Connection drop out from streaming and torrents

[impy]

I'll get the information out the way first.

Ntl customer to VM
Location: Glasgow
Modem: NTL Home 120
Package:M (been upped to 10 from 4)
OS:Window XPsp3/Ubuntu/Xandros

Modem Signal Levels
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.52 dBmv
Downstream SNR : 35.13 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 56.50 dBmv

Router: Netgear RP614v3 with the latest firmware
TCP patched to 80
torrent client: utorrent

I've read the board now and seen various topics on 2 of the issues I face, namely streaming media (sopcast, tvants, iplayer, etc) and torrents but can't seem to find a topic where someone faces problems with both these at the same time like myself so thought I'd make my own topic.

Before I go on my torrent settings were optimised for the 4mb connection(changed this last night when i realised my connection has been upped to 10) with down/up speeds capped at 80% and torrent activity would only occur from 12am as to avoid being capped.

From about december I noticed problems with torrents, firstly it was the speeds being affected unlike the previous months where I'd usually be above 200k for most torrents I was struggling to get above 50k with similarly active and well seeded torrents. Then in about january the speed issue was added to with being unable to connect to trackers most of the time, this last about 2 weeks and since then it has been an intermittent problem.

February the real problem started, I noticed that each morning after I'd left torrents on at night my modem wouldn't be flashing the down/up lights, the torrent wouldn't be going and I wouldn't be able to connect to anything yet my router would say that the modem still had an IP address. Turned both the router and modem off and on again but the modem took about 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP, this has been happening ever since.

I figured it may be the router being overwhelmed with connections so directly connected to modem to my pc again and tried to see if that would work any better, the only difference this time being it would take 5-10 minutes to get an IP again the next morning. This went on til about the start of april then it disappeared and everything was fine then during may it came back again but this time it started doing it with streaming media as well, but with streaming media the connection would drop out, obtain a new IP quickly and get back to streaming this would happen atleast 3 times if I was streaming something for an hour.

By this point I thought it must be windows doing something stupid so tried with ubuntu got the same results, then tried my eee pc laptop running Xandros thinking it might be my ethernet cards but again, same result. Decided to phone VM and complain and I was basically told the problem was on my end and I must have set up the modem/router/machine wrong (I just finished my degree in Networking, so don't really think thats the case).

Just another thing to add in, I figured it could be traffic management that was doing this so I started using a secure VPN (relakks.com) to avoid virgin seeing what the traffic was but the only thing that changed that I was able to download for slightly longer before the connection would drop out.

tl,dr: Basically I now have a 10mb up from 4mb cable connection that drops its connectivity repeatedly while streaming and during torrent activity that either reconnects right away or takes a few minutes if modem is directly connected to the pc, if it's connected to the router the connection drops out and the modem needs to be turned off/on and takes between 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP.

The odd thing with this though is that I've been running torrents at speeds for a 4mb line and my modem has cut off when I've been upgraded to 10mb so it's not even like I've been maxing out the bandwidth for the line.

Anyone else get both the streaming+torrent problem or even the problem with taking nearly 20 minutes to obtain an IP? Also, I read a post saying the older CMs can't handle above 4mb so should I get VM to send me a new one?

Cheers.

[The Installer]

Originally Posted by impy

Modem Signal Levels
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.52 dBmv
Downstream SNR : 35.13 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 56.50 dBmv

Your upstream power level should be 55 dB or below so that might be part of your problem. Also check the amount of connections u torrent is creating, 200 is too many

[impy]

global: 170
per torrent: 100
only allow 2 torrents going up or down at any given time.

Anyway I can manually lower the upstream?

[The Installer]

I'd lower your global connections to 150 and have 50 max per torrent and say 2 or 3 upload slots per torrent, that way it should stop it going ott.

As for the upstream, not a lot you can really do yourself tbh Might be worth while taking a trip to the VM newsgroups. The folks there will check your connection from their end and see that your levels are out and book you a tech call to sort it out. That should be free by the way as its not your fault the signal levels are wrong

[Angry@VMedia]

Originally Posted by The Installer

I'd lower your global connections to 150 and have 50 max per torrent and say 2 or 3 upload slots per torrent, that way it should stop it going ott.

As for the upstream, not a lot you can really do yourself tbh Might be worth while taking a trip to the VM newsgroups. The folks there will check your connection from their end and see that your levels are out and book you a tech call to sort it out. That should be free by the way as its not your fault the signal levels are wrong

I have found out that any upload slots under 11 affects my download speed, think its cos if its too low, then the technology thinks you wont upload back, and hence lowers your download speed, and I found out that when downloading, have your upload set at a maximum of 8KB/s this will make sure that your download speed aint affected

As a side note, my uTorrent settings are (without routers dropping and decent download speeds) :

Global Maximum connections : 1998
Maximum number of connected peers per torrent: 525
Number of upload slots per torrent: 35

As I said above, My Linksys 54GUK & BT HomeHub are fine with these settings above!

Also, I have found out that the Port used for incoming connections can effect your speeds, mine is set to 26894 and I can max out my connection on torrents (with decent seeders of course)

[The Installer]

I never mentioned anything about upload speed. To max out your connection (upload) would be stupid as this will just slow your download speed down at the same time so you get nothing quickly then.

I would use these speeds for upload. 2meg 25k, 10meg 45k, 20meg 75k

Yeah you can set them higher but whats the point as it will just saturate your connection. Also if you're going to use torrents then play the game and don't be a leecher !!!

I would say you also have far too many connections open as well. As i said i would limit your global connections to 150, have a max of 50 per torrent and allow 2 or 3 upload slots per torrent. The upload speed well that depends on your connection. Having 525 connections per torrent and 35 upload slots on VM is nothing short of stupid and will result in no one getting anything off you at a resonable rate. I also doubt your connection would be able to handle that many. Just think of all the wasted bandwidth there just keeping all those connections open

[Angry@VMedia]

Originally Posted by The Installer

I never mentioned anything about upload speed. To max out your connection (upload) would be stupid as this will just slow your download speed down at the same time so you get nothing quickly then.

I would use these speeds for upload. 2meg 25k, 10meg 45k, 20meg 75k

Yeah you can set them higher but whats the point as it will just saturate your connection. Also if you're going to use torrents then play the game and don't be a leecher !!!

I would say you also have far too many connections open as well. As i said i would limit your global connections to 150, have a max of 50 per torrent and allow 2 or 3 upload slots per torrent. The upload speed well that depends on your connection. Having 525 connections per torrent and 35 upload slots on VM is nothing short of stupid and will result in no one getting anything off you at a resonable rate. I also doubt your connection would be able to handle that many. Just think of all the wasted bandwidth there just keeping all those connections open

Stupid am I???

Well who is having the problems???

MY settings work, and having a max of 45K on a 10Mb line WILL affect your download speed, but what do I know? Im just a stupid a$$ that posts on a forum, THANKS!!! *ignored*

PS: FYI, I can EASILY max put my 10Mb connection at 1.35MB/s on torrents, and of course, when I am using uTorrent I know that browsing will be slow, so I ue uTorrent WebUI from my machine to change the speeds on the server which uTorrent is running, I'm not some stupid noob that dont know jack you know....

[Rob]

Time for a chill pill please. Lets look at offering sound advice without the silly digs.

[impy]

Cheers for hijacking my thread guys.

[whydoIneedatech]

Originally Posted by impy

I'll get the information out the way first.

Ntl customer to VM
Location: Glasgow
Modem: NTL Home 120
Package:M (been upped to 10 from 4)
OS:Window XPsp3/Ubuntu/Xandros

Modem Signal Levels
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.52 dBmv
Downstream SNR : 35.13 dB
Upstream Transmit Power Level : 56.50 dBmv

Router: Netgear RP614v3 with the latest firmware
TCP patched to 80
torrent client: utorrent

I've read the board now and seen various topics on 2 of the issues I face, namely streaming media (sopcast, tvants, iplayer, etc) and torrents but can't seem to find a topic where someone faces problems with both these at the same time like myself so thought I'd make my own topic.

Before I go on my torrent settings were optimised for the 4mb connection(changed this last night when i realised my connection has been upped to 10) with down/up speeds capped at 80% and torrent activity would only occur from 12am as to avoid being capped.

From about december I noticed problems with torrents, firstly it was the speeds being affected unlike the previous months where I'd usually be above 200k for most torrents I was struggling to get above 50k with similarly active and well seeded torrents. Then in about january the speed issue was added to with being unable to connect to trackers most of the time, this last about 2 weeks and since then it has been an intermittent problem.

February the real problem started, I noticed that each morning after I'd left torrents on at night my modem wouldn't be flashing the down/up lights, the torrent wouldn't be going and I wouldn't be able to connect to anything yet my router would say that the modem still had an IP address. Turned both the router and modem off and on again but the modem took about 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP, this has been happening ever since.

I figured it may be the router being overwhelmed with connections so directly connected to modem to my pc again and tried to see if that would work any better, the only difference this time being it would take 5-10 minutes to get an IP again the next morning. This went on til about the start of april then it disappeared and everything was fine then during may it came back again but this time it started doing it with streaming media as well, but with streaming media the connection would drop out, obtain a new IP quickly and get back to streaming this would happen atleast 3 times if I was streaming something for an hour.

By this point I thought it must be windows doing something stupid so tried with ubuntu got the same results, then tried my eee pc laptop running Xandros thinking it might be my ethernet cards but again, same result. Decided to phone VM and complain and I was basically told the problem was on my end and I must have set up the modem/router/machine wrong (I just finished my degree in Networking, so don't really think thats the case).

Just another thing to add in, I figured it could be traffic management that was doing this so I started using a secure VPN (relakks.com) to avoid virgin seeing what the traffic was but the only thing that changed that I was able to download for slightly longer before the connection would drop out.

tl,dr: Basically I now have a 10mb up from 4mb cable connection that drops its connectivity repeatedly while streaming and during torrent activity that either reconnects right away or takes a few minutes if modem is directly connected to the pc, if it's connected to the router the connection drops out and the modem needs to be turned off/on and takes between 15-20 minutes to obtain an IP.

The odd thing with this though is that I've been running torrents at speeds for a 4mb line and my modem has cut off when I've been upgraded to 10mb so it's not even like I've been maxing out the bandwidth for the line.

Anyone else get both the streaming+torrent problem or even the problem with taking nearly 20 minutes to obtain an IP? Also, I read a post saying the older CMs can't handle above 4mb so should I get VM to send me a new one?

Cheers.

Call tech support on 151 option 3 and explain the problem as above.

[impy]

Tried calling support twice, both times told the fault must be on my end and they'd send out an engineer which led to two wasted days sitting in the house waiting for engineers to show up which didn't happen.

Maybe it'll be third time lucky