement. I'm new to Vista :( . I've seen a couple of other threads about people having problems with Torrent programs and Vista, but none of them proved useful to me, so I created one myself. Thanks.

Answers to Announcement:

1. I am using BitComet version 1.16

2. I'm pretty sure that I have cable connection. (router cable connected to wall plugin)

3. I have a motorola modem (connected to the wall plugin) which is connected to the WAN slot in my D-Link. I don't know hot to forward my port or what it means to do it.

4. I have only one router and one modem. The modem is connected to the router (D-Link) slot called WAN with an ethernet cable. My PS3 is connected to the slot named 2 and my PC is connected to 1. The Modem is connected to the wall plugin for internet.

5. "Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit" version. No Antivirus for now (I know I should get one). Normal Windows firewall (I haven't installed anything different).

6. N/A

7. http://www.speed.io/index_en.html says that my download is 8749 KBit/s and my upload is 512 KBit/s. http://www.speedtest.net/ says that my download speed is 13.63 Mb/s and my upload is 0.49 MB/s and my Ping is 8.

I am using SHAW as internet providers. My computer came back from a repair shop (they game me a new hard drive because the old one had something wrong with it (i think)) so I hope that they haven't altered any of my settings to make my computer download slow.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Zargogo (see edit history)

[kluelos]

Almost everything you do with the internet involves you initiating contact with a server, and the server replying to you. This is what you do when you surf the web, check non-web email, chat with somebody, everything.

You contact a server, the server replies.

Nobody initiates contact with you. Not for any services you want.

They DO initiate contact with you for lots of things you do not want, like having advertisements shoved in your face, or stealing your personal information, or suborning your computer to act as a robot, sending out email at their behest and participating in denial-of-service attacks.

Having others computers initiate contact with yours is almost always bad news.

For that reason, there are firewalls.

Firewalls block other computers when they try to initiate contact with yours. Firewalls let replies through, though.

Connecting to the internet without a firewall will get you infected and suborned within minutes -- faster than you can finish installing Windows. Sophisticated attacks try to keep you from ever realizing you've been taken over. They want to keep you fat, dumb and happy while they use your connection.

Most of the spam email that you get is sent by somebody like you who didn't pay attention to their firewall.

Windows comes with a built-in firewall that is active by default. This is why. Turning it off is a spectacularly bad idea if you don't have another firewall protecting you in its place. Other people sell software firewalls. You should not buy or use one of these if you don't know a lot more about firewalls than you do.

"Peer-to-peer" means that people just like you use their computers to contact yours, and you use yours to contact theirs.

If you have a firewall in place, they can't contact you. If they have a firewall in place, you can't contact them. You have to open a port in your firewall, and you have to listen to that open port for peers who are trying to contact you -- and to discard anything that isn't a peer trying to contact you. They have to do the same, and listen for you.

If you want to engage in P2P file transfers, then you need to open a port in your software firewall, and you need to listen at that open port.

Most SOHO routers come with firmware firewalls built-in to them. They will also block un-asked for incoming traffic. To use P2P with one of them, you must open an incoming port in that firewall, and you have to forward the traffic it receives to your computer for processing. This is "forwarding a port".

A firmware firewall like this is good. It can't fail to start when you boot up, can't crash, doesn't take up any resources and doesn't make your computer run slower. It can't be attacked or disabled by malicious software running on your computer.

You don't need two firewalls. Having two firewalls doesn't make you safer. It gives you headaches. Anything you do to one of the firewalls, you also have to do to the other.

Software firewalls aren't aware of each other, don't detect each other, don't tell you that you've already got a firewall. They will just install right on top of each other. You can have a dozen firewalls running.

When you change operating systems it's quite likely that the new firewall (if any) won't preserve the configuration of the old firewall (if any). So if you configured the firewall of the old OS a certain way such that software would work on it, then you'll probably need to configure the new firewall the same way. If you don't, then the software will probably stop working.

This is almost certainly what happened to you. As a result you are operating without a listen port. Others can accept your messages, but you can't accept theirs. The result of that is usually a vast slowdown in your download rate.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Quick summery of how to open your listening port, even though this info could be found within seconds doing a search in this forum, or any bittorrent support forum.

Setup portforwarding of your dlink router (dlink uses the term virtual server).

Go to portforward.com and follow their free guides with step by step instructions for most routers. Included in this is setting a static (internal lan) IP address in windows. If you skip this step, you "may" have to repeat the entire process when you reboot your computer.

This will take care of your routers firewall. BitComet should negotiate your windows firewall by itself, but to be sure, you can check that your port is indeed open at canyouseeme.org. You will also notice a green light on your WAN indicator in bitcomet.

By the way, I use Vista Ultimate x64 with bitcomet and have download speeds in excess of 2500kB/s quite often.

Additionally, since your upload speed provided by your ISP is quite slow (about 50kB/s is the max you want to upload at), so don't expect your download speeds to be a lot faster then that except on very well seeded torrents. Also don't stop your torrents until you have had time to upload as much as you download. The best solution for this is to look for another ISP that offers better upload speeds.

[Zargogo]

I was in the middle of doing a portforward and just as I was about to finish it, i couldn't log on to my D-Link. I did reasearch, nothing. I think I just forgot my password. I had set up a static IP before I found out I couldn't log on to my Wireless Router (D-Link). I reset my static ip. I just looked at bitcomet and I am downloading with around 500 kb/s for something with 13 seed :o I guess my problem somehow fixed itself? I hope it doesn't slow down again.

[greywizard]

Do you have a green light in BitComet right now or not?

Just out of curiosity what are the models of your modem and router (they should be marked on the back of the devices)?

[kluelos]

Your new situation sounds like you have not set a static IP address between your computer and your router.

If you haven't, then your computer asks for an IP address from whatever it is connected to. Since in this case it's connected to the router, the address comes from the router. The address assignment is leased, not owned. This means that your computer's IP address can and does change -- it's "dynamic". (This is NOT the IP address you get from a web site like "whatsmyip.com". THAT is your router's address, not your computer's.)

Most router firewalls will not forward a port just generally. They will only open that port to a particular fixed IP address which you must decide upon and enter. It becomes your business to make sure the computer that needs the open port, is located at that IP address. This is a security measure.

You configure your network settings not to ask for an IP address, but to assert one that is unchanging - "static" -- and it becomes up to you to make sure that nothing else connected to that router has the same IP address. This is your business as network manager.

If you don't set a static IP: if you let the router randomly assign you an IP; then you may, by chance and from time to time, get the address assignment where the port is open. Things will work, but only by coincidence and when your address assignment changes in the future, as it will, then things will stop working again.

All routers have a reset button. This is a physically-accessible hardware button, usually concealed inside a pinhole to make it impossible to press by accident. (It might instead be a combination of buttons pressed and held simultaneously.)

If the reset button is pressed (through the pinhole, with a pin (or a paperclip or something like that) and held for a time (20 seconds)), causes the router to revert to its factory settings including the original username and password. You can always recover this way if you've lost or forgotten the login.

(If you don't know what that original login is, look in the manual. If you've lost the manual you probably ought to give up and not use high-tech equipment, but you can probably find a copy of the manual for any router, on the intertubes. SO CAN EVERYBODY ELSE, thus the very first thing you need to do when you log in to the router is to CHANGE THE PASSWORD. If you do not, then somebody else who has also read the manual on the internet and knows what the default password is, can change it themselves and lock you out of your own router. You'll feel extremely stupid then.

[Zargogo]

I forwarded my port and set a static IP Address and now it downloads around 300-500kb/s with around 200 seed. Is that normal? My friend downloads 2mb/s with 400 seed. Then again, his internet is a little bit better (a little).

Edited December 22, 2009 by Zargogo (see edit history)

[kluelos]

That sounds approximately right. If the number you're getting from BitComet is 200 KB/s, not 200 Kb/s. It makes a difference, and BitComet does not report in Kb/s, so I'm assuming this is just confusion/ignorance.

The number of seeds does not directly correspond to, or even correlate with download speed. In a typical swarm most of the download you get is received from other peers, and not from seeds. Seeds will try to avoid giving anyone two pieces in a row. They try to spread their uploading around as much as possible.

The actual download speed that anyone will get is critically dependent on the factors associated with that torrent. The next torrent will be different. It also depends a great deal on how much you give back. If it's a lot you become a very desirable trade partner and get offered the best/fastest/most reliable connections by other peers. If it's a little, those good partners find somebody else to trade with, somebody faster than you, more reliable than you. You only get second-best, or third-best, or even none if you're not uploading anything at all.

[Zargogo]

Alright. Thanks. My friend uploads a lot so that is probably why he is getting 2MB/s. Also, right now I am downloading with about 900 kB/s. It's a small k and a large B. You have been of great help. I have set a password, set a static IP, and forwarded a few of my ports.

One thing I wanna know is why do I keep getting disconnected from internet? Like I disconnect for 2 secs the page says that it cannot open then 2 secs later it can? Then it works for about 1hr and disconnects and connects again and 1hr and keeps going.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Zargogo (see edit history)

[kluelos]

Do you mean the report from the trackers tab?

[Zargogo]

yes, and it says it when i mouse over my bitcomet when it's in the 'small icon' state near the time on the very bottom right of the screen

[kluelos]

As far as trackers are concerned, normal behavior is for the client to connect to a tracker, exchange metafiles with it, then disconnect and wait.

One of the items in the metafile from the tracker is a time delay, which is when the client should update the tracker. It's usually about 20 minutes. This allows the tracker to manage its load.

It often happens that when the client tries to reconnect to the tracker, it fails for several attempts in series. During that time you will see reports of connection problems, usually timeouts. if a client can't connect to the tracker on schedule, it just continues with the list of peers that it already has. Your file transfers continue during this time. When the client does finally reconnect, the client gets an updated peers list from the tracker and can add/delete peers. The delay in updating is usually quite harmless.

[Zargogo]

I'm sorry I'm replying after such a long time but I don't want to create a new topic. Here's the deal: I set a new static IP address, made a new listen port (49999)and forwarded that port. The green light at the bottom of bitcomet is green. I've got the newest version of Bitcomet. My maximum upload rate is 15mb. The problem is that I get 50 peers out of 1000 and my download rates are really slow: about 130 with thousands of seeds. Any solutions?

[greywizard]

My maximum upload rate is 15mb.

While it is a good idea to let us know your advertised upload speed, if you had read your own post at the beginning of the topic you would have known that the tested speed is of much bigger importance.

Besides, what is your Global Upload Rate setting on the Options-->Connection page?

The problem is that I get 50 peers out of 1000

What exactly do you mean by "get"?

...with thousands of seeds.

So, which is what? Are there 1000 peers or several thousands?

Where do you take these numbers from?

[Zargogo]

Sorry that I'm commenting after this much time. Here's the deal: I set up a new static IP address, made a new listen port (49999) and forwarded that port. Now, for some reason, I'm getting 50 peers out of thousands and my download speeds are really slow - about 100kB/s. Any help?

[ThaddeusPalay]

Where do you take these numbers from?

{spam urls elided - Mod}

[kluelos]

It's quite likely you have a firewall blocking your listen port.

Forwarding your port in your router only takes care of the router's firewall.

If there are other firewalls, all of them must open the port.

It only takes one firewall that's closed, to block the port completely.