Final Word On True Manipulating Bittorrent Traffic

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

I am torrenting a lot and i am on a True line and can therefor say with certainty that True does NOT mess with the lines. My 3M/512K line regularly gives me 350 kByte+ down and 50+ kByte upload speeds.

However the situation is familiar - some time ago i was involved in setting up an office network and in that network all http traffic ground to a screeching halt (in the entire LAN!) as soon as any one of the machines started a torrent download.

I tried many things - in the end what fixed it was re-installing Windows (XP) on the machine that initiated and shared the connection (weird setup - 20 computers over a number of switches and one ADSL modem on one of the switches, too, and one of the computers had to do the "dial up" job as that modem was not set to connect automatically).

So you, OP, may have to do the same - re-install your Windows.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[PMK]

uTorrent 1.8.3

ISP: Ji-net

Connection: 2Mbit (2048/512) @ Bt930 per month.

Two things I would try:

Force encrypted connections by setting utorrent not to accept unencrypted connections, and encryption to 'forced'. Give it some time and see if it helps. Probably not, but it is worth a try.

Simply ask Jasmine Internet what is going on. I've found them pretty reasonable in the past. And you might want to ask about other services like Compax, but they are more money.

If it turns out that both True and Ji-net are not interfering with the torrents, one other thing is you might want to try these tweaks or look for others on the net. http://www.xtreme-source.com/tutorials-p2p...t-tweeking.html

[Supernova]

Thanks PMK.

I don't have any problems with torrents.

Perhaps you misunderstood my initial comments? lol.

My ISP doesn't throttle torrents, yet I keep my torrents running 24/7.

[scratt]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Re-installing XP is not going to help me a lot as I am on OS X!

We also just carried out a test at a friends house in the same area. Exactly the same happens on their connection there.

So it does seem to be on this exchange, rather than local to my home!

So be warned this is not local to my house, it is perhaps local to my area (for now), but I expect it will start to become more common across Thailand.

I wish we could switch to Jasmine, but the last time I checked (even though their HQ is just down the road) True were blocking them having any access to our exchange...

Edited November 17, 2009 by scratt

[nikster]

I have to wonder if True are testing it in certain non-critical areas for later roll out Nationwide...

This is one possible explanation.

The other one is that they fuc_ked up.

Now which one of those would seem more likely... hmmm.... let me think... I'll take 10:1 odds on the latter.

Doesn't help you in your location of course but you can keep calling customer service and complain, it might eventually help.

[nikster]

Ok - the other possibility is that you are starving connections on your router - particularly if you use whatever crap router True gave you. Some routers just go belly-up when there are too many simultaneous connections. So in Vuze/Azureus, try limiting to 30 connections or so, even the oldest, worst router can handle that. Then your BT will be a bit slow, but you could find out whether or not that might be the problem. This one's easily solved by getting a decent router.

[Sunny Valentine]

Hehe. All good advice, but I am well aware of what you say. Disclosure : I have been a software engineer for over 30 years!

As I have said very clearly True *kill* the internet connection to your building in Nonthaburi if you use torrents. I am not talking about no torrent traffic, or torrent throttling, I am saying that web surfing, mail, the whole kit and caboodle is cut, and only the ADSL base signal remains.

I need to investigate more and see if it's linked specifically to trackers, torrent clients and commonly used ports or not and what True are doing exactly. Once I have done that I will tackle them directly, and if necessary put a web site up about it / contact various NewsPapers. The problem on their side is that I assume they are doing this to pay lip service to copyright holders requests. The problem for them (and the effect on us) is that we use it as both an inter-office / home-office and personal file transfer tool and they are cutting off a connection that is using torrents for legal purposes.

I have to wonder if True are testing it in certain non-critical areas for later roll out Nationwide...

Your problem as it sounds could well be one of your router. Some routers (especially older Zyxel models) have problems with maintaining open and half-open connections. There is a firmware bug that leads to closeing connections (within the torrent application) not being recognized, and therefore the buffers for open connection overflow after a certain (sometimes very short) time. A Hard reset (turning the router on and off) usually does it.

Try a different router, and see if it has the same behavior.

I seriously doubt that True (or any other Thai ISP) has the knowledge and expertise to really throttle or prevent torrent activity on their net. They might want to do it, but they can't. If they could, they could also make their lines and accounts work ....

Sunny

Edited November 17, 2009 by Sunny Valentine

[radigast]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Re-installing XP is not going to help me a lot as I am on OS X!

We also just carried out a test at a friends house in the same area. Exactly the same happens on their connection there.

So it does seem to be on this exchange, rather than local to my home!

So be warned this is not local to my house, it is perhaps local to my area (for now), but I expect it will start to become more common across Thailand.

I live in Nonthaburi. I have had the True 8mb package for the past 9 months, and I consistently get at least 300 - 500 Kb/s using uTorrent regardless of the time of day. I have never had any disconnecting problems. I hope you can figure out what is causing these issues for you.

[PMK]

Thanks PMK.

I don't have any problems with torrents.

Perhaps you misunderstood my initial comments? lol.

Ah. Not the first, and most likely not the last time, I was confused! Sorry about that!