Constantly Pathetic Download Speeds. CASH REWARD

[Alex0r]

Hello.

I am hereby offering a CASH REWARD (paid via paypal) for any internet monkey who can solve my download problems.

I have 750k broadband. I'm in the UK. My internet downloads are fine (90kbs). I only achieve speeds of 1.5kbs on any of the following programs:
Bit Torrent
Bit Tornado
Azereus
Shareaza
Kazaa (wont even connect)
iMesh (wont even connect)
WinMX

I have tried the following to rectify the problem:

- changing my incoming ports (I have tried at least 30 different ports)

- limiting my upload rate to 25kbs

- configured my firewall (Norton) to accept incoming transfers

- disabled my firewall completely

- taking hard drugs


None of these methods work. I have contacted my ISP and the chap I spoke to who works there gets 100kbs using Azereus and assures me Blueyonder (my ISP) does not throttle any ports.

For the love of Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, PLEASE won't someone tell me what to do.

Many thanks,
Alex

[tackdaddy]

ok,but i think you need to post a few more details for help.such as you computer specs and what version of windows you use and what windows updates you have(sp1?sp2 or both?).be specific because the more detail you throw the easier it will be for somebody to help you with your problem.i also forgot to mention a excellent bittorrent guide by one of the members here,this is a link to the thread that might help you out http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=17671

[Alex0r]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I've perused that link before, couldn't come up with any solutions though.

To add to my original post. My system spec is:

AMD Athlon 64 3400 (Newcastle)
1024MB Corsair RAM
320GB ATA HDD
256MB AX800 PRO (thought I'd slip that in :tilted )

um what else?

I'm running Windows XP SP2. (My operating system came with SP2)

Cheers!

[Jameo]

I have a very similar problem to you, my service provider is ntl which is the parent company of Blue Yonder (I think, may be mistaken) any link there? Anyway i can only acheive download speeds of roughly 5-10 kBs when i have a 1.5 MB connection.

Running:

Windows 98SE
AMD Athalon 1.1
512 DDR Ram

connected directly to a standard ntl cable modem (hence no router), i am also almost positive that i dont have a firewall.

Really dont understand why this problem is occuring but i have used many clients including:

-Standard Bit Torrent
-Bit Commet
-Bit Tornado
-Azereus
-Currently using ABC

I have also tried messing with the amount of client uploads, total upload speed etc. Diffierent ports, and activating port forwarding, to no effect


Sorry to post my problem on your thread Alex0r, they do sound like similar problems tho ;)

[homie_da_clownx]

if you disbale your firewall then verify your personal IP you can run at test at a security website such as sygate.com to determine if your ports are registering as open, then you know it's not an ISP issue. and can atleast rule it out and work from there

[Alex0r]

Thanks Homie could you explain step by step on how to do that please bud, im a bit of a novice and would really appreciate the help!
Many thanks,
Alex

[Muffin_Man]

your isp is probably throttling the ports, whether they admit to it or not, or they give preference to http traffic. i would switch isps.

[method]

If SP2 is the problem... just use a BitTorrent that client allows you to connect gradually rather than attempting to make 20+ connections within a minute. (Some give this option to help get around the SP2 problem.)

Last resort... you might be able to just re-install XP (someone elses copy, after all - you assumably have a license for Windows XP), then apply SP1 but leave SP2. - It's not the best advice because SP2 has some security benefits but it should work as a last resort, if you're desperate to get decent BT speeds.

Another thing worth considering is when you are attempting the download. BT downloads tend to work in phases so if you are getting bad speeds on a new release.. it may be better to stop the download and restart a few hours later when more segments of the file(s) have been distributed.

And yeah... NTL are fine!!! - That's my ISP too and I've had no problems at all with downloads until I installed SP2 [I re-installed XP after that to get my decent DL speeds back!!!]. (The same is true for others I know elsewhere in the UK on NTL)

Peace!!

[begoodbebad]

I'm on Blueyonder. Blueyonder is a Telewest service and has nothing to do with NTL. They are competitors.
I have the same 750 service. It works fine with emule/edonkey/overnet. I'm curious how you achieve 25k up because the max is 16. Also curious how the tech support guy gets 100 down as the max is 96 :error

It sounds to me like you are firewalled. If you share your internet connection using a router you need to configure it. If you have 2 PCs connected using Microsoft's Internet Connection Sharing you should make sure that the p2p PC is the gateway (Host).

If you don't share the connection then try this:

The most likely thing is that you are running both Windows Firewall as well as your Norton Firewall. First go into Control Panel>Security Centre and disable the Windows Firewall. You can also do this by going Control Panel>Network Connections and on your network adapter right click>Properties>Advanced>Settings>Switch the damn thing off :gj

As for Norton it is an extremely good configurable firewall but sometimes I wonder about the wizard/automated functions. So let's make sure it is set up right for your p2p application. Assuming you use ABC: Open Norton Firewall>Configure>Programs> highlight the ABC program and click modify>manually configure access> delete any and all rules that already exist for the program and click Add to create a new rule. You'll need to know which ports you have set up in ABC. Set up the rule to permit connections to and from any computer on the ports you have specified and when you've finished reboot. That's reboot. Did I mention reboot?

[P0ldy]

I would try out the SP2 patch if you haven't already. SP2 limits TCP connections to 10 to internally combat p2p. Try it here, and then we'll go from there.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/Files/XP_SP2_TCP_Slowdown_Fix.zip

[Alex0r]

Thanks for the patch, but it seems to be completely unaffective, and as for it being to do with an incorrectly configured firewall, this would be irrelevant as I already said in my first post that I'm still getting low download speeds even with the firewall disabled? Also the Windows firewall is off.

Surely someone must know how to sort it out? To be honest I've got a sneaking suspicion its to do with SP2 cos I never had this problem before I applied that update.

[talkinghand]

i have read this treatd fast, but do yuo have a router? and if so ave you fowarded the correct ports?

[mcovey]

PM me if you want this. i have an old hack for xp that unlimits outgoing ports to 50 instead of 10 in sp2. it works and you can scan it or whatever. ill email it to you if you want.

EDIT: i saw someone already posted it. i dunno if i have the same thing but that's what mine does.

[Larry Vagina]

Automated patcher:
http://www.lvllord.de/?url=tools#4226patch

This patcher lets you sets the number of connections to anything you want.

Set it to a very high number, one user said he set it to a million and things work great again.

Or manually:

From http://forum.emule-project.net/index.php?showtopic=56016

This fix will remove all tcpip socket creation limitations in Microsoft Windows XP SP2.

In your hex editor...

First Goto offset 130 (hex) or 304 (decimal)...
Replace these 4 bytes of hex data: 6E 12 06 00
With these 4 bytes of hex data: 62 13 06 00

Then Goto offset 4F322 (hex) or 324386 (decimal)... *from beginning of file*
Replace these 4 bytes of hex data: 0A 00 00 00
With these 4 bytes of hex data: FE FF FF 00

If any of the data that you're replacing does not match exactly, double check what you are doing, or abort completely.

Once you are confident you applied the correct changes, save the file. You should not experience any write protect issues while saving. If you do, log on as administrator.

Reboot.

YOU ARE NOW FREE FROM MICROSOFT RULE AND OPPRESSION!
well, just a little bit anyway. enjoy!

[source: http://www.lvllord.de/]

[serrebi101]

Thanks for the patch, but it seems to be completely unaffective, and as for it being to do with an incorrectly configured firewall, this would be irrelevant as I already said in my first post that I'm still getting low download speeds even with the firewall disabled? Also the Windows firewall is off.

Surely someone must know how to sort it out? To be honest I've got a sneaking suspicion its to do with SP2 cos I never had this problem before I applied that update.
Personaly I've downgraded to sp1, no problems anymore!

[Mels_Smileys45]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I've perused that link before, couldn't come up with any solutions though.

To add to my original post. My system spec is:

AMD Athlon 64 3400 (Newcastle)
1024MB Corsair RAM
320GB ATA HDD
256MB AX800 PRO (thought I'd slip that in :tilted )

um what else?

I'm running Windows XP SP2. (My operating system came with SP2)

Cheers!


If you don't mind me asking, what do you think of that computer? I'm asking becasue I'm thinking of buying about the same set up. Would you recomend it other than the problem you're having?

[P0ldy]

Before you revert to SP1, try this. Go here (http://www.speedguide.net/analyzer.php). It will analyze your connection.

Copy everything there (except your IP address) and post the results.

[Alex0r]

OK.

Thanks for all your replies first of all.

I have downloaded that patch, and set my number of connections to 1000000. No change!
Also how can I remove SP2 if my operating system came with SP2 as standard, Microsoft seem to say it can't be done?

Mels: Smiley- no probs at all with the comp (apart from this). I bought all the components from micro-direct.co.uk - DONT TOUCH EBUYER WITH A 10FT barge pole theyre a little bit cheaper but 1000% more hassle.

and P0ldy: here's the results mate, if you can make any sense of this and get back to me (and it works) I promise you'll be in line for a cash reward!! Cheers!
SpeedGuide.net TCP/IP Analyzer


TCP properties for IP = REMOVED()
Browser/OS = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
Notes: Read the Analyzer FAQ if the above is not your IP address.

TCP options string = 020405b401010402
MTU = 1500
MTU is fully optimized for broadband.
MSS = 1460
Maximum useful data in each packet = 1460, which equals MSS.

Default Receive Window (RWIN) = 65535
RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 0 bits
Unscaled Receive Window = 65535

Note: Under Windows 9x, if you have RWIN set to any other value, and the Analyzer reports 65535 you might need to install the MS Vtcp386 fix.
For optimum performance, consider changing RWIN to a multiple of MSS.
Other values for RWIN that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:
513920 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 8)
256960 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 4)
128480 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)
64240 (MSS x 44)
bandwidth * delay product (Note this is not a speed test):

Your RcvWindow limits you to: 2621.4 kbps (327.675 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 1048.56 kbps (131.07 KBytes/s) @ 500ms
MTU Discovery (RFC1191) = ON
Time to live left = 122 hops

TTL value is ok.
Timestamps (RFC1323) = OFF
Selective Acknowledgements (RFC2018) = ON
IP type of service field (RFC1349) = 00000000

[P0ldy]

Well, there is one problem and I thought there might be. I still think this has more to do with SP2 than the one problem, but it doesn't hurt to try before you're down to your last options.

Download this (http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe). It's a tool that allows you to tweak your connection. Open it up (there's nothing to install), click Custom in the bottom righthand area, and a field that used to be greyed out should become white on that left panel. In the field that says "TCP Receive Window", change the value to 256960. Apply changes, restart, test out some apps.

If this doesn't work, I can direct you to SP1.

[Alex0r]

Thanks P0ldy, no joy with the tweaking program.

Please direct me to SP1!!! Are you sure it will overright my existing SP2 even though it came with the O/S ??

Cheers bud,

Alex

[Moneo@]

OK.

Thanks for all your replies first of all.

I have downloaded that patch, and set my number of connections to 1000000. No change!
Also how can I remove SP2 if my operating system came with SP2 as standard, Microsoft seem to say it can't be done?

Dude there is a reason why it limits simultanious connections, opening up a million ports
is the same as saying "OVER HERE, COME GET MY ASS"
and inviting every variant of worm that trawls the net to come to your pc for a party

[Alex0r]

Ok: It Turns Out Sp2 Was Causing The Slow Download Speeds. As I Bought Xp With Sp2 I Had To Reformat And Install An Old Copy Of Xp. Now Its Working Fine.

Please Relay This Info Onto Anyone Else Who Has Similar Problems As It Is Vvvvery Frustrating To Pay 30 Quid A Month For Broadband And Only Get 1.5kps Downloads.

Thanks To Everyone Who Posted On This Thread I Appreciated Your Assistance Greatly. And P0ldy - Congratulations Mate, You Went Out Of Your Way More Than Anyone Else To Help Me And Your Solution Worked. I'll Send You Some Money If You've Got A Paypal Account.

[P0ldy]

Yeah, I have a paypal account.