All my BitComet Problems

[newguy202]

Dear Admin,

I may post in pinned topic " Data loss issue" , but here I am posting all my BitComet Problems and issues in separate topic . I have emailed all issues to "support@bitcomet.com" on February 18' but since I receive no anwer ,so I have to post here . Data loss "hash check" issues I think started on 15 or 16 February.

I am using Windows Xp Sp2 . Well here is text from my mail.

I have some issues with BitComet Client , which needed to be resolved very soon.

I am using version 1.25 . I understand that you will imediately advise me to upgrade to most recent version. now I will discuss about my issues .

1. My most recent problem is very serious . Few days back I was checking my 2 torrent download which are close to finish (90%+) ,even though they have couple of seeders but they were not downloading or simply a vey slow speed . So I do a "manual hash check"

on first download . Believe me it turned to 0% before my eyes after hash check . So I have to start it from 0 . I "hash checked" second download but It changed to 0.5 %, Looks like the data it downloaded in that recent session is left.

The solution i do is that I downloaded first torrent job fully but left the second one. Now you can tell me , what seems to be problem ,is there a virus on your side or a coding problem? tell me soon.

2. secondly , I want to update BitComet as soon as possible , but there are some issues.

Before my last update(1.25) ,my hard disk partition on which BitComet is installed has more than 80 Mb free space but after upgrading to version 1.25 , free space is between 40 and 50 Mb . I want to make a backup of all my Bitcomet settings, so not a single thing is left behind . Then I want to install latest update and apply those settings. Guide me here.

3. The last thing I am concerned is with the firewall issue. There are too many ports open for Bitcoment (Tcp and Udp) . For example there are six ports (3 tcp & 3 udp) for Bitcomet .... ED2K . Apart from that there are several for just "Bitcomet" One port for "BitComet-a BitTorrent Client" and one for "emule plugin" .

Now tell me , how many ports in real are needed for bitcomet to work fully ? Now that is a text book lesson for computer and networking students that too many open ports lead to trouble and bring in hackers and oher net based attacks . So give me a solution to that.

Okay now I have addressed all my issues here , So I am waiting for your reply soon .

[kluelos]

Actually, we're suggesting that you downgrade to 1.22 and see if the problem goes away. You'd have seen that in the main thread. That's why it's a good idea to keep conversations in a single thread rather than scattering them all over. Any further traffic on the issue should go in that thread.

The trouble with textbook lessons is that you can't just read the first chapter and forget about the rest. The problem is a lack of understanding on your part about how ports are used in Internet traffic under TCP and UDP.

BitComet uses one "listen" port for its bittorrent function. This is a port which is unblocked by any firewall. It's purpose is to allow peers (this is peer-to-peer) to contact you directly.

Almost all other internetting that you do, does not require an open port.

Instead, you and your computer initiate all those other contacts. The other computer, usually a server, replies to you. This is how web surfing, email, chat, ftp, newsreaders, and just about everything else functions. You initiate, a server replies, then a conversation ensues until one of you doesn't stops.

When your message goes out, it includes the port number on which the other party is to reply. Your firewall will accept a reply from that server on that port, but not from anyone else and not from that one on any other port. Unsolicited incoming traffic is blocked while solicited traffic is allowed. This is what a firewall does.

The message that you get from the server likewise includes the port number on which it is expecting your next transmission in this ongoing conversation. (Bear in mind that, although state is IMPLIED, it does not actually EXIST. The connections are all stateless. Many new people come to grief on grasping this point.)

Bittorrent, or your email client, or your web browser or your chat client, thus "uses" many ports. There is no exposure here because your firewall(s) block any traffic from any other source or incorrect port, allowing only the expected replies through.

You have doubtless studied that port number 80 is the conventional default for web servers. This is so because there needs to be a single port on which a web server can be found listening for new incoming connections. Once the connection is established between the web server and somebody's browser, the traffic usually moves off of that port and onto others.

Thus, your browser, or chat client, or email client, or bittorrent client can and will "use" many ports, depending on how many connections each makes, how many each needs, how many each maintains, and finishes with/closes.

The answer to this question,

how many ports in real are needed for bitcomet to work fully ?

is "False".

You need one open listen port for incoming bittorrent connections. You will also need a port for incoming eMule connections if you are using eMule or the eMule plugin. These are basically separate applications, and processes can't share ports under Windows. HTTP and FTP downloads under BitComet do not require a listen port and are not peer-to-peer.

The number of closed, firewalled ports that your bitttorent client, or your email client, or your web browser or your chat client will use is effectively indeterminate. Not "unlimited", there are only 65,000 ports, but constantly varying.

You may have multiple rules set up in your router, but if those rules are not active, then the ports they involve are not being opened by them. You only need multiple rules in certain rare cases, where the router requires you to choose either TCP or UDP, but not both, for a given rule. There, you need one for each. This is imposed by the router not supporting both protocols in one rule. Some don't, most do.

Names for rules are for humans. You can name a rule anything you please, or nothing at all if the router allows that. The router doesn't care, doesn't ever reference the name. All that mattters is the IP address and the port number. Having multiple rules that open the same port to the same IP address is just silly. The port's either open or not, and the second rule can't do anything the first one didn't barring the one special case of differing protocol

BitComet backup is fairly simply, modulo dealing with Virtual Storage. You need to locate the settings directory, which will nominally be in %appdata%, one way or the other. See the FAQ. Once you find that directory, simply copy all of the .xml files you find there. That's all there is to it. Nothing in the registry, or elsewhere. Your settings and the current task list are there. The program and its configuration files + task list shouldn't take up more than 18 MB or so. This varies because BitComet also stores a copy of the .torrent files for tasks in progress in a torrents subfolder in that path, so the total size can vary a little.

The actual tasks in progress are, of course, stored in their respective download directories.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Even for older windows versions such as XP you should have a lot more then 80mb free on your system partition. I suggest clearing that up asap. As far as transferring your configuration files to the new version, that should happen effortlessly when you install. You also can export the settings from within bitcomet (more info on this in our FAQs at wiki.bitcomet.com), or you can locate and copy all the .xml files from their current location. They could be located in your %appdata% folder or your install folder (default is c:\program files\bitcomet).

As for your ports. BitComet uses only one incoming port for all bittorrent connections. You only need to open that one port but you want to limit the connects to only TCP and UDP connections. In some routers you may need to make two rules, but for the same port number. I recommend you use any random port within the range of 50000 to 60000.

If you are using the emule plugin, then you will want to open a second unique port for it to use, but those are the only two ports you need open for bitcomet to receive remote connections.

I'm not going to attempt to address your concerns on the dataloss subject here. Please post all your information regarding that in the specified topic so that we can be sure that it's seen by the development team and all our support persons.

I can tell you that we suspect this problem first occurred sometime between version 1.23 and 1.25. We have yet to hear anyone effected with 1.22, so your welcome to use that version if you like. I also suspect there will be a new release soon, either a beta version for testing, or a stable version if the bug is confirmed to be fixed.

Thanks for your report.

TuuS

[newguy202]

Thank to your replies and help Guys . kluelos give too much detail on port , which is pretty much waste of your thoughts and time but I appretiate it. I am also studying networking.

Now kindly tell me clearly which version i use 1.22 or 1.26.

First I want to do is to uninstall version 1.25 , delete all ports regarding bitcomet in firewall . Then I am going to install your described version . Definitely I am going to save my settings via bitcomet Export option. Kindly Guide me in these tasks.

I also want to mention that when I previosly upgrade BitComet I modify path to BitComet folder , Although drive is already mentioned in install path. "drive:\Bitcomet"

So I want to know ,which path is correct . "drive:\Bitcomet" or "drive:\Bitcomet\".

And about 80 Mb issue , currently I can only manage this much free space for Bitcomet Installation drive . All my download aare scattered on other drives . I can intall Bitcomet on windows partition because of changing size of Bitcomet directory.

I am using Bitcomet for a couple of years now and know a lot of things about it. I have also uploaded data more than share ratio . All I want to mention here is that I need serious help here .

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Hi, you can read more about exporting tasklist and settings here: BitComet Main Menus - File--> Import and Export Download list.

Or as I mentioned, by simply saving your .xml files and manually replacing the new ones generated when doing a fresh install (after deleting your previous install folder, or installing on a new/different computer).

Note that none of this is necessary if you install overtop a previous version.

Also, I understand your not using the default installation options on BitComet, that is fine but requires you are knowledgeable about your computers file system and we cannot guide you as to where you might find things such as your .xml files, because you have a non-standard installation. As far as the bitcomet folder changing sizes, very old versions of bitcomet used to save downloads (by default) in c:\program files\bitcomet\downloads, so your install folder would grow with each download, but this has been changed over 50 versions ago, and now it will save downloads (by default) in c:\downloads, but that is easy to change to any location/drive you like. The install folder won't change much at all after install. Also with default settings, your .xml files will be saved in %appdata% "bitcomet" folder, but if "system use app data" is set to "false" in advanced settings, it will save the .xml files within the install folder on windows xp and prior versions. Vista and Seven makes this more complicated. If user account controls are enabled, windows will force bitcomet to save the .xml files with the %virtual store% folder for that specific user.

As for which version to use... good question. We have reports of a dataloss bug that hasn't yet been reproduced in testing. Considering there are over 2.5 millions users each day, and only a dozen or two confirmed cases reported, I'd say the risk is very low, but I can say to date that we haven't seen any reports of this on version 1.22 "yet", so you might want to use that versions. I also expect to see a new either beta or stable release as soon as the cause of this bug can be tracked down, so you might want to check back and see if new versions have been released.

Also, considering that you prefer non-standard installation, you can simply download the .zip package which requires no installation, nor does it require you to uninstall your current version. Of course you will need to move your .xml files (either discussed options) to the .zip versions folder, and back again if you revert to installed version, but this would be a simple way to temporarily use a different version, such as 1.22 until we can confirm the current issues are resolved.

ps. I'll add that the previous replies from kluelos and myself were being typed at the same time, so we didn't realize we were both repling to the same topic. Any redundant information supplied was unintentional.