FTP Port Throttling - Have you beaten it?

[HardenedSoul]

I recently decided to try circumventing the woefully slow torrent download speeds I've been experiencing during peak hours.

In the past, when trying to download torrents during the day and during peak hours, I had to boot up the VPN and use that to get up to 1.5 MB/sec but, of late, True seem to have found a way to throttle that back to under 1 MB/sec so I recently signed up for a seedbox with Feral Hosting.

There's no problem with that - speeds are astronomical when downloading to my slot on the remote server - but when it comes to downloading from my slot on the server to my computer at home, I've found that FTP speeds are awfully slow.

I tried Filezilla but it doesn't do multi-segmented downloads so I tried CuteFTP on a 30-day trial basis. That makes a significant difference; instead of 100-200 kbps with Filezilla, I'm getting 2 - 2.5 Mbps - with a little "b" - which is roughly what I was getting downloading with a local u Torrent client. Pointless exercise, then, right?

My question is; has anyone figured out how to circumvent the slow FTP speeds on ports 21 or 22 during peak hours? Can one use FTP on a different port?

I have True Ultra High Speed through DOCSIS. It's rated at 50Mbps down and 5Mbps up.

During off-peak hours, I can max out the connection at 6MBps with a big "B"

[dave_boo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contention_ratio

[NeverSure]

Have you tried a secured port like SFTP on port 989 or a proxy, like port 2121? I don't know if it would work, but Filezilla can do that.

If you succeed, it will be by fooling True and avoiding their throttle.

In my experience, non of the ISP's in Thailand have purchased good overseas bandwidth, and when that gets busy, it slows to a crawl.

[MKAsok]

Your problem more likely lies with a combination of Feral's provider, Cogent's, shitty peering and peak time congestion in your area than True doing any throttling of FTP.

Poor FTP speeds with Feral have been a well documented issue the previous few months.

I have used True with seedboxes and dedicated servers for years and have never experienced any throttling of FTP. I get pretty much full speed from my OVH dedi in France to True in BKK. There can be a small drop off at peak times (around 5pm - 10pm), but nothing that significant.

You could try changing ports, but you'll need root on the server for that.

[Crossy]

Indeed ^^^, Feral just moved location and are suffering speed issues.

I use Free Download Manager from my Feral seedbox and let it cook overnight.

[Turkleton]

It's not only True and not only FTP (even on a non standard port).

The ISP throttle your bandwidth "per connection", that's why you get good speeds with DL managers or "multiple-connection" FTP Soft.

My own (FTP) server in Germany has an upload speed of 10 Mbit/s, but I can only download with 1 Mbit/s per connection in the best case. (TOT throttling).

With a DL manager and multiple connects, I am able to max out the 10 Mbit's...

[ExpatOilWorker]

Indeed ^^^, Feral just moved location and are suffering speed issues.

I use Free Download Manager from my Feral seedbox and let it cook overnight.

May I ask, what is a seedbox?

[MKAsok]

May I ask, what is a seedbox?

A slot on a datacenter server with a very fast connection used to seed torrents to private trackers.

[HardenedSoul]

Your problem more likely lies with a combination of Feral's provider, Cogent's, shitty peering and peak time congestion in your area than True doing any throttling of FTP.

Poor FTP speeds with Feral have been a well documented issue the previous few months.

I have used True with seedboxes and dedicated servers for years and have never experienced any throttling of FTP. I get pretty much full speed from my OVH dedi in France to True in BKK. There can be a small drop off at peak times (around 5pm - 10pm), but nothing that significant.

You could try changing ports, but you'll need root on the server for that.

Thank God I only took a month's subscription then. I'll take a trial with another seedbox provider and if the speeds are significantly improved, that'll rule out ISP throttling. Thing is, I did a search on Feral and the general consensus across a few messageboards and forums was that any problems they may have suffered had largely been ironed out but it seems that may not be the case.

Thanks for the info

Have you tried a secured port like SFTP on port 989 or a proxy, like port 2121? I don't know if it would work, but Filezilla can do that.

If you succeed, it will be by fooling True and avoiding their throttle.

In my experience, non of the ISP's in Thailand have purchased good overseas bandwidth, and when that gets busy, it slows to a crawl.

I don't have a dedicated service so no root access to the remote server. I could ask Feral but as the server's shared, I doubt there's anything they could do. Not sure overseas bandwidth has much to do with my problem since I can max out my connection during off-peak times. 6 MB per second

Indeed ^^^, Feral just moved location and are suffering speed issues.

I use Free Download Manager from my Feral seedbox and let it cook overnight.

Can you tell me the provider of this "Free Download Manager" since doing a search on that will almost certainly bring up a billion results??

Thanks for the responses, gents.

[muratremix]

May I ask how do you find something worth downloading that requires 7/24 downloading at full speed of 50Mbits? If you're downloading slow in peak times, perhaps let it be? You should be happy with 7/24 downloading minus a few hours at evening.

There is a FUP policy of True online, which they don't enforce. However if you keep downloading at 50mbits even in peak times, they will notice it.

[MKAsok]

I'll take a trial with another seedbox provider

Try one of Whatbox's Leaseweb slots. They have a good rep.

Better still, dedicated from OVH or Leaseweb.

[HardenedSoul]

May I ask how do you find something worth downloading that requires 7/24 downloading at full speed of 50Mbits? If you're downloading slow in peak times, perhaps let it be? You should be happy with 7/24 downloading minus a few hours at evening.

There is a FUP policy of True online, which they don't enforce. However if you keep downloading at 50mbits even in peak times, they will notice it.

If I used full speed, 24/7 then I'd fully expect True to enforce it but I don't. I just want the speed I pay for when I need it; not when it's convenient for the ISP to provide it.

I don't expect them to make special arrangements for me so I'm willing to take paid measures to circumvent obfuscation.

I don't see a problem

[muratremix]

May I ask how do you find something worth downloading that requires 7/24 downloading at full speed of 50Mbits? If you're downloading slow in peak times, perhaps let it be? You should be happy with 7/24 downloading minus a few hours at evening.

There is a FUP policy of True online, which they don't enforce. However if you keep downloading at 50mbits even in peak times, they will notice it.

If I used full speed, 24/7 then I'd fully expect True to enforce it but I don't. I just want the speed I pay for when I need it; not when it's convenient for the ISP to provide it.

I don't expect them to make special arrangements for me so I'm willing to take paid measures to circumvent obfuscation.

I don't see a problem

Hard to understand why are you offended? No residential internet connection will give you what you want. Perhaps invest into business plans at a slower rate eh?

[HardenedSoul]

May I ask how do you find something worth downloading that requires 7/24 downloading at full speed of 50Mbits? If you're downloading slow in peak times, perhaps let it be? You should be happy with 7/24 downloading minus a few hours at evening.

There is a FUP policy of True online, which they don't enforce. However if you keep downloading at 50mbits even in peak times, they will notice it.

If I used full speed, 24/7 then I'd fully expect True to enforce it but I don't. I just want the speed I pay for when I need it; not when it's convenient for the ISP to provide it.

I don't expect them to make special arrangements for me so I'm willing to take paid measures to circumvent obfuscation.

I don't see a problem

Hard to understand why are you offended? No residential internet connection will give you what you want. Perhaps invest into business plans at a slower rate eh?

Offended??!!

Really?

I used to get what I want but with more customers using DOCSIS,contention ratios have taken a turn for the worse and, consequently, there's more demand for bandwidth. That doesn't "offend" me but I am within my rights to try to circumvent throttling.

You might not approve but you can't begin to imagine the sheer magnitude of the toss I don't give about your opinion on my downloading habits.

Now go annoy another thread

[WatUp]

I have Feral and use CuteFTP. I have a 10Mb plan and rarely get less than 6mb on my FTP's and usually max out at 10mb.

[HardenedSoul]

I have Feral and use CuteFTP. I have a 10Mb plan and rarely get less than 6mb on my FTP's and usually max out at 10mb.

Sorry but I don't see your point

Edited January 12, 2014 by HardenedSoul

[Crossy]

Get FDM here http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm

You need to set FTP to passive mode for Feral.

Edited January 16, 2014 by astral
Removal of long quote - Please use Reply button a the bottom

[muratremix]

Here is a solution for you then,

rent a dedicated server with no limit international bw in Bangkok, use it as vpn/proxy/socks proxy server to leech all you want. This way you can bypass international bw throttling (you'll be limited by domestic bw though). It is a paid solution, here you go!

Edited January 16, 2014 by astral
Removal of long quote - Please use Reply button a the bottom

[WatUp]

I have Feral and use CuteFTP. I have a 10Mb plan and rarely get less than 6mb on my FTP's and usually max out at 10mb.

Sorry but I don't see your point

I have a true 10Mbps plan, you have a 50. I almost always get 6Mbps download from feral via ftp and note uncommon for me to get 9+. You get 2-2.5. My point is it may not be throttling but something else. Just giving you a comparison.

[AyG]

For Feral Hosting the download speed (i.e. from them to your computer) for the two cheapest plans is limited to 505 Mbps (see their website).

You won't get that on a single FTP connection, but by using segmented transfers you can get closer to that figure. You can automate this using LFTP. However, that works best if you wait until the download is complete.

If getting a download quickly is important to you, then use RSYNC which can start transfer to your PC whilst the torrent is still not complete.

[rhythmworx]

Maybe try http://www.cfos.de/en/cfosspeed/cfosspeed.htm

[KunMatt]

I have an issue with using torrents on True but I think it's a different problem to the OP. I'm in Bangkok on the 10Mbps package. I use Vuze and when a torrent is downloading it blocks out the internet for everyone else, including on my laptop, i.e. so my PS4, my phone, tablet, any device which is connected to the router now has no internet; the Network icon on my Win7 taskbar has the alarm notification that the is no internet but even though I cannot access the internet through a web browser on my laptop I STILL GET FULL SPEED FOR THE TORRENT WITHIN VUZE!!

At first I thought it was a router problem but I've forwarded all the port range that Vuze uses, I've turned off uPNP, tried using encrypted and non-encrypted seeder but it's all the same. If Vuze is open then the internet works normally, it's only when I am downloading a torrent that the internet blacks out for everyone else. As soon as the torrent is complete then the internet works again for everyone else.

If I connect to a UK VPN then the internet does not black out when downloading a torrent.

So this appears to be a DNS problem, right? Is this normal for True and is there anyway around it?

[MKAsok]

^It's not normal for True. Try and narrow the problem by seeing if a different client e.g. utorrent does the same.

[muratremix]

I have an issue with using torrents on True but I think it's a different problem to the OP. I'm in Bangkok on the 10Mbps package. I use Vuze and when a torrent is downloading it blocks out the internet for everyone else, including on my laptop, i.e. so my PS4, my phone, tablet, any device which is connected to the router now has no internet; the Network icon on my Win7 taskbar has the alarm notification that the is no internet but even though I cannot access the internet through a web browser on my laptop I STILL GET FULL SPEED FOR THE TORRENT WITHIN VUZE!!

At first I thought it was a router problem but I've forwarded all the port range that Vuze uses, I've turned off uPNP, tried using encrypted and non-encrypted seeder but it's all the same. If Vuze is open then the internet works normally, it's only when I am downloading a torrent that the internet blacks out for everyone else. As soon as the torrent is complete then the internet works again for everyone else.

If I connect to a UK VPN then the internet does not black out when downloading a torrent.

So this appears to be a DNS problem, right? Is this normal for True and is there anyway around it?

It looks like your router overwhelmed by the number of p2p connections. Thats why when you vpn, it doesn't happen.

Try to reduce number of max. connections in torrent settings.

[KunMatt]

It looks like your router overwhelmed by the number of p2p connections. Thats why when you vpn, it doesn't happen.

Try to reduce number of max. connections in torrent settings.

Yeah you're right. I thought I had covered this before when I put the maximum global connections down to 100, but it seems anything over about 40 globally will overload my router. What a piece of crap. I will trial and error the settings to see what I can do until I can change the router out.

Edit: Make that a maximum of 30 connections globally. I ran a continuous Ping when starting up Vuze and the normal latency is about 80ms right now; with each extra connection in Vuze it increased up to about 3000ms as the connections neared 30, and then stopped when it hit 30 connections. I say it again, my router is a piece of crap!!

Edited January 16, 2014 by astral

[muratremix]

Ask another model modem from True, assuming you are on Cable internet (Docsis). If it is ADSL, you can simply buy anoter modem yourself and connect.

[KunMatt]

Ask another model modem from True, assuming you are on Cable internet (Docsis). If it is ADSL, you can simply buy anoter modem yourself and connect.

Way ahead of you. I have another router at my other place I can bring here.

In the end I found that the optimum settings for a BitTorrent client are 25 connections globally. This keeps my internet latency normal and anything higher causes a huge surge in latency.

My router is a ZyXel P660HN-T1A, incase anyone has a similar problem in the future.

[sniffdog]

I am on normal DSL (16Mb) and get on most well seeded torrents (private) max 500Mbs without VPN. With Singapore VPN I get about 1.4 - 1.6MBs 24/7.

Why do you FTP the file over to your local computer? As all files should have a URL, it should be easy to download it with IDM (24 or 32 connections). I do the same thing from my Rapidleech and RDP accounts and get full speed (1.8 - 2MBs).

http://www.torrent-invites.com/showthread.php?t=182164

It is possible to configure FTP to another port, but then you should have control over the server (VPS, Decicated Server) but not on a shared server.

Edited January 18, 2014 by sniffdog