Everything sorted but NO DOWNLOAD?

[Jonni the saint]

Hi all,

i am running BC 0.70 on Win xp SP2 all updated etc. The modem / router is a Netgear DG834G.

I have got the port forwarded fine... DHT is good... there are plenty of trackers listed... and yet BC doesn't want to actually download anything (!).

I am testing the Openoffice torrent as advised and the status says 'dowloading' but the speed never gets away from 0 KB/s.

I noticed that my router is on the page about problem units but only for the 'number of global connections' issue... could this be the problem? (i think probably not ... but worth a shot).

I have checked through the forums extensively but am a bit at the end of the road so any help would be great. Thanks for reading!

here are some screen shots:

[simiain]

Hey Hey, dropping in to say i'm having precisely the same problem.

Torrents have been downloading fine for months and all of a sudden last night they have continued to 'download' but have only occasionally budged from 0kbs to the heady heights of 3-4kbs.

These are all well seeded torrents for which I would expect a speed of around 150kbs....its just really strange that ALL the torrents i've decided to download have suddenly just....stopped.

[Jonni the saint]

hmmmm... mysterious isn't it!!!

Driving me a bit insane... ha! :( ;)

Does anyone with expert knowledge have any tips as to what might be screwing us up here?

Thanks a lot.

Jonni

:)

[kluelos]

It's fairly clear that something happened to begin blocking traffic.

The first suspicion that pops into mind is a software firewall. They can have exactly this effect, because they monitor outgoing traffic as well as incoming.

That is a supposed good, because it lets you block the bad stuff like adware "phoning home". But this assumes you can tell the good stuff from the bad stuff -- and most people can't. So in order to be "safe", software firewalls will pretty much block anything they aren't explicitly told to allow through.

"But you told your firewall to allow BitComet"? Well, um, no, you just think you did. You once told it to allow a certain executable file, of a certain size, with a certain hash, through. This particular executable has a different hash, a different size, so it isn't allowed through. Filename? Oh, no, don't pay any attention to filenames, those can be faked, y'know.

It's an update. You know it's an update. I know it's an update. Your firewall, though, doesn't know from updates. It's a different size, a different hash, it's not allowed through.

The firewall in your router doesn't try to control outgoing traffic. It diligently monitors incoming traffic, and because it's external it can't be compromised or subverted by any software you run on your computer. But it doesn't try to stop outgoing communication, that's not its job. It relies on you to keep your system clean, to make sure you don't have nasties phoning home. As you certainly should.

If you are benefiting from a software firewall -- if you actually read and understand those warning messages, and know what you are allowing, and haven't long since gotten in the habit of saying "Allow" to its incomprehensible nags, then having it may be a good thing. Otherwise, you're better off with the firewall in your router. (No router? Then this discussion doesn't apply to you. Go away and forget you read this.)

Your firmware firewall won't notice or care about future upgrades, and you won't have to re-solve this issue every time one of your clients is updated, or your firewall is updated, or one of those sneaky Windows updates comes along and changes your settings to What It Knows Is Best For You.

So delete and remake all of your firewall rules. Check and recheck that you haven't installed a new firewall you aren't aware of, or that one you turned off hasn't been reactivated. (Both of those happen a lot.) Consider ditching software firewalls altogether, and go with the firmware firewall in your router. It will protect you without sabotaging you.

[Jonni the saint]

Thanks a lot for the reply Kluelos... appreciate it.

Unfortunately i am not running a software firewall..... since reading your post i have tried turing the windows firewall on and off just for a check but it doesn't make any difference.

Anybody got any more ideas?

Thanks again,

Jonni

[kluelos]

With BitComet running, test your listen port at www.canyouseeme.org

Any answer besides "it's open" means it's being blocked. You will need to hunt down the source of the block.

It could be something outside your control. If you are behind a private router, often the case in universities, dormitories, apartment-provided internet connections and wireless networks, then there's probably nothing you can do short of changing providers. If you are not, then you may well still have a software firewall running that you don't know about, and so will have to find it.