MY Router Stops the Nets when I Torrent.

powerss

When I'm bittorrenting something, after about 10 or so minutes everything in my house that's connected to the net, including whatever I'm torrenting from, will disconnect from the Internet.

Is this an ISP thing, being a prick, or is this a shoddy router thing?

BoomShake

What router are you using? What torrent program and what type of bandwidth/connection settings?

Most routers will easilly choke on torrents with all of the active IP connections. See if your router supports an alternative firmware like dd-wrt, or cut down on your max connection settings in the torrent program until it's stable. Also, DHT used to screw my router really hard, so turn that off in the torrent program if it's on.

JWFokker

You're likely overloading the router with connections. Most routers don't crash/disconnect when that happens, but some do (Belkin Pre-N routers are notorious for this).

Echo

Netgear router, eh?

Yeah, low-budget routers are pretty known for not having enough memory to handle all the connections from torrents. Try lowering the maximum number of global connections in your torrent client -- start at 200 and add 50 at a time until you hit the trouble spot, then go back a bit.

Or get a better router.

powerss

Yep, Netgear. How'd you know?

I'm picking up a new router today.

JWFokker

It had better be a Linksys WRT54GL.

BoomShake

I'm extremely happy with my Buffalo WHR-HP-G5. It was only $70 bucks, and with dd-wrt installed it's amazing. It handles torrents, multiple computers, gaming systems, and everything else I throw at it like a champ. I had a netgear router before, with the same problems, and once you make the switch, it's a wonderful thing.

Proto

BoomShake wrote: »

Most routers will easilly choke on torrents with all of the active IP connections. See if your router supports an alternative firmware like dd-wrt, or cut down on your max connection settings in the torrent program until it's stable. Also, DHT used to screw my router really hard, so turn that off in the torrent program if it's on.

Another thing to do is to lower the TCP/UDP timeout settings so that inactive IPs drop faster and don't clog up the router. In dd-WRT it's under Administration -> Management. Lower TCP and UDP waaay down (I've got mine at 90).

Kyougu

The microsoft router is great too. I'm computer retarded, and it was easy to set up, and never has failed me.

BoomShake

Proto wrote: »

BoomShake wrote: »

Most routers will easilly choke on torrents with all of the active IP connections. See if your router supports an alternative firmware like dd-wrt, or cut down on your max connection settings in the torrent program until it's stable. Also, DHT used to screw my router really hard, so turn that off in the torrent program if it's on.

Another thing to do is to lower the TCP/UDP timeout settings so that inactive IPs drop faster and don't clog up the router. In dd-WRT it's under Administration -> Management. Lower TCP and UDP waaay down (I've got mine at 90).

Yea, that helps a lot too; forgot to post that. I haven't seen that setting in a lot of the standard router firmwares...i dunno if it's just me or if it's just something they keep from us.

JWFokker

Likely something they only have on more expensive routers simply to justify the higher price. There was no reason Linksys couldn't include it (and numerous other features) on the WRT54G, so third parties added in the support themselves. Of course, in return Linksys then chopped down the system RAM and flash memory and then later switched to VxWorks from Linux. Networking companies seem to me to be extremely dishonest, from withholding software features, despite there being no hardware limitations preventing the inclusion of said features, to lack of support for previous generation hardware despite numerous well known bugs and the release of new operating systems.

s_86

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Proto

JWFokker wrote: »

Likely something they only have on more expensive routers simply to justify the higher price. There was no reason Linksys couldn't include it (and numerous other features) on the WRT54G, so third parties added in the support themselves. Of course, in return Linksys then chopped down the system RAM and flash memory and then later switched to VxWorks from Linux. Networking companies seem to me to be extremely dishonest, from withholding software features, despite there being no hardware limitations preventing the inclusion of said features, to lack of support for previous generation hardware despite numerous well known bugs and the release of new operating systems.

flashing my WRT54G v.6 with micro dd-wrt completely fixed all my router issues. Kind of sketchy to do, but well worth it.


s_86, it could be a few things:

1. Do you have port forwarding set up on your router? That's the most common issue. (there are a ton of guides out there for if you google)

2. Another thing it could be that your ISP is traffic shaping torrent traffic.

s_86

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