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All torrent software kills internet browsing

R

r91

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 7, 2012
10
0
Hello,

I am new here and I am really bad with technology so I am desperate for some help, preferably in terms that I can understand.

So the problem is that all torrent software I have tried (uTorrent, Transmission, Vuze) kills my internet. I never had any problems with this when I was using PC, and I even tried my old PC and it is still okay with uTorrent.

The weird thing is that the torrent downloads still work. Despite me not being able to use the internet, downloads still happen at a really fast rate. And again, this is for all torrent software.

So I think the problem is somewhere within my Mac.

The firewall is disabled.

What do I do?

I have all the options for my uTorrent written down if I need to post that... maybe it's using up too much bandwidth or something?

Thank you!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

What does "kills the Internet" mean? If the torrents are downloading you are connected to the Internet.

And yes, the torrent downloads are likely taking up too much of your bandwidth causing slowness in other areas.
 
Test your connection speed with www.speedtest.net, note the upload number your get, which will be in bit/s (Kbit/s or Mbit/s), divide that number by 8 to get the byte (KByte/s or MByte/s) and change the upload limit on your torrent client accordingly, that you have at least half of the measured upload speed free.
 
It's hard to tell what is happening without more information. But I suspect that his torrent software is running in the background transferring the files he downloaded to other users. And that it is either taking up a lot of his bandwidth or his ISP is throttling his bandwidth due to all the data being transferred.

Turning off the firewall isn't such a good idea either... :rolleyes:

Downloading pirated files is also a great way to load a Trojan onto your computer.

It isn't the Mac that's the problem: it's the operator. ;)
 
I'm not sure what you're asking, but it seems to me you're saying you can't browse the internet while downloading a torrent or its really slow.

Well its obviously going to be slow if you're downloading a large file. It depends on how fast your internet is. The speedtest link is great to see how fast your connection really is.

If you're saying you have no control over your browser after downloading a torrent, then maybe you have downloaded some malware that is messing with your computer.
 
I bet he (or she) is uploading stuff like mad, probably without even knowing it. Uploading will kill the bandwidth and make the internet feel like it's not working at all.
 
r91 said:
Hello,

I am new here and I am really bad with technology so I am desperate for some help, preferably in terms that I can understand.
Click to expand...

Okay...here it is in layman's terms: You screwed up. Not the computer. :)You've got your upload/download settings wrong...likely set at 0 or Unlimited.

Don't do that.

Be aware of your internet service limits as far as upload/download speed is concerned, at set the torrent software maximums at about 50-75% of that to give yourself plenty of browsing bandwidth.
 
Thank you so much for all of your help so far.

My speed test shows my download speed 17.51 Mbps and my upload speed at 1.09 Mbps.

I realise I was really vague in my initial post, I meant that despite the downloads working correctly, I am unable to browse the internet while uTorrent is running.

This is the same no matter how many downloads I have, and I still have this problem even if there are NO downloads at all and it's just running in the background. And I'm not seeding either at the moment so there's really nothing going on as far as I know...

So my current uTorrent settings are this:

BANDWIDTH:
Upload - Limit Manually to 1KB
Seeding Rate: 1KB

Download - Limit Manually to 70KB
Stop at up/down ratio 0.10

BITTORRENT
Global Limit: 50
Per Torrent Limit: 20

No DHT and No PEX

Queues - Active transfers (8) Active Downloads (10)


I kind of messed it up I think, I went to a bunch of websites for help and now I think i've screwed it all up completely and I have no idea what to do.

Another Macbook Pro in my house is having the same problem, but my sister's Mac (not pro) is still working fine with uTorrent running... and so is the Dell.

I'm really bad at this and I know i've gone wrong somewhere so please be kind! :)
 
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That is just something like uPnP one way that can open ports on the router automatically without you having to forward them yourself.
As long as you see a green light in the network settings for the port it is all good and you need not change any setting there. In any case it would just be slow and not slow your internet connection.
I would enable DHT though that is also no solution for your problem.

With those speeds you should be able to set the limits to 70/1400 up/down without any problems for normal web browsing. With this kind of leecher settings you wait forever for your downloads.

I'd recommend uninstalling utorrent and delete all setting files and everything and reinstall with default settings. Usually all that needs adjusting is the up limit and down is generally fine on unlimited unless you want to watch streaming videos and you have an unusually fast download which is rather unlikely with such leecher settings at least for big long downloads.

It may also be your router. I lately had a problem with Modern Warfare 3 that couldn't be solved by any setting I set or by disabling just about any firewall I could find. Only a generic firmware update with a custom config did resolve the problem.
Though usually slow downs with torrents mean you have to many parallel downloads/connections that just create too much overhead. And if it shows a green light in the network settings the router is usually not at fault.
 
I managed to get uTorrent back to its default settings, but it still wasn't working.

So I disabled NAT-PMP (I read this somewhere else) and it's working fine now.

I have no idea what I did...but it's all good for now.

Thank you so much everyone
 
Am I the only one that feels like if you can't troubleshoot an internet connection, you probably shouldn't be using BitTorrent software?
 
Some routers have a security feature called something like 'burst protection' or 'hack protection'. Check your router's interface if that security option is available in your router, and if so disable it. This protection also gets triggered by software that uses many connections like peer2peer. A friend even said it kicked in when opening the chat functionality in Eve Online. After disabling the feature (or is it a bug? ;)) you'll see your internet will work perfectly fine after that...
 
I fixed it by disabling NAT-PMP.

Everything is cool now, it's downloading at a reasonable rate and my internet browsing works perfectly.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Be nice now, Dweez, Ccrew and JayHawk... I am a noob girl after all ;)
 
r91 said:
I fixed it by disabling NAT-PMP.

Everything is cool now, it's downloading at a reasonable rate and my internet browsing works perfectly.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Be nice now, Dweez, Ccrew and JayHawk... I am a noob girl after all ;)
Click to expand...

try bittorrent as your software thats what i use and i have no problems browsing the internet even when im downlaoding 2.0MB per second
 
nikhsub1 said:
I bet he (or she) is uploading stuff like mad, probably without even knowing it. Uploading will kill the bandwidth and make the internet feel like it's not working at all.
Click to expand...

Depending on the Internet service used, most have uploads and downloads that are independent of one another. Basically uploading does not affect your download bandwidth and vice versa.
 
alphaod said:
Depending on the Internet service used, most have uploads and downloads that are independent of one another. Basically uploading does not affect your download bandwidth and vice versa.
Click to expand...

I have experienced otherwise. If you have 1 MB/s download speed and 100 KB/s upload speed, and download a file via a file sharing client and have an upload speed of almost 100 KB/s (90 to 100 KB/s), your download speeds might get slower, but the overall browsing the www with a browser experience will be slower, as when you load a web page, it loads slower, as the upload speed is limited and the server you download from does not get feedback about what has already been downloaded and what still needs to get downloaded, thus it is slower, even when you don't download a file via file sharing client at almost full speed.
If one limits the upload speed and leaves a bit room (50 % of the upload capacity), one can download at almost full or full download speeds and still have a fast browsing experience.
 
A little off topic, does anyone know of a network manager for Snow Leopard? So say I could designate bandwidth priorities. e.g. I'm running Transmission (or another torrent app) and I go on an Safari to watch a video on YouTube..currently if the BT app is sucking all of my bandwidth then Safari has to fight for bandwidth and you can't watch the video without letting it sit to load. I know you can limit speeds on Transmission but it gets annoying to limit it then take the limit off after every video.
 
deleteduser said:
A little off topic, does anyone know of a network manager for Snow Leopard? So say I could designate bandwidth priorities. e.g. I'm running Transmission (or another torrent app) and I go on an Safari to watch a video on YouTube..currently if the BT app is sucking all of my bandwidth then Safari has to fight for bandwidth and you can't watch the video without letting it sit to load. I know you can limit speeds on Transmission but it gets annoying to limit it then take the limit off after every video.
Click to expand...

other than changing the limit in transmission what would you suggest this other app did to make it better/easier?
 
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A little off topic, does anyone know of a network manager for Snow Leopard? So say I could designate bandwidth priorities. e.g. I'm running Transmission (or another torrent app) and I go on an Safari to watch a video on YouTube..currently if the BT app is sucking all of my bandwidth then Safari has to fight for bandwidth and you can't watch the video without letting it sit to load. I know you can limit speeds on Transmission but it gets annoying to limit it then take the limit off after every video.
Click to expand...

You can limit down and upload speeds:

2012_02_08_pB1_uTorrent_Limiter.png
 
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