Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi all, sorry if this is a bit serious but I'm getting paranoid that I have a shitty router.

I have the 2mb cable broadband package from virgin media and using it just as a normal net connection, it's pleasing speedy, streaming videos and loading webpages with nary a complaint. When I fire up utorrent to get the latest (Linux distros and Game Demos - Ed) everything apart from the torrents grinds to a halt. Even if i'm downloading anything with a tiny trickle of uploads. It's annoying simce whenever Mrs Davpaz wants to look at shoes and the like, I have to stop my (Ubuntu - Ed) downloads.

My router is a Buffalo model with custom firmware (DD-WRT I think). I never had this problem with ADSL even on a 512k link.

I'm confused, any suggestions?

They're on to you. The only option is to burn your router. And, for good measure, your house. And Mrs Davpaz.

You can't be too careful.

But, my wife is innocent. Please, spare her! It was me that downloaded 'Stressed Eric', not her!

ARSEBURGERS.

It's entirely possible your torrenting app is just grabbing every scrap of bandwidth it can - it should have settings somewhere to throttle that.

pretty much the same problem mate, I think its throttling issues on virgins side, Im sure they've got a bunch of fun killing monkeys who stopped any little sign of someone trying to enjoy themselves on the internet.

I'll ask MyFinger. He just got TalkTalk ADSL installed on top of his Virgin Media line so he can download (popular linux distros - Ed) on the ADSL.

I don't understand why Linux isn't used on more desktops. Loads of people seem to be downloading it all the time.

Buggers. I would go back to ADSL but it's such a friggin hassle and I think the VM installers cut the BT cable when they installed the phone. GRRRR!

My Virgin Media happily downloads torrents at the full 20MB. It's possible your STM kicked in (they limit your bandwidth their side) and your upload was saturated as a result.

I gets the same with my VM connection using Azureus, tis a pain

Oh, don't get me wrong, it downloads torrents at full speed, I just can't do anything else whilst it does.

Limit the amount of connections being made in your torrent client. Your router probably can't handle that many consecutive connections.

hence my TalkTalk line for torrenting like. But the TalkTalk line is utter shit. So now I need a plan C.

I'm weak. I was wavering on upgrading to the L package (10Mb) anyway, but hearing of other's tales of woe, I just went and did it. Now logging in through LogMeIn.com is like sitting in the attic at home. Do they really limit the bandwidth for lower paying customers THAT much!?

That'll possibly do a bit better, but torrents and VM are a pain in the knackers. I had their "20" meg for a year, and still could only hit about 2 meg on torrents

Mine's always been shit-hot fast.

You may want to ask in their USENET groups for some support to see if you have a problem.

Better than their phone line support, and free.

I'm with VM and have uTorrent and have exactly the same issue (even with a faster connection).

Possibly it's just because my router has built in QoS that auto-throttles the traffic back for torrents and gives priority to web and Eggbox traffic.

But I can't say I've ever had that problem unless I was uploading too much.

same here (altough i don't use virgin and i don't live in the uk). my connection is 18mb and it's very fast except when i'm using utorrent, which i can never dl anything beyond 100k/s, when in normal downloads it can reach 2mb/s. It's certainly the ISP that fiddles with you when you're using p2p applications.

I'll see how my new fat pipe goes for a while. As long as I can browse and Xbox (as a verb?) without disconnecting the damn downloads, I'll be happy

Same thing happens to me! I think it's a number of connection issue. I'm with BT business and if I have torrents on everything else grinds. I've started limiting the connections which helped. I never allow my full upload limit which also helps but I never seem to get good speeds with other applications when Torrents are running.

Check your Event Log for error 4226, if you haven't patched your Windows to open up the amount of connections you can initiate at one time.

I forgot about that patch as Linux doesn't actually suffer from Microsoft fucking up functions of the OS on purpose.

Click me for info

Thanks Sheep. Never realised that TCP connections limit would get in the way of torrents.

Info here http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/04/09/windows-vista-tcpipsys-connection-limit-patch-for-event-id-4226/ if you're a Vista user.

On closer inspection this doesn't work in Vista SP1 due to driver signing without jumping through several hoops every time you boot. So bang goes that idea.

And before people with beards suggest I install Linux or BeOS or some such shit. No.

[edit]
Vista people. Have a look here http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/10/15/windows-half-open-limit-fix-patch-free-download-to-remove-xp-vista-and-server-2003-32-and-64-bit-tcp-4226-connection-attempts-limit/
This promises more success. I will keep you posted.

This frantic and constant posting must be what Shin is (reputedly) like all the time.

I can't install it as I'm told it's a virus! Trying to figure out if it is or not!

Yeah Sophos nagged me about it. But then every time I download any sort of keygen or slightly w4r3z like thing it moans and I have to authorise the app.

The Lvllord patch is NOT a virus, you have my word on that.

Anything else is meeeeeh. And remember you're modifying Windows system files, so anything can happen.

I refused to run Vista when I had it so I can't really advise on how to get past the problem with it.

This has made a nice difference for me itsallwater. My new 0.7mbit (yes 0.7. The cunts. I mean, if I got everyone in Cwmbran to be quiet you could probably hear me shouting at the exchange from 4km away)TalkTalk ADSL is rocking now.

Virgin media 'L' package here, works fine with uTorrent. I only use it at night though, not during the day time - so they don't CAP my ASS or THROTTLE my, um, BITS

Sometimes it's a bit patchy, the router sort of 'forgets' about the port forwarding stuff and I have to do that again. It's no biggie. I limit uploads, or just stop the torrents altogether if I want to do some serious browsing or X-boxing.

Virgin Media ADSL "8" "mb" here. It's rubbish and I have to stop everything if I want to do anything else. O misery, o woe.

It's your router, not the connection.

How do I know this?
a) Get someone else ot start a torrent.
b) Try, just TRY and talk to the router during that time. It's shit slow. Usually, even when belting things down at full whack, you can still chat to the router happily. I bet it's a netgear one, right?

It's because torrents use so many open connections, and I don't think the shit bastards can handle that. Also: Uploading on virgin media really kills it; so set your upload limit to 12kbs at most (that a good optimum level, I found).

I'm having problems even when not dowloading, my connection will be fine all day, but then as soon as Sam comes home and puts his XBOX on it's like being on dial-up again, pages time out and everything. Advice?

Are you on Virgin media?
If so what package are you on?

Are they doing free upgrades in your area? I was on the 4Mb and have just been upgraded to the 10Mb and it's now more bearable. Before at 5-6 o'clock everything used to slow down (although I didn't get pages timing out or anything).

Sorry yes, VM 2mb. I may contact them and say I am having troubles.

I pity you.
Calling them up is not something I would wish upon anyone.

As I said, use the USENET groups, they are much better, and you're not paying for the phone call.

virginmedia.support.broadband.cable

Oh yeah, I should have said that. It's still pretty painful, but not as bad as phoning them up by a long way.

24 hours on the 10Mb package showed now improvement. I rang VM CS and asked what the upstream rate was supposed to be. The reply was a confused, "erm, the erm up, erm, link is the erm, *rustle, rustle*, the same as the erm, down speed, thingy" Gee thanks, wrongo!

Anyway, limiting my uploads to 12k has made it much more manageable, no perfect, but manageable. Downloads are jolly fast on 10Mb though. In my student days, we signed up to the fastest cable modem package that ntl: offered. A whopping 64kb, shared between 5, one of which was constantly downloading music from (thinks back) Kazaa. That was s-l-o-w. I remember it took 3 weeks to download LOTR (the first one) in a 3cd format.

64kb is roughly 15 times slower than my current connection. That's progress!

After working how to get AVG to allow it to run, I have it installed and it does seem to have helped a hell of a lots.

Cheers guys!

I just wanted to add a little to this post.

I had similar problems with everything grinding to a halt with Utorrent running.. then I started using a static IP address and forwarded my ports on my router.

Now it seems like everything is as it should be!

I'm downloading (A recent game demo-Ed) at the moment at just under 200kbs and I'm viewing the forum speedily! I couldn't do this before!

I had to emerge from my lurking to say thank you for the connections patch.

I had been experiencing this problem for months and it was bugging the hell out of me. Now I can surf and torrent at the same time and I am deeply happy.

Hi Nemmie.

POST MOAR PLZKTHX

UPDATE! Had the big(ger) pipe for a month now and all is well. Restricted uploads really did the trick!