No progress in file even when file is downloading at some kb/s.

[Boltzi2]

Background information:

I moved to a new apartment and my connection now is a HomePNA connection 1/1. Before I had an ADSL connection 20/1. With the ADSL I had ofc normal ADSL router but now I have Ethernet to HomePNA converter. I don't know if it's that or what is causing the problems as they were not there with my last connection.

The Problem:

I realized yesterday that Bitcomet was showing way more for the download speed in the blue little box than I was actually getting in when looked at the torrents. In the box there was around 90-100kb/s and my internet was really lagging when trying to use browser as you could expect when you have 1mb connection and downloading something at 100kb/s. Anyway the speed actually was 0-20kib/s as it showed it next to the torrent file.

I tried to read some threads on the Internet and unchecked some boxes from the Bitcomet settings. Then the download speed was better, around 60-90 but then it dropped again and the same problems started. Well, then I read some more of the threads and finally updated bitcomet to the latest version, checked settings again and also deleted any old tasks the bitcomet had done. Now everything was running stable or so I thought.

I left 2 tasks running for the night and set it so that computer shuts down when they are finished. Well.. I woke up this morning and computer was still on and the tasks were still downloading at 20kb/s each but the files did not progress at all, another one was at 10.6% and other one at 0.2%. I stopped the downloading and started it again but nothing happened. I shut down bitcomet and started it again, then progress happened when it started downloading.. Do I need to stay near my computer to watch they are downloading all the time or is there a better advice for this?

Oh and when I'm downloading something through my web browser my speed is constantly over 100kb/s. So the problem must be within Bitcomet settings.

EDIT:

I downloaded Utorrent and didn't change any settings and started downloading the same torrent as I did with Bitcomet. Everything works fine. I still don't want to use Utorrent because I can't even see where you are supposed to change the folder for incoming downloads and have used Bitcomet for many years.

Edited June 10, 2011 by Boltzi2 (see edit history)

[Boltzi2]

Well seems I can't edit my post anymore so have to reply. Even utorrent is not using much of my upload capacity. It's at 0-1kb/s all the time which is exactly same as with bitcomet. In the settings it's set as unlimited.

Don't know if this adds to the problem with Bitcomet but weird it is nevertheless.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I've never setup bitcomet on a homePNA certified network, but I do know that homePNA doesn't make any hardware, it's just a standard used by it's members and it certifies equipment that meets it's standards.

As for the downloading more the the task is showing, if you hover over the downloaded data in the status tab, it will tell you how much was downloaded from each source and how much dropped data is involved. If you have a large amount of dropped data, then there definitely is a problem.

Also, your confusing your units of measurement. Your internet claims to be 1mb/s or 1000kb/s. the lower case "b" stands for "bits", but BitComet measures in Bytes (upper case "B"). 1000 bits = 1.25kB/s. I also recommend you test this speed on a website like speedtest.net to make sure your really getting the same speeds upload and download. When you find the upload speed your actually getting, convert it to Bytes then set your global max upload to about 80%, so your reserving some bandwidth for communications, or it will cripple your download speed. You want to upload as much as possible, but not so much that you can't reply to peer requests quickly.

You also may have a problem with your incoming connections, does your bitcomet show a green light on your WAN port?

[Boltzi2]

Thanks for the quick reply.

First of all: Speedtest.net shows 0.90 Mbps for download and for upload 0.95 Mbps. Bitcomet and Utorrent are both using only max 0.1 Mbps of that upload speed, most of the time 0.

Transfer info from the torrent file that was trying to download over the night:

Time elapsed: 9:05:59

Download Size: 715,67MB

Download: (avg. 22kB/s)

Upload Size: 640 KB

Upload speed: (avg. 0Kb/s)

When I hover over Download Size it gives me information:

BitTorrent peers: 88,23MB

Long-Term: 626.44MB

eMule sources: 0B

Dropped Data: 528,21MB

EDIT: And yes there's a green light on WAN port.

Edited June 10, 2011 by Boltzi2 (see edit history)

[The UnUsual Suspect]

This tells us that you have a huge amount of corrupt data, but exactly why this is happening, I'm not sure. Some common causes are harddrive or file system errors, a router that is altering packets when attempting to do NAT network address translation, or in some cases torrents that are being poisoned by anti p2p groups, however the last one is very unlikely considering that most of your data is coming from LTseed peers. LTseed is a proprietary bitcomet protocol that no other clients use, so under normal conditions a task with so much LTseed peers would download much faster then any other client. However in your case, I suspect your router is altering the data, most likely to readdress it so it goes to the computer it's intended for, however any altered packet will be rejected (which is a good thing). Rejecting corrupt data stops nasty things like Worm viruses and malware from slipping in and it's the reason bittorrent downloads are much safer then other alternative, such as the former limewire network and some other p2p file sharing networks.

I'd say the next step would be to test the torrent running it with LTseed disabled. See if you still get dropped data.

As for not being able to upload, that is unusual. Try limiting your upload and download speed to about 80kB/s and see if that helps. It's really just a guess, but I'm thinking your traffic might be metered to a total of 1mbit for both upload and download. If this is so, then a speed test wouldn't show it because it only tests one at a time, and obviously something is stopping your upload. It's also possible that your ISP is throttling bittorrent traffic, which would explain why your getting all LTseed, but very little bittorrent.

Please also understand that most of this advice is guesswork because I know very little about this type of network, but one of our support team members might have some experience, so they may reply when they can if they have something useful to offer.

[Boltzi2]

Ok. Thanks again.

Something to think about for the future repliers.

Utorrent now finished downloading the same file. Took it 2h15minutes.

Upload speed: (approx. 336B/s) 2.60Mb Uploaded.

Download speed: (approx: 85,2kB/s) Downloaded 674Mb.

And there was only 31.5Mb of rejected data(I guess this is the same as dropped data/corrupted data)

There was 15 checkerrors(I don't know the exact name in english, I'm finnish and translating freely).

And again to clarify people, I'm not trying to advertise Utorrent here, I'm just trying to bring some sort of comparison into this with the help of it.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

Did you attempt to download the task with Bitcomet after disabling LTseed?

Using only bittorrent protocol, utorrent and Bitcomet will both download equally fast, all things being equal, seeds, peers etc, but BitComet is unique in that it can also download the data from other sources such as LTseed, eMule, http/ftp, and even peers from other torrents with some or all of the same content.

I think uTorrent is a fine client, I even have it installed on one of my computers, and unlike their forum, I don't allow members to bash other client. uTorrents strong point is it's size and that it uses little memory, but Bitcomet has many other advantages. It really comes down to personal preference, so you should use what you like, but it would be nice to know if your internet connection was having a problem specifically with LTseed.

Also, regarding this....

Upload speed: (approx. 336B/s) 2.60Mb Uploaded.

At that speed it would take you days/weeks, or longer to upload to a 1.0 or higher ratio.

[Boltzi2]

I uninstalled Bitcomet and installed it again to be sure there's no custom settings changed. Then I only disabled LTseed when download was on and the speed went up from 60-75 to 100-110 kB/s which is better than with Utorrent so I'm very glad.. I knew Bitcomet is better ofc all the way. :P

Upload speed is still only 1 kB/s but I guess it doesn't effect the download speed at least not directly, don't know how reputation class affects it.

Anyway, everything is good now in case there's no 500MB of bad data in a 600MB file this time. :P

[kluelos]

Upload speed does directly affect download speed. All bittorrent transfers are negotiated. You must give in order to get. Every peer is looking for the best, fastest, most reliable connections it can find to trade with. The result of this is that the fastest tend to find the fastest, and the slowest are left only with the slowest. If you don't upload much, nobody else wants to trade with you -- because they can all find somebody faster. You're left only with those who are as slow and unreliable as you are -- who couldn't find anybody better to trade with.

If you set your upload speed to zero or 1 (depends on your client, some of them treat 0 as "unlimited"), you will find that your download speed soon drops to zero too.

[Boltzi2]

Well.. It's not my own fault I'm not seeding to other people. It's the connections fault I believe. Even if I don't have any restrictions in upload speed, it just doesn't upload any faster than what I have already explained.

And seems I still get the maximum download speed that I possibly can with this sucky 1mb connection. At least it will soon upgrade to 2mb lol.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I'd say that your ISP is probably attempting to do traffic shaping and throttling bittorrent traffic. Try using the protocol encryption settings. When enabled, it will use encryption only when a peer wants to use it, but we have settings for always and forced. The highest setting will prevent connections to peers without encryption enabled, but it can be useful if your bittorrent traffic is being interfered with.

For a detailed description of protocol encryption, see the related article on wiki.bitcomet.com