Fios Router P2P issue? Or throttling?

[jondevon]

Hi everyone. I am new here and have a nagging issue I hope to get resolved. I am very happy with the new 10mbps/2mbps Fios service I now have from Verizon. The ping is wonderful, and the speed is fantastic. But when it comes to bittorrent, it gets a bit strange. I should mention that I'm using the MI424WR wireless router that Verizon provided.

I was downloading a big ole beta EXE file the other day, via utorrent, only to watch the network activity (in taskmanager) do some strange dances. It would download at a very steady rate for a few minutes, and then just drop off to no activity (the chart would end abruptly with a cliff-like drop), and the slowly crawl up to the same speed again. It would do this about every 10 minutes. Eventually, the internet crapped out altogether. So, I switched the modem off and on, and everything was back to normal.

I have read a review about the router I'm using, and it seems to say that 96 is about the limit you want to set your torrent program to for the number of global connections. I'm just wondering, could this strange kind of network activity be throttling? Or is it because of too many connections in the utorrent program? I used to use a bridged Westell 6100 and a Linksys WRT-54G on DSL and didn't get stuff like this unless there were hundreds and hundreds of connections.

If it turns out to be some kind of router overload, what should I do?

Thank you for your time and any help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[thiggins]

Easy way to find out if it's a connection limit is to limit the # of connections in uTorrent.

Via a quick Google search, I don't see any obvious references to Verizon FIoS and torrent throttling.

 

[jondevon]

Easy way to find out if it's a connection limit is to limit the # of connections in uTorrent.

Via a quick Google search, I don't see any obvious references to Verizon FIoS and torrent throttling.

Thanks for the help! It turns out that is in no way throttling. It is my router's NAT table. It turns out that it is much too small to handle a boatload of connections. It's probably the only shortcoming of the router itself.

When watching the utorrent logs, every connection will be closed when the drop off occurs. That's why I thought it might be throttling, but it just says the connection is closed, even if it wasn't asked to be closed. So it's just one of those misleading generic messages.

I have found some ways around this, but it seems to work ok if I limit the number of global connections to something like "90". Although, that is a bummer because with 10/2 throughput, I would like to be connected to as many users as the PROGRAM can handle, not the router. lol.

Thanks again!

 

[tipstir]

Thanks for the help! It turns out that is in no way throttling. It is my router's NAT table. It turns out that it is much too small to handle a boatload of connections. It's probably the only shortcoming of the router itself.

When watching the utorrent logs, every connection will be closed when the drop off occurs. That's why I thought it might be throttling, but it just says the connection is closed, even if it wasn't asked to be closed. So it's just one of those misleading generic messages.

I have found some ways around this, but it seems to work ok if I limit the number of global connections to something like "90". Although, that is a bummer because with 10/2 throughput, I would like to be connected to as many users as the PROGRAM can handle, not the router. lol.

Thanks again!

Java Client Azures quicker to me, utorrent seems slower I could never get over 142kb/s. I get 20mbps down and 2mbps with my ISP. I manage 2.95mb/s to 3.03mb/s. I leave open 55-64 max connections, put RAM against that about 24KB or cache.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I recall reading that the Actiontec unit for their service is surprisingly low in the amount of concurrent connections it could handle.

 

[jondevon]

Java Client Azures quicker to me, utorrent seems slower I could never get over 142kb/s. I get 20mbps down and 2mbps with my ISP. I manage 2.95mb/s to 3.03mb/s. I leave open 55-64 max connections, put RAM against that about 24KB or cache.

Thanks again! Azures was a bit problematic for me, but I might consider using it again if I continue to have bad problems with utorrent. I have limited the global connection amount to 90 and have had fewer problems. But of course, it takes longer to find better seeders, and may take longer to complete the download overall.

I'm not sure about one thing you said. What did you mean by "put RAM against that - about 24KB or cache"? Is that an Azures option that utorrent doesn't have?

I'm sure I can do just fine with 80 or 90 connections allowed, but I'm surprised that you get such good speeds with only 55 to 64 connections open! Lucky you! Long ago when I used my WRT54G, I could leave 450 connections open and not have a problem. Again, thanks!

 

[jondevon]

I recall reading that the Actiontec unit for their service is surprisingly low in the amount of concurrent connections it could handle.

Yes YeOldeStonecat, you're right. What a bummer. But I have found ways to bridge it and use a different router.

It sucks that the NAT table in the Actiontec is only 1KB. 1KB!!!!!! wth? And no firmware update will fix this. Also, no workarounds have been found yet (I guess no one wants to make their own flash for this thing). The only solution is to bridge the thing and use your trusty olde router. It seems that even though Verizon doesn't throttle Fios, they have established a way to control P2P somewhat. Thanks for the advice!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yes YeOldeStonecat, you're right. What a bummer. But I have found ways to bridge it and use a different router.

It sucks that the NAT table in the Actiontec is only 1KB. 1KB!!!!!! wth? And no firmware update will fix this. Also, no workarounds have been found yet (I guess no one wants to make their own flash for this thing). The only solution is to bridge the thing and use your trusty olde router. It seems that even though Verizon doesn't throttle Fios, they have established a way to control P2P somewhat. Thanks for the advice!

Yup...bridge 'em..and slap in your own potent router...or better yet....instead of a store bought router, take an old PC or a laptop..and run a *nix distro router such as IPCop or PFSense. Make something that can provide the performance of a 5 or 10 thousand dollar unit!

 

[tipstir]

Thanks again! Azures was a bit problematic for me, but I might consider using it again if I continue to have bad problems with utorrent. I have limited the global connection amount to 90 and have had fewer problems. But of course, it takes longer to find better seeders, and may take longer to complete the download overall.

I'm not sure about one thing you said. What did you mean by "put RAM against that - about 24KB or cache"? Is that an Azures option that utorrent doesn't have?

I'm sure I can do just fine with 80 or 90 connections allowed, but I'm surprised that you get such good speeds with only 55 to 64 connections open! Lucky you! Long ago when I used my WRT54G, I could leave 450 connections open and not have a problem. Again, thanks!

Been at it for quite sometime now Azures. The latest version is now Vuze 3.xxx But if you know make sure you don't have a bunch of Java Client Updates on the system. You only need one installed. That can screw-up the system.

The system I have for Azure that's all it does except for managing printers and scanners, but technically all it does it that. If you use SATA HDD and direct the download to that HDD you'll get better performance.

DIR-655 is better for BT I haven't touch the QOS in the router like all you have done here. I start from XP Pro and QOS Scheduler and enable only 0% instead of the 20% by default.

Seeders is the key the more you have the better it will go. But there are times you can have seeders that slow things down. In Azures you can check this out. If they slow you down stop and remove the file. Go file another one. Or forget.

I've started a thread on other forum site good info and images showing what's what
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=266350&highlight=tipstir
You can see some examples and there is a link to how to configure Azure correctly for the best performance.