Latent Lag

[Fluffy Rabbit]

I am downloading a torrent that has 1 seed. The speed of this torrent is about that of a slug on a hot dry rock but in spite of that I cannot catch up to the other users. I am consistently .2% behind everyone else. Sometimes there an hour or so before anything comes my way, but during that hour I should be able to get that .2% shouldn't I? When it comes my way it rolls in at about 170k

The file is 2 gigs coming in 4 meg blocks.... yellow status light (normal for here as no-one knows the router password) This has never happened on any other file... it is just odd enough to want to understand it.

BC ver 1.14

Win XP sp3

NetGear modem Model is unknown as I have no access to it. Wireless connection from there through a linksys speedboost card

DSL line in

No firewall or AV

Oh and I can't see the seed... my parts are coming drom someone that can see it

Thanks

Edited January 17, 2010 by Fluffy Rabbit (see edit history)

[kluelos]

THere's a list of information we need in order to help. You'll find it in a message that is titled, "PLEASE READ before posting".

Please find that message and read it, then provide the information that it asks for before you post a request for help.

[cassie]

*bump* (as author edited initial post with specs.)

[kluelos]

Since you are behind a firewall (in the router(s)) that you don't control (I guess -- it's pretty difficult to tell), then you have to operate in "no-listen-port" mode. This will, indeed, greatly slow you down. If you can't get control of your connection, you will just have to live with that. I don't understand this at all, and it frankly sounds a little nuts (why on Earth doesn't somebody reset the router??!), but I guess you are accustomed to it.

It sounds as if this torrent is being "initially seeded", with pieces being trickled out slowly to be shared among the swarm. Because you are firewalled, you are probably not connected to most of the swarm, so it's a matter of chance when a piece will happen to be spread to someone you are connected to, and who is also willing to offer that piece to you. (Under initial-seeding there are, apparently, no seeds, so this would account for you not being able to see it -- if indeed you are connected to it. )

The initial-seed looks like just another peer, who suddenly "discovers" another piece, shares it out, waits for some other peer to offer it that piece (thus demonstrating that the piece has been shared out among the swarm), then "discovering" another piece. It's designed to minimize upload bandwidth for those who pay for their internet connection by the uploaded kbyte. It shouldn't be used by any one else, but commonly is because some people mistakenly believe that's faster. This seems like it would account for what you are seeing. If you weren't firewalled, you'd be advancing in lockstep with most of the other peers as each new piece is released and distributed.

[Fluffy Rabbit]

OK the router works like this.... the owner of the house lives in another country and travels all the time so access to the account info is not available which makes a hard reset of the thing not an option. At one point some years ago there was a girl here who had a boyfriend who figured that the default passwords were simply unacceptable and changed them... she moved and all was lost. I've been online since 2400 baud and Telix for DOS... so it comes when it comes, the speed is of no concern to me.

The swarm is as you think and I seem to be 9 of 30 before anything comes this way. It is/was a brand new seed when we all hopped on it, but the whole swarm is .2% ahead of me everyone is sitting at 64% waiting for the next byte... I'm at 59.8 Nobody has gotten anything for hours (I figure the seed is on dialup in a house with other people wanting to use the phone (ancient connection)). So I am in lockstep with everyone since nobody has more than 64%; when they update I update also, at a pretty good speed.

I'm sure this will work out at the end of the torrent and I'll get it, but for the life of me I don't know why it's happening. Never happened before probably won't again. As I said odd. Hmmm If I rebooted the internet, do you think that would help?

[Vasy]

Nat traversal can help you when you're behind a router. It's not as good as having an open listen port for BitComet but it's better than nothing. This feature was removed since BitComet v1.02 so you should downgrade to an older version. (Wiki)

[kluelos]

If you can physically get to the router then there shouldn't be an issue, including an unknown password. This is precisely what the hard reset facility is for, after all -- it resets everything to factory default, including resetting the login to the default password, which you can easily find on the web given the router make & model.

Well, this is a distraction for the issue at hand. It might get you caught up on that 2% difference, but that's all it would do.

Since the problem isn't on your end, nothing much that you can do will help. Reconnecting may shake another piece loose, or it may not. That would basically be shutting down BitComet for a while or overnight, then starting it again. This would do anything that rebooting would do for you, in this situation. Patience is probably your only answer.

I'd still get that router reset, though. Somebody who's actually available needs to be able to access it, and it's probably easier to ask for forgiveness afterward instead of permission beforehand, in this situation.

[Fluffy Rabbit]

Well... this morning it finally got that 2%.... at 67%... after I don't know how many stops, hash checks. It caught up all on it's own.... but the seed seems to have withered in the sun and all the peers seem to have gone with it. It's almost like the finger O' God was pushing the bytes out of the DSL cable. Pesky critters them Gods.... Thanks for all the help folks, keep the snow shovel handy its only January.