Like most people interested in sw00t war3z on the interbutts, I decided to try bittorrent. That was about three years ago. Despite all the patches, firmware updates, client changes, port forwarding, backwarding, sidewarding and exorcising, I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN BITTORRENT TO WORK. The closest thing I can get is Azureus chugging along at a paltry 14 kb/s, maybe once every two minutes. So an average doujin takes over a day to download, assuming I don't randomly get an NAT error that prevents me from connecting to anyone that isn't sending pieces by telegraph.

By this point, I don't really believe there is any way I can get BitTorrent to work. I've tried Shareaza (crashes on load) and Limewire (I can't seem to find anything of value, although it does work) as well as good ol'Kazaa (for the most part, works without a hitch).

Uhh...
Discuss.

Is it on your ISP's end? I know that, back home, I can never get decent BitTorrent performance because my parents' ISP doesn't properly allow incoming connections -- I can't recall the exact details. But if you really have tried everything on your end, then maybe that's not where the problem is.

On the other hand, it could also be that you're downloading obscure stuff that isn't seeded very well...

Some ISPs use intelligent filtering to block BitTorrent almost entirely. If this is the case, then no, you're not going to get it to work, because your ISP hates you and wishes you were dead.

>>1 Can't install a very basic p2p application and make it work.

Discuss.

>>2,3
It's possible I suppose, but I'm pretty sure others on this ISP have gotten BT to work. Comcast isn't on any lists of anti-p2p ISP's I've seen.

Use Azureus, it is much better than it was when it started - it takes less than 60% CPU when backgrounded and can work with only 1GB ram so long as you disable plug-ins beforehand.

>it takes less than 60% CPU when backgrounded

I assume you mean 6%? 60% is by no means an acceptable number. (Bits on Wheels uses about 6% on my G4 PowerBook.)

Having used Azureus in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if he did mean 60%.

>>9
I agree.

Hi, I am I bittorrent specialist. I would like to help you.

Please supply the following:

OS:
RAM Amount:
CPU Speed:
Bittorent clients you have tried:
Some torrents that won't wor for you:
ISP: Comcast (?)
Using a ? yes/no
Name/model number on router/hub/modem:
UP/Down bandwidth speeds:
Using a firewall? yes/no
If yes, name:
If using Windows XP, do you have Windows firewall enabled? yes/no

I can proceed to help you as soon as you get back to me on this.

-Bittorrent Specialist

Look! Even my idea says that I'm a Bittorrent Specialist. +bS

-Bittorrent Specialist

OS: WinXP SP2
RAM Amount: 510MB
CPU Speed: 2.8 GHz
Bittorent clients you have tried: Azureus, BitTornado, uTorrent, Shareaza
Some torrents that won't work for you: Any, doesn't matter. Or do you want examples or something anyways?
ISP: Comcast, yeah.
Using a ? I use ? all the time, I didn't think it'd be a problem
Name/model number on router/hub/modem: Linksys WRT54g wireless, on notebook a Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
UP/Down bandwidth speeds: ~400 kb/s IIRC
Using a firewall? None
If using Windows XP, do you have Windows firewall enabled? Nope.

I appreciate your help, but I'm not sure how much I can do within my ability. Screwing with the router's programming is pretty far in my book.
I suppose I should mention that in addition to horrible speed there was noticeable lag in online games (pissing off my whiny CS:S playing brother), even though there was incredibly little downloading actually going on.

>>7
I tried Azureus just before giving up entirely.

>>[Computer hardware]

From your computer specs, doesn't look like hardware or bandwidth is a problem.

>>Azureus, BitTornado, uTorrent, Shareaza

Azureus sort of sucks, and Shareaza just outright sucks. BitTornado and uTorrent are good clients, though.

>>Any, doesn't matter. Or do you want examples or something anyways?

Yeah, as >>2 mentioned, it may just be older or not seeded torrents that you're trying. (Or ones from member sites, etc.)

Here's three torrents I would like you to try:
http://a.scarywater.net/hell/%5BHell-Fansubs%5D_ZegaPain_%20Promo%5B237DF2F9%5D.avi.torrent
http://static.thepiratebay.org/hashtorrent/3467665.torrent/UltraEdit_v12.00_2_serial.3467665.TPB.torrent
http://yhbt.mine.nu/t/n179.torrent

>>Using a firewall? None

Well, as long as you're sure that you aren't. And have disabled Windows firewall, like you said.

>>Linksys WRT54g wireless

Okay. Here's what you should do:

1. Download the latest version of uTorrent from http://www.utorrent.com/ .
2. Go to http://www.dslreports.com/stest and have a speed test done. Take note of the results, so you can use them in utorrent and post them here.
3. Start up uTorrent. Under "Connection Type" choose xx/your upload. Tell me what number it says as "Upload Limit."
4. You mentioned that you've tried forwarding ports. Under "Current Port" enter one of the ports that you have fowarded. Click "Test if port is forwarded properly." Once you do this, your browser should open to test the port you entered. If you get a green "OK," the problem probably doesn't lie with your ISP or hardware. If you don't get green, this is probably the problem.
5. Click "Use Selected Settings." Once done with that go to options -> Preferences. Under "General" make sure the following are checked: Prevent standby, check for updates.
6. Under "Network" it should say have the port you entered, make sure Randomize is unchecked, check UPnP, check add utorrent to firewall exceptions. For Protocol Encryption, select "disabled" for outgoing. Check allow incoming legacy.
7. Under "Torrents," the defaults should probably be fine, though you can post what it says in the text boxes, if you want. I would check every checkbox except Pre-allocate and append .!ut.
8. Restart utorrent for the settings to take effect. Drag & drop the torrents I mentioned into the utorrent window. (Either tr the all at once or one at a time... if they do work though, of course they would be going slower all at once.) I would also right click them under name and choose "Force Start."
9. Try it out, post any problems you might have.

-Bittorrent Specialist

Oh wow.

I re-installed uTorrent and tried your torrents, and noticed that I was now getting speeds in excess of 200kb/s. Apparently my dad, who owns the router I'm on, had changed the router's firmware again, and this time it worked!!

The ZegaPain torrent completed in less than two minutes. The Naruto one is downloading at a speed of anywhere between 30 kb/s and 100 kb/s. UltraEdit was going pretty quickly but slowed down to about 11-30 kb/s after reaching around 70% completion.

Also, the router's password has been changed, so I can't access the port forwarding menu. I did the ports test and they all say blocked, meaning I'll just have to tell my dad to open them (unless he left the default password and disabled remote access to the router, in which case I'll steal onto my brother's computer or connect directly to the router from my laptop).

I'll see if everything continues to go smoothly. If so, thanks for all the help you've given me and -- most of all -- motivating me to try again!

I loaded one of the torrents I was running without success before and managed to reach a top speed of slightly less than 300 kb/s. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!

Nice. Enjoy.

-Bittorrent Specialist