Bit torrent crashing

[dkmech]

Hi there. Have a problem with bit torrent lately. It all used to work fine, then it started stalling and messing up my pc.

What happens is - bit torrent download and upload come down to 0. Taskbar often refuses to respond, same with start button. I have problems closing irc client and ie browser windows. Things like FAR file manager i use seem to work alright. Task manager can sometimes be called up but it fails to close irc client and will not restart the pc when i ask it to. I have to reset it.

I have tried reinstalling different torrent clients - shadows experimental, bit tornado, now even the basic original one. Same. On the original's web site it says that my dsl Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem has issues and new 1.63 drivers are needed - but i already have 2.0 drivers installed and it used to work fine anyway. I have changed my isp fairly recently, but i think it used to work ok with new isp too. I am running winxp pro.

tried closing most applications - doesn't help. Intervals between crashing can be between 5 minutes and an hour. Took me almost 10 resets to download a 300mb episode of tp gear, which i missed on sunday.

Short of installing linux and using that for any downloads i can't think of anything else. Any ideas guys?

[funnelhead]

mmmm i used to have this problem on my mums ntl box. I came to the conclusion that it was something to do with hash verification - everything slooooows down as it checks the bi it just downloaded. If i left it and it eventually started going again. Is that modem the NTL provided one?

Fortunatly for me, but unfortunalty for you, my problem went away when i installed the latest bitornado .33 i think. I hope, as i havent been back to my mums in a while....

anyone else on ntl having these problems? (i take it you are on ntl dkmech)

As an additional - if you are on ntl then bittorrent will not work properly by default - the Incooming connections get redirected to the NTL proxy. You need to look at you network properties and get ur IP address, then specify this to BT. You can do this with bitornado, dont know about original client. In Bitornado go to the advanced prefs and you can enter it there. Really speeds up those DL's

f

[dkmech]

No, i am not with NTL. I have adsl, not cable.

I have tried to leave it for a while, probably up to half an hour or so. Maybe that wasn't long enough for it to do the hash check. It does seem to be using the cpu when it does crashes.

[funnelhead]

ah, ok, well then we share a problem and NTL is not to blame.....damn! Still it shouldnt do it really....

i'll keep looking and thinking...

[Apex]

Got zone alarm on the machine ?

also tryed the newer builds ?

[EvilMunky]

Are you by any chance using zone alarm 5??? if so, reinstlal za 4.5.

otherwise it might be your bittorrent client - i just started using shareaza and its pretty cool

[Rabs]

Try these:


1) Try using Azureus
2) Set the max upload to 80% of your upload bandwidth
3) Check the maximum connections and lower it if you have to, I used to have problems with edonkey, with too many simultaneous connections crashing my BY cable modem
4) Use non standard ports in high ranges e.g. port 16000 upwards

Let us know if you sort it

[dkmech]

I've tried reinstalling ZA 4.5 (good job i kept em all).

Ran a download with bit tornado for about half an hour (after which had to go to bed) and it was running without incidents and at full speed!

So a virtual choc chip cookie goes to Apex and especially EvilMunky!


I will test it with a longer run tonight, but its looking promising.

[EvilMunky]

Goddam i luv those choc chips

[dkmech]

Check this out then:
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=23671

[Apex]

and za is the cullprit yet again...........

god i hate that fw more and more

if you want a better fw then za try the free version of Sygate i have and have since purchessed it just another line in my defense

btw there are other things that you can do to speed it up and cause it crash less

limit the number of connections you make and use different ports

ps ihope am not too cheeky but a rep point would be nice

[dkmech]

There you go. Didn't know thats what they were... One for Evilmunkeh too. Wonder who gave me one... Ah, it was Evilmunkeh for the cookie

[Apex]

ta for the cookie too

[Rabs]

Excellent news, glad you sorted it

Seriously though, try azureus for bittorrent with my above tips. Works v nice.

[Superspy]

personally i would try using shareaza, i find it really good for downloading torrents, much better than bt with respect to finding sources etc, but having sed that i havent tried azureus so duno wat its like

[dkmech]

Well bit tornado has all i want at the moment and it is capable of downloading at 100k/s which is nice.

It has controls for upload speed/number and thats all i want really. Might try azureus later to see whats all the fuss about though. Whats so different in it?