BitTorrent peer connection problems

At first I thought it was my router.

Then I thought it was my ISP.

Now I think it may in fact be my PC.

I've posted on a couple other forums but no one seems to be able to help me. Here's a run down of what's going on:

I just got off the phone with my ISP and they told me that they never throttle BitTorrent. I also found a message board for people with the same ISP and many of them are having no problems. The tech support guy suggested that I try running my client with another PC to see if I have the same problems. I downloaded and installed ABC on to the family computer, which is about as secure as a cardboard house. No firewall, no windows updates, no nothing. I also bypassed the router and plugged straight into the cable modem while I was doing this.

The result was exactly the same. Even though I was pulling in 70k/sec on the torrent (I selected something really popular) my upload briefly maxed at 5k/sec, and then shot down to between 0.5 and 2.0k/sec for the rest of the time! Like I said, no firewall, no router, no windows update, no nothing. Just a PC straight into a cable modem. Naked on the Internet, and still crappy upload.

I also just now noticed that one of my torrents was uploading at 15k/sec for a couple of minutes. Furthermore, my connected peers on every torrent that I'm seeding are very low. The most I've seen on a single torrent is 5, and most of them hover between 0 and 2. Could there be something I'm broadcasting that's preventing other clients from wanting to connect to me at all to download? Argh, this is so very confusing and frustrating!

So here's what I've tried in order to get this working:
- Port forwarding on my router: Didn't work
- DMZ on my router: Didn't work
- Straight into the cable modem: Didn't work
- All software security solutions off: Didn't work
- Inquiring to my ISP about whether or not they throttle BitTorrent: They don't, and they haven't gotten any other complaints about it being slow.
- Crying and calling my computer names: Made me feel better, but didn't work

Is there anything else that could possibly explain why two PCs in my house aren't able to upload worth crap on BitTorrent, even though they can upload everywhere else just fine?

later on...


So I just noticed that one of my torrents was uploading at 50+ k/sec, which is nearing my cap. However, it was only upping to one peer. So I think the problem is that my computer will only accept connections from one or two peers at once and then block any other ones. Are there any Windows settings that could be causing this?

Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing? Is there some obscure setting in Windows that I need to change? Does God hate me?

Please help! Thanks :thumbsup:

Well usually in bit torrent clients your download rate is proportional to your upload rate. It depends on your internet connection and ratio in your area. You say that other people haven't had the same problems but are they living in the same area as you?

Also does it happen at the same time of the day? - A large amount of people connected to your exchange can slow things down. What does your client settings say?

Well do realize how BT works, speeds all depend on how many people are on the torrent, what kind of connections they have, and what parts of the you have and don't have. One torrent could be downloading at 3kb/sec and another one at 300, it just depends.

In addition, what BT client are you using? As for the upload problem, how do you have your client configured? Most clients have settings to set the max upload speed and how many clients to upload to at once, etc.

It's the same problem with every client I use. So far I've tried ABC, BitComet, and BitTorrent.

I've maxed out my upload settings, and set simultaneous uploads to unlimited.

I've been testing this with popular torrents. The problem seems to only be with uploads, but on a less popular torrent, not being able to upload greatly cuts my download speed.

Like I said, one of my torrents was at one point uploading at 50k/sec (just to one person) and I've had downloads at upwards of 100k/sec, but still with uploads not topping 2-5k/sec. I really think the problem is that only one or two people will connect and download from me at once. How many is standard?

edit: And this has been going on for a long time. And with all different kinds of torrents, whether popular or not.

I've maxed out my upload settings, and set simultaneous uploads to unlimited.

That is the first thing you did wrong, :p ....
The download and upload rate is proportional, which means if the one goes up, the other goes down...
You have a limit to the amount of kb/s u can upload and download all together, so limit your upload to around 20kb/s, then see what happens,
obviously since you were doing 50+ kb/s upload, your d/l was greatly reduced. Remeber though, if u keep you upload speed too low, your download tends to slow down sometimes as well, id say 20-22 kb/s is good... :thumbsup:

Edit: also, it doesnt matter how popular the file is, it matter how many seeders and leechers there are. If the amount of seeders^ and the amount of leecers* is close, odds are the d/l speed should be reasonabely good...

^Seeder=people who have the complete file and are only uploading it.
*Leecher=people who are downloading the file along with sharing it with other leechers.

Yeah I told him that ;)
in Bitcomet I have my upload set to 10kb/s, yet I still download at about 50-60kb/s, which is my max for my net connection - I'm happy :D

whoops, sorry about that weazel :p , i kind of skimmed through your post. And you're right ofcourse...