NTL: Start downloading, and ping goes through the roof

seamus

Guys, I'm getting this really, really weird behaviour with NTL. As soon as I start downloading something, anything, my entire internet connection slows to a crawl until I stop the download. It was annoying me for a while, until I realised that everything returned to normal when I turned off Azureus on the server which is hardwired to the router.

But it's not huge downloads or uploads that's doing it. Tiny downloads, 10MB even from the net, and it all dies.

So for example, tonight I opened up a thread full of pictures, and set off the ping. The thread is no more than 5MB in total.

C:\>ping www.boards.ie -t

Pinging www.boards.ie [82.195.136.250] with 32 bytes of data:

(Started opening thread here)
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=247ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=442ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=531ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=750ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=1403ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=2435ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=3810ms TTL=49
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out. <---- Stopped the thread about here.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=1992ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=2104ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=764ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=686ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=339ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=127ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=121ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=107ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=102ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=104ms TTL=49
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=164ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 82.195.136.250:
    Packets: Sent = 37, Received = 19, Lost = 18 (48% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 86ms, Maximum = 3810ms, Average = 858ms

When it happens, even pings to the first hop in the route (10.* address in NTL's network) timeout or come back in 5-6 seconds, so it has me suspecting my router. I'm going to try swop it out for another router and see if that sorts it.

Anyone else seen anything like this?

jesus_thats_gre

Does it only happen when Azureus is running? You could have some settings enabled on Azureus that causes it to do stupid things

seamus

I thought I did. I had max connections per torrent set to some ridiculously high number. But now it happens regardless of what I'm downloading, or from where. Any files, from a browser, FTP client, torrent client, cause it all to clog up.

philologos

downloading generally raises pings. You shouldnt play games while you are downloading etc. Especially when it downloads using a good bit of your bandwidth

seamus

Yeah, but to that extent? It's almost like I'm being limited to a single outbound connection at a time.

Valentia

It's your upload speed that shags things up. Try setting it at 5k.

jesus_thats_gre

Yeah if you have a relatively small upload, that is what will kill you.. I have 2mb up and down IBB and can be uploading at 50kb/sec without affecting my ping.

seamus

Well, that's what I thought. Except that I'm not uploading anything. Azureus is off, and the problem still occurs. Cheers though, it's exactly what I was thinking at first.

rabbitinlights

Is it normally when you have had it running for a while? I had the same problem with bitlord, I could barely even open webpages when it was running for a while, its seemed fine when it started first, but after about 30min, it killed anything trying to access the net, I even had netlimiter running limiting uploads to 5kb. I resorted to upgrading my routers firmware (D-link DSL-G604T) and it sorted itself out. what router do you have?

seamus

It's a buffalo WBR-G54. Exactly the same behaviour as you've just described rabbit, except that now everything is gone to **** even without Azureus running.

I've been wanting to do a firmware upgrade on the router (if only my brother would stop playing WOW for just 10 ****ing minutes... :rolleyes: ).

I'll give that a go and see if it sorts it.

bk

If you have zonealarm or another firewall running, temporarily disable it. THere have been a lot of problems with Zonealarm that cause it to block all internet access.

Capt'n Midnight

bk wrote:

If you have zonealarm or another firewall running, temporarily disable it. THere have been a lot of problems with Zonealarm that cause it to block all internet access.

Not recomemded unless you have an external firewall or router with NAT due to the speed XP can get owned.

TimTim

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Not recomemded unless you have an external firewall or router with NAT due to the speed XP can get owned.

He has about 22 mins before he gets owned last time I heard.

Although my win2k3 box got smashed in like 3 minutes. It was only a test box though, so no worries and plus my own damn fault for not patching it, only wanted to verify VPN worked.

Although I'm not too sure what the time is if your pc is fully patched and updated.

Gaz25

Thats deffinetly your firewall causing the problem, if you re-configure it you shouldn't have anymore probs

Capt'n Midnight

TimTim wrote:

He has about 22 mins before he gets owned last time I heard.

16 minutes average for SP1, but it has been done in 30 seconds.
Don't know the times for Sp2 without a firewall.

ebooborg

...and thats another reason u shouldnt use bittorent (beside 99.9% of torrents being illegal, but alot of people seem to "forget" that)

sutty

If you are using windows XP then you can only 10 TCP connections. It may be a cause to your problem. Have a look for XPantispy its a nice little program that lets you edit features in XP. Clicking on Special and then Connection limit will let you change it.

philologos

this was discussed on the suprnova forums. XP doesnt actually limit them to 10 but it can in some cases, installing that hack for XP only makes viruses spread more easily because it removes an update to slow down virus spreading.