bittorrent tracking

[phishphreek]

I started using bittorrent for downloading large items such as Linux ISOs, Live CDs, etc.

When I have finished downloading I normally leave it open to contribure to the bittorrent link for a bit. Until I really need my upstream bandwidth. However, I've noticed that the bittorrent tracker does not take you off the list and still references your IP for several hours to come.

In my opinion, the tracker should be responsible for keeping an up2date list of participating peers, rather than to throw a sh17 load of traffic my way? My firewall is dropping it but it still clogs my upstream connection. This doesn't use up ALL my bandwidth... but quite a bit of it. Slows me to a crawl.

I feel bad for the people on dial up who get an IP that was just used by oneone using bittorrent.
They are no doubt going to be VERY slow. They will basically be DDoS'd off their connection. Granted, they can reconnect with a new IP.. but anyone who gets that IP will be DDoS'd because the tracker is still referencing that IP as a participating peer.

I can't tell if this is a problem with just one tracker.

I'll have to do some more testing and see what I come up with.

The only way to get around this is to release the WAN ip and renew it. But whoever gets that IP next will still get a flurry of traffic on ports 6881-6889...

Anyone else notice this?

[SirSub]

I use torrents alot, and I've never come across this problem(maybe sygate just doesn't show it and my dsl is uber so i can't be slowed down). So i'm going to guess its your tracker. If you can give me a link to any particular torrent you've noticed this with i'll test it out just to see.

[Capt Whatever]

G'day guys,

I just want to ask about bittorent as I just downloaded it yesterday.
I'm still new at using at it and
I sort of have the basic idea on how bittorrent works, however when
I download something and have a look at my download rate it drops
down to 0.0 Kb/S while my upload rate is 5 KB/S.

Is this normal or is there something I have to configure in bittorrent?

Is my firewall affecting my download rate?


I have an XP (SP2) operating system and I connect on the internet
through a D-Link ADSL modem (256/64).
I have a software firewall (PC-Cillin Internet Security 2004)

I know this maybe a basic or stupid question but I guess I just want to know
if everything I'm doing is right.

[XTC46]

your upload i what people are getting from you or what you are sending out, it is completly independent from download. Chances are your firewall si blocking the port used for dl if you are getting 0.0

[fyrewall]

I think what he means XTC46 is he doesnt know is why he is uploading something when all he is meant to be doing is downloading Not what is uploading ...

[malletelf]

Originally posted here by Capt Whatever
I just want to ask about bittorent as I just downloaded it yesterday.
I'm still new at using at it and
I sort of have the basic idea on how bittorrent works, however when
I download something and have a look at my download rate it drops
down to 0.0 Kb/S while my upload rate is 5 KB/S.

I just wanted to take a different view on this question. I think what the Capn' is asking is "Why are people downloading from me while I can't download from other people?"

Suppose you've downloaded %50 of a file from someone, while someone else is downloading from you and they have recieved %20 of the file. If your source goes offline, you have nowhere to download from, while people downloading from you can continue until they have %50 of the file.

Hope this helps.

[moxnix]

What I have noticed about bit torrent is that I upload 5-10 times faster than I can download. A lot of the time I will be downloading at 5kps and uploading at 52kps or more.

Once I kill the process though, I have never noticed any more traffic, and every thing speeds back up again. Could be though that my pipe is big enough that I don't notice the attempts to connect, and they don't show on my logs.

[cacosapo]

However, I've noticed that the bittorrent tracker does not take you off the list and still references your IP for several hours to come.

you can see the same behavior on others p2p such as e-mule, e-donkey and similars. Tracker just maintain you in list (i cant tell you how many time exactly) hoping that you come back and resume your upload. Since its a best effort network, tracker "knows" that sometimes you must close the connection to do other stuff. Unfortunatelly, during this "disconnect time" all clients will still try to connect to you.
For example, once a day i shutdown my e-donkey client for a system clean up. After shutdown and during clean up (~1 hour) my firewall (NIS) and snort (running at nat firewall) start to complain about hundreds of attempts to connect at e-donkey ports.
A think this behavior is also to keep you in your "position in the line" if you get a unexpected interruption of communication. Imagine if you get a flow after several hours of waiting and, because a small network, you was sent back to end of line waiting your time again...

[nickk]

I don't see how it can affect your upload stream if your firewall blocks access to those ports . Then again, maybe it may, but I don't have that problem as my router is not configured to allow those ports.

[Capt Whatever]

Thanks for the suggestions and replies.

I went home last night and again I tried to download using bittorrent.
I left it going for about 30 minutes to see if it would be the same problem,
and obviously it was. Even though I was still a little bit confused with
some of the message I was receiving. I mean according to bittorrent
I have downloaded 2.0MB and I have uploaded 7.0 MB, which begs me to
ask, if I have only downloaded 2 MB why is it that I have uploaded 7 MB?
What else was being uploaded?

Anyway I decided to disable my firewall and see if that would make a
difference and after 5 minutes, low and behold, it did. My download
rate went up to 10 KB/s and eventually to 22.2 KB/s. Well I thought
this is better.

But then of course the problem of being on the internet without a firewall
really doesn't sit well with me.

So I thought I'd ask around if I could keep my download rate of 22.2 KB/s
as well as have a firewall. Someone actually told me that bittorrent works
on ports 6881-6889 (approximately) and if I configure my firewall to reflect this.

Well I actually haven't tried it yet because it was getting late.

Anyway that's where I am at the moment.

Thanks again for everyones help and suggestions, much appreciated.