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Tried to 'tweak' - Now file downloads stall
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Newbie
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5. March 2008 @ 15:24 |
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This may be a case of "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
Until about a week ago I was fairly happy with my computer, downloading files of up to 100 mega without problems. Then I discovered torrents, and a little lager AfterDawn. The torrents were very slow in comparison to my 'conventional' file downloads. (They were also much bigger.)
I found the guide "Using and Maxing out Speeds with uTorrent" and made the changes that were suggested there. I also followed the links to the speed test and a tweak test and made some more changes.
The result of all this is that now hardly andy file download completes. At first I thought this might be caused by a rather large torrent running at the same time, but now the torrent is completed, I'm not running uTorrent at present, but my successrate for downloads is about 1 in 10.
I feel now that I should have never touched those damn settings, or at least kept a record of what changes I made, but that's just 20/20 hindsight, and I'm hoping that sombody here can help me get out of this mess.
Any suggestions what might have caused my problem?
Should I just de-install and re-install the software involved? If so, which?
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Gato
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AfterDawn Addict
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5. March 2008 @ 15:55 |
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You could try a System Restore back to the point before installing utorrent.
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Newbie
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5. March 2008 @ 18:49 |
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Originally posted by attar:
You could try a System Restore back to the point before installing utorrent.
Thanks for that suggestion. I didn't even know that there was such an option. As it turned out, Windows wasn't able to restore as far back as I wanted (28 Feb). The restore to 02 Mar which Windows could do didn't resolve the problem. At least two transfers I tried from different sources stalled at 15 and 23% respectively. But then I remembered that in the guide for the DrTCP program which I had used to tweak it said if you're not happy with the results you can go back to the default setting by setting all values to zero. That's what I did and I have so far completed one transfer of a 49 MB file. The second one, 62 MB, has just passed the 50% mark. So I'm hopeful that this may have solved the problem.
Thanks for your suggestion, even though that probably wasn't what fixed it.
Gato
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Newbie
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5. March 2008 @ 21:08 |
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Just an update. The problem has not gone away. I have so far only managed to download two files, the other ten or so attempts have all stalled, and there is no way to tickle them back into life once they've decided to stop. It isn't one particular file or host that's giving me problems, but the bigger the file the smaller the chance that it will make it to the end.
So, I'm still looking for ideas on what might be causing this problem.
If you need any further information, let me know.
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AfterDawn Addict
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6. March 2008 @ 05:46 |
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In the queuing preferences, I have 5 as the maximum (total up and down) and a maximum of 2 downloads - otherwise the available bandwidth is spread too thin.
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Newbie
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7. March 2008 @ 07:44 |
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Originally posted by attar:
In the queuing preferences, I have 5 as the maximum (total up and down) and a maximum of 2 downloads - otherwise the available bandwidth is spread too thin.
If I understand correctly, these are options within uTorrent. I'm nor talking about downloading via uTorrent (or any other .torrent server). I'm talking about web pages which have the option "download this file" which you click and it takes you to RapidShare or some other file host and then the file download starts. Firefox opens another page and you can watch the progress. It is here that the downloads stall. uTorrent isn't even runnung - and these days I don't try to download more than one file at a time.
I hope that clarifies my problem.
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varnull
Suspended permanently
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7. March 2008 @ 08:22 |
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Some thoughts...
This can be caused by line errors. The line errors cause packets to fail. Sometimes you reach the retry limit, and then the connection stalls.
Usually this shows up on smaller downloads than you are seeing. The larger the packet, the higher the probability of a problem with that packet. But you get to max sized packets with even modestly large file downloads.
Statistically, it is more likely to affect a larger download.
I have also come across a similar problem, but with the stall occurring always at exactly the same position in the file. My conjecture is that some bit string in the transmitted date is triggering a line problem (maybe a wierd echo). But that does not seem to be your problem.
If it restarts from the beginning, that's something your download client is doing.
If it resumes, that's probably tcp error handling. It works on ACKnowledgements. Your system periodically sends an ACK to indicate what it has received. The sending system resends packets that you haven't ACKed. I think the time interval between retries increases.
You could also be having problems with a funky router between you and the server. I have seen a connection stall for several minutes, with an intermediate router missing a routing information update (or some similar failure). If it stalls for more than 15 minutes, the connection is probably going to be closed/reset by your system. This might be operating system dependent.
Is it possible you have upset your ISP by doing p2p and they have you in the sandvine lists?.. I have seen this also where people have massively exceeded a set d/l limit. The ISP puts them on a "to be blocked, limited and buggered about with" list until you get the message and phone to complain. Then at full pay all rate they happily put you on hold for 1/2 hour before telling you about the limit;)
So how should we attack this.. First check all your router and eth0 settigs carefully. If you are on dialup/phoneline access check your MTU is high.. play about with it...
My money is on a funky line or router.. when the d/l stalls can you ping the source location of the file?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. March 2008 @ 08:23
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Newbie
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11. March 2008 @ 08:13 |
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Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.
I apologize for talking so long to get back to you.
I had some problems understanding the reference to a "router". I didn't think I had such a thing. I looked it up in answers.com and found there that the term is sometimes used for a dsl modem. Is that how you used the word? Or should I go looking for a router in or near my PC?
I found a piece of software which my ISP (who is also my telephone company and my broadband provider) has supplied with the installation kit which performs a number of checks. It stated that there was a problem with "identifying" the modem. I called them, and during a long conversation, I downloaded a file of 10 megabytes without problems and successfully "pinged" my own computer (both the IP address and the default gateway). The attendent concluded that my problem had to be caused by some Windows setting, not by their line or equipment. He also assured me that they aren't imposing any usage limit.
So, I'm back to where I started. I can download (and upload) on the P2P network using uTorrent. I assume that there is some mechanism that stops transfers from stalling - unless it's because there are no seeds/peers.
Using the "conventional method" (clicking "download this" and using some file host) I can download files of up to 50-60 mega with a fair chance of success. It seems that all of the larger files (going up to 100 mega) are hosted by RapidShare. Ironically, early in the morning yesterday (Monday), before calling the ISP, I managed to transfer two of them. Today I tried some more but didn't have the same luck. The problem with RapidShare is that, unless you pay for their Premium service, there's no retry/restart option. Once the transfer stalls, you're dead in the water and have to wait until they grant you another slot.
So, should I just forget that I have been able to do this in the past?
Should I pay RapidShare their Premium fee in the hope that I might get my files transferred via retry/restart?
Or does anybody have any bright idea which settings in Windows might cause this?
Any help would be appreciated.
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Newbie
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18. March 2008 @ 15:09 |
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It seems that I have finally found the reason for my problem and fixed it. I have been downloading files of up to 100 MB for the last two days, with only one stall which can be put down to heavy traffic at the time.
I just want to thank those who've tried to help. Also, in case anybody has been following this thread, you might want to know what happened.
This is, in hindsight, my understanding of the events:
I used the guide "Using and Maxing out Speeds with uTorrent" and changed a number of settings in uTorrent. I also followed a link to a site that performed a speed test of my line and eventually I ended up at a page which suggested that I change my MTU setting to 1500 - at least that's how I interpreted the text. That's when my file downloads started to go wrong. It wasn't obvious though, at the time not all downloads stalled. I managed to get some of them through. Light traffic, the time of day, and the file size probably played a role.
After trying a number of things and talking to my provider, I went back to the site and found that there were instructions on finding out what your ideal MTU setting is. I followed the instructions and came out with a figure of 1492 - quite possibly what it was before I changed it. Now, crossing my fingers, everything is back to normal.
Lessons to be learned:
1. Don't go changing settings if you don't know what you're doing.
2. If anybody complains about stalling file downloads, tell them to check their MTU.
Gato
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