Feel free to take anything you want from me. Ok... maybe not so much.

September 27, 2013 5:11 PM

Why is my DSL connection getting clogged by Bittorrent even after closing it?

This started happening a while ago, but now it seems to be every time I run Bittorrent.

Almost as soon as I open it I can do absolutely nothing else on the internet. Can´t access any pages on Firefox or Chrome, Skype goes offline, and the only thing that send or receives anything is Bittorrent.

Closing Bittorrent or even restarting the computer doesn´t fix it. It only goes away when I restart the modem and router (I´m connected to a DSL connection via a USB belkin wireless adapter).

I´m seeding a bunch of torrents and am trying to download some others, but this happens even before any actual upload or download takes place.

Is this some malware? Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks!

posted by Fermin to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

BitTorrent opens a ton of connections all at once, which can sometimes cause cheap routers to lose their minds. Your client probably has a place where you can limit the number of simultaneous connections, try decreasing this number.
posted by contraption at 5:14 PM on September 27, 2013

a 'friend' used to bittorrent, and seconding contraption, cheaper routers cant seem to recover from the flood of connections that bittorrent required and a hard reboot of the router cleared the routing tables etc to get the connection back to normal, so i heard.
posted by edman at 5:24 PM on September 27, 2013

Its probably the Nat table on the router filling up. Limit the max number of connections that bittorrent uses if it has such an option.
posted by TheAdamist at 5:44 PM on September 27, 2013

Response by poster: I have no clue about routers, would a Belkin N300 be considered cheap?

The modem is probably cheap, it´s the one provided by our ISP. I think the brand is Startouch or something like that.

I just decreased the number of simultaneous connections from 200 to 50, I could surf for about five minutes but then it all stopped. No transfers were started on the client.
posted by Fermin at 5:47 PM on September 27, 2013

Best answer: Sorry to say but yeah, that Belkin is about as cheap as routers get and it's a brand I would stay away from at any price. I'd recommend something from Ubiquiti if you're looking for an entry-level replacement, maybe this one if you need built-in wifi.
posted by contraption at 6:10 PM on September 27, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks. I guess I´ll reduce the connections even more while I look for a new modem.

It looks like there is one Ubiquiti dealer in the country. I´ll see what they have.

Thanks a lot!
posted by Fermin at 6:23 PM on September 27, 2013

Does your "modem" have WiFi or multiple computer connections or anything that would indicate it is a router too? If so, it might be the one causing troubles.
posted by TheAdamist at 6:41 PM on September 27, 2013

I agree with the above advice. Some things to try:
- Try a different BT client than the generic client
- Throttle your BT download to about 70% of your max download at most. This will allow plenty of headroom for all the acknowledgments that need to be exchanged by all the peers.
- Pause or stop all your torrents before closing your BT client. I don't know for sure, but there's a chance it'll tell the tracker or your peers to take a hike and stop sending or requesting packets.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:55 PM on September 27, 2013

Netgear WNR3500L

Best router I've ever used. Cheap and rock solid. I have at least 4 or 5 of them all over the place, including one running an office of 20 people. The regular firmware is just fine, and if you want to get adventurous, it's actually designed for you to put third party firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato on there to give it the capabilities of a router 10x its price. I have torrented probably multiple terabytes of data through those routers (both wired and wirelessly) with no issues at all and great speeds.
posted by KinoAndHermes at 6:58 PM on September 27, 2013 [5 favorites]

Oh. Also, if you use custom firmware with Tomato, it has QOS, the default settings is like magic, it lets you download full speed with various peering software, but wont affect regular browsing and internetting. (Skype and web browsing will work like normal)
posted by edman at 7:14 PM on September 27, 2013

I got a Netgear WNR3500L to replace my long string of cheap-always-fucking-up-and-dying routers, the last one being a Belkin N300 which may have been the worst. The new one is great and been chugging along without a hitch for a year or two now.
posted by bongo_x at 7:21 PM on September 27, 2013

Try switching to uTorrent.

Also, sad to say, it may be your host doing this to you.

"I could surf for about five minutes but then it all stopped." That could be your host's grace period, after which it decides you're a troublemaker and throttles your connection.

"It only goes away when I restart the modem and router." That would cause the host to reset your connection, and that could clear your troublemaker status.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:42 PM on September 27, 2013

I hope I'm wrong. Also, I agree that you should get a Netgear router, and kiss off Belkin.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:46 PM on September 27, 2013

If you return to this thread and replacing the router didn't solve it, get a new modem.

Even better: the netgear modem+router combos rule.

But yea, I've had shit modems for both cable and dsl bog down from erm, gaming and various activities that open a lot of connections.

Temporary solution though, in your torrent apps preferences set the "maximum active connections" to like 30 instead of 200, or 100 or whatever the default is. It may work a bit slower but probably also won't blow up your buttrouter for now.
posted by emptythought at 9:07 PM on September 27, 2013

Response by poster: It looks like I was too fast to select a best answer.

A temporary solution came on its own: my ISP (which is state operated) called me the other day saying they would come to install optic fiber and a new modem with wifi for no extra cost, keeping the same fee.

They came in this morning, and with a new torrent client (Tixati), everything looks good so far.

The new modem/router is a korean brand, probably not as good as some of the recommendations from this thread, but still better than the old combo.

Thanks a lot, everybody!
posted by Fermin at 8:53 PM on October 2, 2013