Slow Speeds through DG834N router. Help needed!

Jay on F1

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I'm a sky broardband Max customer (upto 16meg broardband) and am using a Netgear DG834N wireless router/adsl2 modem. The router has a patch cable running to my pc and 360 and I connect my laptop wirelessely

I'm currently experiencing slow download speeds using torrent programs such as utorrent and bittornado. I've only seen download speeds peak at around 60kbps, which I'm sure you'd agree is very low for a 16meg connection.

The first thing I tried was conducting some speed test (speed test.net etc). I'm getting a steady download speed of 14379 kbps, an uplaod speed of around 650-700 kbps and a ping of 25-35, which I'm happy with, but this dosn't explain the slow download speeds I've been experiencing. (I'm talking files with thousands of seeds).

The next thing I tried was forwarding the relevant ports in my router. I visited portforward.com and went through the guide to forward ports for my xbox 360, Utorrent and bit tornado. I followed the guides exactly (going into services, adding a custom service and them adding the same service into the firewall rules inbound and outbound services list). Still speeds havent imporved.

I next went into windows firewall and added utorrent, bittornado etc into the exceptions list and then added the specific ports into the list and still no improvement in download speed.

I'm at the stage now where I'm scratching my head and thinking what else I can do to improve my download speed?

I'd really appreciate someones guidance on this and am will to post any further required to solve this problem.

I'm running windows vista, with the latest updates and have the latest firmware on my router (V1.02.08). I've got a dynamic IP address from sky

At first I assumed sky had capped my speed, but the good speed test results make me think otherwise.

Despite doing all the things I've mentioned above bittornado still operates with an amber light and utorrent says that the port I've forwarded isn't forwarded (when you click to test port).

I'm not sure what to try next?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Cheers,

Jamie
 
im afraid ive had this problem myself with a variety of routers - you could try a different bittorrent client I guess, but im not even sure myself whether its the torrent client, or just the seeds you are pulling it off ...on P2P networks so much depends on who is sharing the file you want and how much bandwidth they allocate ...for instance, do you have ALL your upstream bandwidth allocated for bittorrent UPLOADS?

even those that do upload and share, only do a few Kbps at best ...so its completely random

then there could be traffic shaping going on within the ISPs network

if you can get 14Mbps (ish) down then you have one of the top 0.1% consumer ADSL internet connections in the UK - no complaints with that then :)

that router itself has enough memory for a few hundred connections - I have seen some older routers that only had like 4MB rather than 32MB RAM have problems - each connection takes up a few bytes of memory, so 50-100 connections could slow a router down and cause it to lock up eventually ...not in this case obviously

so my moneys on something else - the client, the uploaders, or something else between the source and client that is restricting things - not much help I know :(
 
I don't think Sky Max uses traffic shaping so that shouldn't be the cause of your slow speeds.

If Utorrent is saying that the port isn't forwarded then that's the place to start.

Not sure about bittornado but I do use Utorrent and a DG834N.

Just a couple of quick questions first....

Are you using a fixed ip address for your PC?

You say you're using Windows firewall, you haven't got another software firewall installed as well have you?

Next, double check your port forwarding settings on your router and make sure you've put the ip address of your PC, assuming that's what you download your torrents to, in there correctly. Also check the port that Utorrent is set to and make sure that's also correct in your Router rules.

Within Utorrent under Options/Preferences/Connection are "Enable UPnP port mapping" and "Add Windows firewall exception" ticked? If not tick them and try it again. Also make sure that the "randomize port" box is not ticked.

Let us know how that goes :)
 
I don't think Sky Max uses traffic shaping so that shouldn't be the cause of your slow speeds.

If Utorrent is saying that the port isn't forwarded then that's the place to start.

Not sure about bittornado but I do use Utorrent and a DG834N.

Just a couple of quick questions first....

Are you using a fixed ip address for your PC?

You say you're using Windows firewall, you haven't got another software firewall installed as well have you?

Next, double check your port forwarding settings on your router and make sure you've put the ip address of your PC, assuming that's what you download your torrents to, in there correctly. Also check the port that Utorrent is set to and make sure that's also correct in your Router rules.

Within Utorrent under Options/Preferences/Connection are "Enable UPnP port mapping" and "Add Windows firewall exception" ticked? If not tick them and try it again. Also make sure that the "randomize port" box is not ticked.

Let us know how that goes :)

Thanks for your reply, and to the poster above. :thumbsup:

I've got a dynamic IP address from Sky. I'm a bit confused because on my router status page it tells me under ADSL port my IP address is 90.208.xxx.xxx.
When I did my port forwarding It wouldnt let me enter this IP address because it said it was 'Illegal'. Instead I entered my LAN IP address which is 192.168.x.x. The router accepted this.

What does this mean? Im a little confused because I'm unsure what IP address I should have entered?

When I test if my port is forwarded correctly in utorrent it tells me that is isn't and refers to the port which I've opened and the adsl port ip (90.208.xxx.xxx) and not the Lan IP which I did all the forwarding through.

I've only got windows firewall running and AVG anti virus running.

When I set up port forwarding, the guide said to uncheck "Enable UPnP port mapping", which I thought was strange because this refers to universal plug and play. The "Add Windows firewall exception" box is ticked though and the "randomize port" box is unchecked.

Hope this helps you to identify the problem? If you need any further info please let me know.

Jamie
 
Possibly, Can you double check that you've entered the ip address of your PC into the port forwarding stuff correctly?

As you say this is in the form 192.168.xxx.xxx.

To find out what the ip addy of your PC is, you can go into a DOS prompt on your PC and type in ipconfig, from there you see ip address, this is the one you want to use in your port forwarding.

If you can't get thatn to work, login to your router and look under " attached devices" you should be able to see the ip address of your PC.

Have a try at that and post back :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for your reply, and to the poster above. :thumbsup:

I've got a dynamic IP address from Sky. I'm a bit confused because on my router status page it tells me under ADSL port my IP address is 90.208.xxx.xxx.
When I did my port forwarding It wouldnt let me enter this IP address because it said it was 'Illegal'. Instead I entered my LAN IP address which is 192.168.x.x. The router accepted this.

What does this mean? Im a little confused because I'm unsure what IP address I should have entered?

When I test if my port is forwarded correctly in utorrent it tells me that is isn't and refers to the port which I've opened and the adsl port ip (90.208.xxx.xxx) and not the Lan IP which I did all the forwarding through.

I've only got windows firewall running and AVG anti virus running.

When I set up port forwarding, the guide said to uncheck "Enable UPnP port mapping", which I thought was strange because this refers to universal plug and play. The "Add Windows firewall exception" box is ticked though and the "randomize port" box is unchecked.

Hope this helps you to identify the problem? If you need any further info please let me know.

Jamie
The number starting with 90. is the number assigned by sky to your modem, which is built into the router. This number cannot really be altered yourself, and doesnt come into any firewall rules within your router
 
A little progress.

I tried ipconfig and couldnt get my ip address up, so looked in attached devices within the router config as suggested.

I saw that my PC was listed twice, I'm guessing due to it having two different network controllers. I then went back into firewall exceptions and realised I wasn't forwarding to the correct port. I changed all my ports to the IP listed in 'attached devices' and tested to see if the port was now forwarded correctly using utorrent....

Sucess! It was, so I thought I'd test my download speeds by trying to download something. I fired up utorrent and I am still getting a slow speed. Im now guessing I may have utorrent set up wrong.

In preferences I have randomise port each time unchecked and have add windows firewall exception checked.

I'm a little confused what to to with 'enable UPNP port mapping and Enable NAT- PMP mapping. I'm sure in the port forwarding guide It said to uncheck these two boxes. Does this sound correct?

Also I'm sure I dont have 'bandwidth' set up correctly either. When I started Utorrent I set my connection speed to xx/20Mbit. This meant my upload limit is 2.1 MB/s, Upload slots are 30, Connections per torrent are 125, connections global are 850, Max active torrents are 15 and max active downloads are 15. In the bandwidth tab it states maximum upload rate is 2240, maximum download rate is 0 (unlimited) and use additional upload slots if upload speed <90%. Does this all sound correct or do I need to change some values, and if so to what?

I've tested bitornado too. I'm still getting the amber light instead of green whilst downloading and the download I tried failed to start.

Something still isnt right, can anyone help?

Also, this may be a dumb question but I used portforward.com to port forward xbox live. I've added it as a custom service and into firewall rules like utorrent and bittorando, but used a differnt IP. I looked in attached devices and turned on the 360 I then refreshed and saw a new IP address, so used this. My thinking is this is the IP address the router gives the 360 when its turned on? I think I've done right but just want some confirmation.

Sorry for all the questions :confused:

Jamie
 
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Is sounds as if you're throttling your connection by setting your upload speed too high. I think Skymax upload speed is 768 kb/s. It's normally best to set your UTorrent upload speed limit to around 70% of your full upload speed.

Try setting your speed to XX/768k. That should give you an upload limit of around 560 Kb/s.
 
Is sounds as if you're throttling your connection by setting your upload speed too high. I think Skymax upload speed is 768 kb/s. It's normally best to set your UTorrent upload speed limit to around 70% of your full upload speed.

Try setting your speed to XX/768k. That should give you an upload limit of around 560 Kb/s.

Thank you Graystreet! :clap: :clap: :clap:

I set my speed to xx/768k and have experienced download speeds of 1.0 - 1.4 mb/s which is fantastic! :cool:

just one final question though - I've got 'enable UPNP port mapping and 'Enable NAT- PMP mapping' ticked in utorrent, is this right?

Just wanted to thank you for all your help, really appreciate it. :smashin:

Jamie
 
Thank you Graystreet! :clap: :clap: :clap:

I set my speed to xx/768k and have experienced download speeds of 1.0 - 1.4 mb/s which is fantastic! :cool:

just one final question though - I've got 'enable UPNP port mapping and 'Enable NAT- PMP mapping' ticked in utorrent, is this right?

Just wanted to thank you for all your help, really appreciate it. :smashin:

Jamie

Pleased it's working, pretty decent speeds as well.:thumbsup:

I've got both of those ticked on mine as well and it works fine so I'd leave it as it is if I were you. :)
 

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