# Utorrent confusing me - giving me conflicting information...



## Black Panther (May 8, 2009)

Through trial and error experiments on my router settings (which I don't understand a fig since NAT, forwarding, Qos, DDNS, DMZ, uPnP, ALG etc are all chinese to me) I finally managed to get my utorrent to display that nice green 'very-good' symbol saying _"Network OK. Your network connection is working like it should"_ when hovering mouse-pointer over it.

Before, I used to always get a red symbol or occasionally a yellow one (meaning listening port was closed through either firewall, router or both).

Now I was thinking that this "closed port problem" had been solved - the symbol being green and saying all is OK...

However, when I left-click this green symbol and then on tab saying _"Test if port is forwarded properly"_ the resulting site (http://www.utorrent.com/testport.php?port=xxxxx) displays a large red exclamation mark and the words "An error has occurred! Port xxxxx does not appear to be open."

*Why is the utorrent program showing my port being open but then when I make it check the browser-site shows the same port being closed?*

Is there any other (perhaps more reliable) method to check whether port in question is open or not?

Another thing - *I've got a 2MB download/512K upload connection*.

However, my downloads on utorrent only manage to max out at a measly ~240K in total. 
I've tested several files now and the reason's obviously not lack of seeders.

OK I wasn't expecting downloads at 2MB/s (though I'd love that!)..... 
but I had been expecting my download speed to be at a reasonable moderate 512K - 1MB......... 

*Is a download speed of only 240K normal for a 2MB/512K internet connection or is it a signal showing that something is wrong?*

Thanks!


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## newtekie1 (May 8, 2009)

I used to have a site that would check your connection for open ports, let me see if I can find it again, it has been a few years since I have used it.  Though, I'll say that when I have forward the ports correctly, utorrent will show the green symbol, but that test almost always fails.

Edit: This site will allow you to run a test to see if the common ports are open, or specify a specific port to probe and see if it is open(This is the option you want).

As for your download speeds, are you sure your connection is not 2M*b*/s, with a lower case b?  That would yield download speeds of about 250K*B*/s with an upper case B.  Yes, the case matters when talking about network connection speeds.  Most internet companies measure speed in bits per second(lower case b) while uTorrent and most software measures it in Bytes per second(upper case B).


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## Darren (May 8, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> I used to have a site that would check your connection for open ports, let me see if I can find it again, it has been a few years since I have used it.



When you say you're downloading at 240K, do you mean KB

Edit:

Black what made you think you'd get more than 240KB/sec in a torrent, do you achieve faster speeds when you download from a websites? What about using Rapidshare or Megaupload?

2MB is only theoretical, you have to divide by about 8.5 to get the true speed.

So 2 MB/8 = 250Kb/Sec, so its normal 

Edit 2:

You'd need a 4 MB connection to achieve 470KB/Sec, 

So expectations of 512KB/sec was farfetched


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## Studabaker (May 8, 2009)

If you have a 2Megabit connection then 240KBytes is what you should get.  Like Darren says, it depends on which you mean.


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## oily_17 (May 8, 2009)

For an app for checking open ports try here -

http://www.portforward.com/help/portcheck.htm


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## r9 (May 8, 2009)

1 byte = 8 bit do the math.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 8, 2009)

1) You need Port Forwarding (sometimes called virtual server).  Pick a port to dedicated to torrents and forward it to your local ip (can be discovered via ipconfig on said machine).

2) Network speeds are almost always given in bits (b) per second, not bytes (B) per second.  There's 8 bits per byte so you have a 256 KB/s down (2048 Kb/s), 64 KB/s up (512 Kb/s).  The speed you listed (240 KB/s) is to be expected.  I must also note that the rate other people are uploading is the main restriction on how fast anything can download.  If someone is uploading to you at only 10 KB/s and that's the only person you're downloading from, 10 KB/s is all you'll manage.

3) To change the port in uTorrent, go to Options -> Preferences.  On the left, click on "Connections."  Change the value after "Port used for incoming connections" to match the port you assigned in your router/firewalls.  Apply the changes and restart uTorrent (probably not necessary but for good measure.


Once you got the port forwarded and update uTorrent to use that port, you should be good to go.


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## Darren (May 8, 2009)

Ok I've got two images here, look at the bottom of the screen on both, its an illustration of when Utorrent has sucessfully acknowledged your port forwarding.

In this image shows a bad port forward, you torrent has flagged that the ports are blocked and hence download speeds will be extremely slow.


However, this image you torrent has a green tick to indicate that the port forwarding is successful.



In essence without port forwarding or without a "Green tick" download speeds will always be impaired. But saying that you are getting your full 2 MBs @ 240KB/sec so everything is probably fine as far as port forwarding is concerned.


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## Black Panther (May 8, 2009)

This is what I get when I test:






 OK I understand now that for my connection, a download speed of 230-240K is normal...

*Darren:* What made me think I'd get more than 240Kbps download speed was my n00bness (lol ) - having a rated download speed of 2MB/S made me expect I'd be getting a speed lower than 2MB/S but higher than 1MB/S........

I understood the explanation, but why is there a "2MB only theoretical, you have to divide by about 8.5 to get the true speed"?
What I mean is _why_ don't the ISP's just quote the 'true' speed rather than the theoretical speed? Isn't it the true speed which counts after all?
On which basis do they establish this "theoretical speed"?
It's just that I'm very curious to know why - I mean if my real speed is expected to be only 240KB/s it doesn't matter if "on paper" they write 2MB/s or 100MB/s... 

*newtekie1*: I've probed my port on the link you gave me.
Would you please kindly explain my result?  Does the screenshot below say my port is open and ok... or not? Thanks!


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## FordGT90Concept (May 8, 2009)

It should say "Open!" with a red background, not Stealth.  I verified this on my high-id uTorrent port and my functioning HTTP port (you'll find a useless page there ).


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## Darren (May 8, 2009)

Black Panther,

A lot of ISPs have been sued for miss quoting their speeds, that is why they say "upto 2MB" or "upto 10 MB" because it is just quoting the peek - the peek can probably only be achieved for about 5 seconds once in a blue moon.


In addition if you are on ADSL you'll be limited to the phone companies crappy cabling, distance of the exchange etc which makes getting those peeks even rarer.

Edit

A stealthed connection is secure, it means that if you get pinged your PC will not give out a response. In terms of security every port except port 80 or 443 should be stealthed or blocked. I rather blocked!

However, when you port forward that one particular port should be open if probed. 

From the image it shows a probe on port "10249", if that is the port Utorrent is using it should be opened and the probe should reflect that.

Edit 2:

What router have you got? you will have to go into the admin section to enable the port forward.

its usually this but not always click this----> http://192.168.1.1


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## Black Panther (May 8, 2009)

I ran SIW and did a port scan (I always forget about SIW in such cases!)

Here's what comes up for the utorrent port I'm using:






Ummm, is being TCP or UDP of importance? o I dunno what either means...)

On SIW I also get a ton of other ports shown an "established" state.  (There are so many they'd take up 2 whole monitor screenshots....) 
Then I have 3 ports showing as "last ACK", 8 other ports showing as "SYN sent" and 5 others with no description under the state column. All are utorrent. 


Another thing - my router settings show my rig (obviously) and also my network drive as an independent device.
Basically the settings which I can change for my pc, I also have the same options to change available for the network drive... 

Should I be ignoring the network drive settings? Should I try to make them identical to my rig's settings? Should they be different?


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## laszlo (May 8, 2009)

i also use router

at virtual server menu (router) use  port no ex.50004 with both protocol (TCP UDP)

also upload speed at utorrent must be set below your max ISP upload speed otherwise you kill your download speed;use 75% only

at utorrent set manual port 50004


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## Darren (May 8, 2009)

I'm confused about that screen shot, it is too small for me to read!

But to find out 100% which port  Utorrent is connecting to go to:

options > preferences > connections 

and within "port used for incoming connections" is the port Utorent expects to be open.

You can change the port to a different value as as long as that new value is an open port too.

See the image bellow....

ps. its suppose to be TCP Protocol

Edit:



laszlo said:


> also upload speed at utorrent must be set below your max ISP upload speed otherwise you kill your download speed;use 75% only
> 
> at utorrent set manual port 50004



lol, 

Very true. I set my downloads to 1.1MB/sec and my uploads to only 20kb/sec .....I'm not too into this sharing business. Plus if I max out my upload to 60 Kb/sec my connection starts going slow and latencies go sky high.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 8, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> Ummm, is being TCP or UDP of importance? o I dunno what either means...)


Both.

UDP is a single packet of data handled out of order.  TCP is a stream of related packets which, put in lamen terms, contain one continuous thought or communication.

UDP conversation is like...
A: Cookies
B: Cream
A: Cheese

If one of those packets get lost, it really doesn't matter.


TCP is like...
A: I find rocks
A: facinating.  Their
A: simplicity suites
A: me.
B: Ok?
A: I'll be
A: quiet now.

Every packet, and the order in which it is sent, is important.




Black Panther said:


> Then I have 3 ports showing as "last ACK", 8 other ports showing as "SYN sent" and 5 others with no description under the state column. All are utorrent.


ACK is short for "Acknowledgement."  This is used for a receiver of a packet to confirm, to the sender, sucessful transmission of a packet (TCP protocol).




Black Panther said:


> Another thing - my router settings show my rig (obviously) and also my network drive as an independent device.
> Basically the settings which I can change for my pc, I also have the same options to change available for the network drive...
> 
> Should I be ignoring the network drive settings? Should I try to make them identical to my rig's settings? Should they be different?


Network drive as in NAS?  No matter, all that is important is the port for uTorrent gets forwarded to your system IP (or whatever IP will be handling incoming uTorrent packets).


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## Black Panther (May 9, 2009)

Take the following screenshot as a (confusing!) example.

Utorrent's got the green symbol. If I click on it it pops up a browser window saying that my port's ok and fully open and listening.

But downloads are far from even 240Kb/s but just 26Kb/s!


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## newtekie1 (May 9, 2009)

It is possible that your ISP is throttling torrent bandwidth...

Just a thought.


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## Lillebror (May 9, 2009)

You dont get instant full speed on torrents. You have to wait, and let it connect to others to download faster  Can take from 5 mins with loads of seeds nearby, to a few hours.


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## Darren (May 10, 2009)

Black Panther, 


Lillebror is correct, with torrents you have to wait for the connections to establish, there is no exact waiting time but it can be anything from 10 seconds to 15mins, torrent speeds also bounce up and down, e.g. you might get 40kb/sec for 20mins then it can go down to 5kb/sec for 15mins then bounce to 200kb/sec and then stabilise at 50kb/sec. 

PS.

From the picture you sent it would appear that you've got too many inbound connections which is stressing out your connection e.g. you are uploading to 5 people, is that necessary? I usually set it so only one person can upload at a time and hence my connect isn't as stressed.

Go into the preferences, bandwidth and look for the "Number of uploads per torrent" setting and put in the value of "1".


In addition I would recommend that you enable encryption, it is a more secure way of downloading as it gives you privacy and makes it more difficult for ISPs to determine what you are downloading e.g. movies, music, porn

Go to Preferences > Bit Torrent > Protocol encryption, and then select "force".


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## laszlo (May 10, 2009)

i suggest to use instead utorrent the bittorrent;i used it from 2 months is almost the same but you can navigate on internet much better even if your bandwidth is almost used by torrents


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## jamesrt2004 (May 10, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> Take the following screenshot as a (confusing!) example.
> 
> Utorrent's got the green symbol. If I click on it it pops up a browser window saying that my port's ok and fully open and listening.
> 
> ...



your probably just downloading from a crap torrent...

especially if your using a public place to get torrents from (thepiratebay/isohunt etc..)

try get into a private website like demonoid or iptorrents.


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## Mussels (May 10, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> OK I wasn't expecting downloads at 2MB/s (though I'd love that!).....
> but I had been expecting my download speed to be at a reasonable moderate 512K - 1MB.........
> 
> *Is a download speed of only 240K normal for a 2MB/512K internet connection or is it a signal showing that something is wrong?*
> ...



You're confusing Mb and MB. 8 bits to the byte, so 8Mb to the Mb. if you want 1MB/s, you need an 8Mb internet connection.

240KB/s is completely normal for your internet speed.


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## allen337 (May 10, 2009)

Got my utorrent running great there are alot of tweaks you can apply to make it run faster, If anyone is interested Ill show you , just PM me, I really dont like to talk about torrents in an open forum.      downloading at 1.7MB/s


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## BUCK NASTY (May 10, 2009)

allen337 said:


> Got my utorrent running great there are alot of tweaks you can apply to make it run faster, If anyone is interested Ill show you , just PM me, I really dont like to talk about torrents in an open forum.         downloading at 1.7MB/s



*allen337, TechpowerUp! does not condone or tolerate illegal downloads*. I would elliminate the link or possibly suffer a mod's wrath.


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## allen337 (May 10, 2009)

looks like you need to edit your post to edit mine


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## BUCK NASTY (May 11, 2009)

allen337 said:


> looks like you need to edit your post to edit mine



done.


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## Black Panther (May 13, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Network speeds are almost always given in bits (b) per second, not bytes (B) per second.



 I didn't know the shift key determines if it's a bit or a byte!

Honestly bits are so small I thought they were not used anymore - in the same way that nowadays we don't measure RAM using KB but MB or GB... and that's a B there meaning bytes...

Thanks for the informative post - the picture's less muddy now. 

I was uploading on RapidShare and the upload speed there is 4KB/Sec!
Is this a rapidshare limitation?


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## newtekie1 (May 13, 2009)

The ISP companies are really the only area that still uses Bits instead of Bytes.  Obviously because advertising 6Mb/s download speeds sounds a lot better than 0.75MB/s.  Even though they are really the same speed.

It is all about marketing.


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## Mussels (May 13, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> The ISP companies are really the only area that still uses Bits instead of Bytes.  Obviously because advertising 6Mb/s download speeds sounds a lot better than 0.75MB/s.  Even though they are really the same speed.
> 
> It is all about marketing.



ISP's, LAN equipment. Gigabit, 100 Megabit network cards, hmm?

Dont forget hard drive manufacturers measuring in decimal instead of binary (which is the real reason your 500GB HDD is more like 450GB)


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