Azereus Problem

[schmosef]

Hi Gang,

My condo switched cable companies recently and the new one doesn't have a PVR service yet (we get cable as part of our maintenance fees). For now I've resorted to downloading my favourite TV shows and watching them on my PC. I plan to build a HTPC with HDTV output in a few weeks but that's a story for another thread.

I'm posting today because I'd like some advice/help on bittorrent clients in general and Azereus in particular.

My internet connection is 5Mb so I've got pretty decent bandwidth. My main problem is that if I try to download more than two torrents at once Windows will eventually hang. It doesn't always happen right away but it will happen.

What seems to happen is that Window's networking subsystem crashes. And then I lose the ability to close programs or start new ones. If I try to restart the computer at this point, it just hangs. Interestingly, the CPU starts to run very hot and if I don't reboot the PC manually, eventually the bios' heat sensor will do it for me.

I'm barely taking advantage of my net connection with only two torrents. It also makes it difficult to seed because my upload is so much slower. Which leads me to my next question. Azereus' config wizard tells me that I have a NAT error but I often get green smileys when I'm downloading so isn't that contradictory? I've got a Dlink router and I've configured the "Virtual Servers" and Firewall to forward the ports. Is there another way to test for NAT problems? My upload speed max's out at about 80KB/s but Azereus usually runs around 10KB/s so I'm thinking that I might still have a NAT problem afterall.

Here's the spec's on the PC/Network in question:
-Windows XP Pro SP2
-Shuttle SB75S XPC
-P4 3.2GHz, 1GB RAM
-Shuttle PN15 Wireless G network adapter
-Broadcom NetLink Gb ethernet adapter (same problem with boths nics)
-Dlink DI-624 gateway router
-Motorola SB5100 SURFboard Cable Modem
-Rogers Internet Extreme 5Mb internet service

Ok, so here are my questions in summary:
1) How do I configure Azereus/My PC to allow more than 2 torrents to be active (seeding/leeching) at a time?
2) How to I configure My PC/ Network to ensure proper NAT resolution for optimal seeding?
3) Is there a better bittorrent client to be using?

Thanks for your help.

[DGhost]

BitTornado is considered one of the better BT clients. Also, SP2 lowered the maximum number of network connections you can have open to a sane amount, but it does interfere with multiple BT sessions.

[schmosef]

Seems to me that XP should be handling whatever network issue its got more gracefully.

I'll try bittornado. Are you speaking from personal experience?

Any ideas for my NAT issue?

[schmosef]

Thanks for the nod toward bittornado. So far it seems more stable than Azereus. I've only managed to crash it once, but I was intentionally overloading it to see how far I could go. Running a half dozen torrents seems to run just fine.

It kind of feels like Azereus was faster on individual torrents, but I can run more at the same time with bittornado so my overall throughput is better.

The forums on bittornado were also very informative. They've got a pinned thread on configuring my router plus links to several tools for testing NAT errors. I've now concluded that I don't have any NAT config problems. I think my slow upload is partially the fault of my ISP and partially because the tracker site I use is very well seeded right now so no one is connecting to me. Now that I can run more torrents at the same time, it doesn't bother me so much how long it takes to seed back an entire torrent.

I'm switching ISP's in a week. The new one is DSL based and supposed to have 3Mb upload. Hopefully, that will help.

One thing I miss from Azereus was the unified GUI. Does anyone know of a good util for tracking network stats in real time?

[DGhost]

I agree that a unified GUI would be nice. dunno about a network statistic utilities.

BitTornado always seemed the most stable for me - it is mostly a UI tweak of the plain source, with very little in the way of changes to the original. Seems to work the best and they try to keep it in sync with the latest versions of BitTorrent. You still get the advanced options for it (automatic configuration of a UPnP firewall is one of the best, auto-resume is nice and I can't live without the limiting of the max outgoing connections so it doesn't completely saturate the uplink). The BitTornado forums are some of the most technical and most informative (ie, I first heard about the Windows XP SP2 network connection limit from them) and definately a good place to check.

I've heard a lot of people recommend it over other clients. Not really sure why - I never kept track of other clients. Just always used BitTornado...

[schmosef]

I found a pretty good freeware Network Monitor called Net Traffic Meter. It was working fine after I installed it but after a reboot I was getting NAT errors. I think the problem was with my POS router because I had to put myself in the DMZ to fix my NAT problem (even with bittornado's auto config turned on). I'd uninstalled Net Traffic Meter while I was trying to figure out what was wrong and I haven't gotten around to putting it back.

So right now I'm just using perfmon, which is bulit into Windows.

[schmosef]

Hey DGhost, I just tried to PM you with a torrent question and your mailbox is full. How about clearing a spot for me or maybe PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you that way.

Thanks for your help so far!

[DGhost]

yeah, never noticed my inbox was full. perhaps the gods of MURC should raise the limit *hint hint*

[schmosef]

I've asked for that myself. I think Sasq said he would look into it. That was a while ago. He's a busy guy.

[Claymonkey]

Hrm this thread is about a month old but I'll throw in my two cents anyway. I was using Azereus for a while but was having some serious memory leak issues from java because of it.

I've been using bitcomet for awhile and like it a lot. I still prefer Azereus but this one is at least stable. Will it solve your network problem? *shrug*

[Jammrock]

I've been using Azureus for a while and I like it. So far I haven't had any memory leak problems. However, a lot of torrent sites have started to block Azureus for one reason or another so I'm being forced to switch to BitComet

[schmosef]

I didn't notice that this thread had been active lately.

I've been using bittornado for a while now. I really miss the features that Azureus brings to the table like queuing and a unified GUI but bittornado works and doesn't crash my system if I don't try to run more than five torrents.

As before, PM me if you're looking for good torrent sites.