Peers found, but cannot connect - v. recent problem

[malibu_blonde]

Hi there,

I have been using BitComet 0.70 for a while now and have had no problems whatsoever until two days ago!

My friend borrowed my laptop and unplugged everything, restarted it etc. But obviously did not change any settings (so I doubt this affected BitComet in the slightest, just thought I should mention it as this is when the problem started!).

I am now finding it practically impossible to download ANYTHING!

My download and upload speeds change and I am definitely uploading but I can't seem to connect to any peers or seeds in order to download, despite the fact I can detect them. I do not have a firewall and my security settings allow BitComet to access whatever it likes!

Not sure what other info to give...

I was in the middle of downloading a torrent when I paused it and shutdown so my friend could borrow the laptop and this has been the situation eversince:

Please help!

[kluelos]

Since you can't be certain exactly what someone else did, you'll need to start from scratch, and not to assume anything.

Start with your firewall. XP has a built-in firewall, and is active by default with SP2.

(By the way, it's a very bad idea to connect to the internet without a firewall, and you can pretty much assume you've been infected. You'll need to scan your system with your antivirus, and also with AdAware and Spybot S&D to find the things antivirus apps don't catch. While those are running you can get a whiteboard or a tablet and write, 500 times, "I will not connect to the internet without a firewall"...)

Check to see if your firewall is active. If it isn't, activate it, then do that scan, then make a rule for BitComet, and make a rule for your listen port.

Check for new applications, especially security suites, that may have installed a firewall without your knowledge. It's probably a good idea to get into task manager and identify every running process, to make sure you know what it is and that you want it running.

Check your network settings and make sure they're set the way you think they are.

That particular torrent you're downloading has no seeds, so it's very likely that it will never finish. But the first thing you want to check about it is the trackers tab, to see what sort of response you're getting. The messages from the tracker can be very enlightening.

If you connect through a router, either check all of its settings, or do a manual reset and reconfigure it from scratch. Don't forget to change the default password.

If you still get problems, move your partially complete torrents elsewhere (if you're using the default download directory and if you want to save them) uninstall BitComet, delete the program directory, and reinstall (version 0.70).

Then send your friend a bill for your time.