Connection Closed By Peer

mello_yello_424 · 26-03-2010, 10:25

Hi All,

Im new to these forums and new to cable as well. I signed up to Virgin from AOHELL a couple of weeks ago because my connection from AOHELL was ridiculous at peak times....anyways...to the point...since i have joined virgin i have tried to keep within their fair usage policy and tried to restrict any heavy usage to outside these times but i have been experiencing some difficulties with utorrent. Basically everything i try to download i get the status as "connection closed by peer"

Now, I have searched many times for an answer to this and found similar answers pretty much all saying that its the ISP...now im not sure this can be true after finding this page on virgins website http://www.virginmedia.com/digital/d...bittorrent.php which openly encourages you to use bittorrent to share non copyright protected files. So why cant I?

BomberAF · 26-03-2010, 10:50

It's probably because your using UTorrent, and that site is a site that allows people to download pirated material. although you can download non copyrighted material there is no way to know which is and is not copyrighted material,so when you go to sites like that they just presume your dowloading pirated material. You seem to be missing the point, the link you have posted is about BitTorrent not Torrents in general.

Why don't you try to go to the BitTorrent site and download from there.

mello_yello_424 · 26-03-2010, 10:54

The link that i posted refers to a site called "legaltorrents" where I have tried to download from and again get the same problem

BomberAF · 26-03-2010, 10:56

No if you look it definatly is all about BitTorrent not torrents. It's talks about BitTorrent now going the way Napster went, which is being legal and above board. Yes it does also talk about legal torrents, but they are not talking about torrents in general. You can only download Torrents from certain sources where they know the Torrent wont be an illegal Torrent

mello_yello_424 · 26-03-2010, 11:02

umm...as i HAVE done and still get the same message...

"However, there are plenty of totally legal things to download with a clear conscience. First off, you need to grab a BitTorrent client from here. Then take a look at what's on offer at LegalTorrents, which provides a wealth of material, from movies to music and books, and etree.org which offers live concert recordings of hundreds of bands, from such luminaries as the Grateful Dead and Pearl Jam. (Quote from the page found at the link in my first post)

**Stuart** · 26-03-2010, 11:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by BomberAF

It's probably because your using UTorrent, and that site is a site that allows people to download pirated material. although you can download non copyrighted material there is no way to know which is and is not copyrighted material,so when you go to sites like that they just presume your dowloading pirated material. You seem to be missing the point, the link you have posted is about BitTorrent not Torrents in general.

Why don't you try to go to the BitTorrent site and download from there.

Utorrent is an application. It's also worth noting that ISPs, where they do things to torrents, do not discriminate against particular torrent applications (even assuming they can).

Not a site. Having done a quick google, this error essentially means that the torrent client has lost access to the "tracker" it is using. This can be caused by a few things.

1) the user's firewall. Zone Alarm is (apparently) particularly known for interfering with torrents in this way.
2) ISP traffic Shaping. VM don't specifically "shape" torrents AFAIK, but they do use traffic shaping to reduce the general speed of the connection in peak times. Comcast particularly have a reputation for injecting the commands to cause this into torrents.

3) The "tracker" itself going offline. This isn't likely to be the case with all downloads, but could be for one or two.

@ the Original Poster, I would suggest that you try (temporarily) disabling any firewalls..

Ignitionnet · 26-03-2010, 11:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by BomberAF

No if you look it definatly is all about BitTorrent not torrents. It's talks about BitTorrent now going the way Napster went, which is being legal and above board. Yes it does also talk about legal torrents, but they are not talking about torrents in general. You can only download Torrents from certain sources where they know the Torrent wont be an illegal Torrent

That's not true. Virgin do not distinguish between legal and unlicensed downloads on the DSL platform and don't drop connections of unlicensed content with their traffic management. The only vendor's equipment that does this is Sandvine and Virgin use Allot.

uTorrent is just a client, what is downloaded with it is nothing to do with the client itself and shaping doesn't distinguish between the use of uTorrent and the use of the Mainline Bittorrent client.

mello_yello_424 · 26-03-2010, 12:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Utorrent is an application. It's also worth noting that ISPs, where they do things to torrents, do not discriminate against particular torrent applications (even assuming they can).

Not a site. Having done a quick google, this error essentially means that the torrent client has lost access to the "tracker" it is using. This can be caused by a few things.

1) the user's firewall. Zone Alarm is (apparently) particularly known for interfering with torrents in this way.
2) ISP traffic Shaping. VM don't specifically "shape" torrents AFAIK, but they do use traffic shaping to reduce the general speed of the connection in peak times. Comcast particularly have a reputation for injecting the commands to cause this into torrents.

3) The "tracker" itself going offline. This isn't likely to be the case with all downloads, but could be for one or two.

@ the Original Poster, I would suggest that you try (temporarily) disabling any firewalls..

Thanks for your reply...

The only firewall i use is windows firewall, i didnt have any problems before switching to Virgin with it but when I get home I will try it....as for ISP traffic shaping, I try not to do any downloading during peak times to stay within the limits set out in the fair usage policy

pip08456 · 26-03-2010, 13:55

It's not VM doing anything as I use utorrent on a regular basis. The most common cause for this happening in the UK at least is the tracker expeiencing problems not necessarily the site or your ISP.

Provided in utorrent you have a green tick displayed in the centre at the bottom your ports are forwarded correctly.

I've just download a couple of files from legaltorrents to check and they came down with no problem.

As for traffic shaping you can continue to download during the STM period if you adjust the speeds for that thim. In utorrent do this in options/preferences/sheduler.

It must be a problem your end.

mello_yello_424 · 26-03-2010, 14:03

Thanks for the reply...I had a feeling it may be a problem my end...the trouble is tracking that problem down...

Any ideas?

Xtinguish · 26-03-2010, 16:55

Make sure you have utorrent listed as an exception in windows firewall and that there is a tick in the appropriate box.

mello_yello_424 · 26-03-2010, 22:27

ok i have just tried disabling windows firewall and it has made no difference at all

Im wondering if the problem could be due to port forwarding?

I have set it up following the instructions on portforward.com and have a green tick at the bottom of the utorrent window but if i run the setup guide within utorrent and check the port i get "port is not open (you are still able to download)

mello_yello_424 · 30-03-2010, 08:58

Right thought i'd better give you an update...

The port forwarding problem has been sorted!...Im an idiot!...lol What happened was that i had set up port forwarding when the pc was on a wired connection, then a few days ago i moved the machine to a different room and was using a wireless connection...of course the ip reservation for the wired mac address didnt apply when on wireless!....

I also found another option which i may have clicked by mistake, under the proxy tab it was set to http...when i set it to "none" it works!...well partially...still getting the "connection closed by peer" for all pirate bay trackers and a small number of others...all in all my d/l speeds have increased dramatically!!...yippee!!