ANSWERED Issues with torrents

[Takayanagi 0]

Hi All,

 

I've been using airvpn for about 5 - 6 months now. Up until 2 - 3 weeks ago, torrents always worked perfectly for me. Now all of a sudden I am having neverending issues using airvpn while downloading torrents. Basically what happens is after about a minute or so of downloading, the torrent will drop to zero transfer rates and I can't access the net anymore. Airvpn client still says it is connected... but the only way to resolve the matter is to disconnect and reconnect. The only way I've been able to get around it is to select random servers in different countries and eventually I will get one that doesn't do it.

 

Does anyone know why after months of it working perfectly I am no longer able to reliably download torrents? FYI, I've not ran any windows updates, changed anti-virus/firewall settings and I've now tried it on a seperate system with same results. Appreciate any advice that anyone can give. Thanks.

[Guest JWW]

Questions:

 

Are you using Eddie?

Which VPN protocol?

Who is your ISP / which part of the world are you in?

Which Bittorrent client are you using?

Are you encrypting your connection within that client?

[Takayanagi 0]

Answers:

 

I'm not sure I'm using 'Eddie' - I'm using client 2.8.8

I have it set to automatic/default (this is what was working fine previously)

I am on BT Infinity Unlimited (in UK), connection speed is 50Mbps DL/13Mbps UL with low ping

I've tried with both qtorrent and tixati

I've tried with encryption forced & preferred in both clients, same result

 

Looking forward to your reply

[Guest JWW]

Answers:

 

I'm not sure I'm using 'Eddie' - I'm using client 2.8.8

I have it set to automatic/default (this is what was working fine previously)

I am on BT Infinity Unlimited (in UK), connection speed is 50Mbps DL/13Mbps UL with low ping

I've tried with both qtorrent and tixati

I've tried with encryption forced & preferred in both clients, same result

 

Looking forward to your reply

 

Then yes, you're using Eddie (that's the name of the client)

 

I'm also on BT Infinity - same service as you. That connection speed - is it with or without the VPN connection?

 

There's two things here:

 

1) With me, automatic doesn't work - never has, in that the connection speeds are terrible. The only way I can maintain a tolerable connection speed of around 19/20 Mbps is by using the SSL tunnel. In any case, using SSL the OpenVPN header can't be seen by BT so the theory has been that they can't deploy any 'anti-VPN policy' because they don't know what it is - other than an encrypted data stream. I also use Tixati with encryption only, so encrypted connections to peers in Tixati within an SSL tunnel should do the trick in terms of avoiding the BT policy of throttling P2P, and for me it has been. What sort of download speeds are you getting in Tixati?

 

2) I suspect though that BT are throttling ALL encrypted traffic on domestic services but not yet in all areas. I've also heard from someone else who gets similar speeds to those quoted by you on a BT Infinity connection but had recently started having problems. I should add that if I disconnect from Air I get 75 Mbps down and around 15 up which is what I would expect. And now you. I've also started having problems recently and it's interesting to note that the BT HomeHub 5 firmware was updated on 17th January. That may be pure coincidence, or not...

 

Anyhow, try SSL and encrypted only in Tixati to see if there's any change. You might also want to consider using Network Lock as it's come to  light recently that your 'real' IP is still visible even over a VPN using something called WebRTC. To block that you'd need IPv6 disabled (should already be so as BT haven't deployed IPv6 yet and it's still disabled) and then Network Lock set in Eddie.

 

Good Luck. Incidentally, I'm now looking at alternative ISP's and can't wait for my BT contract to end. I think the days of just hooking up with the obvious big ISP's are gone - they're all under the government's thumb in terms of restricting privacy and 'freedom of the web'. The likes of BT and Virgin Media are for the 'average Joe' and I'd suggest that anyone posting in this forum does not fall into that category.

[aldebaran 0]

Hello JWW & Takayanagi,

1. I am having the same problem. The D/L speed goes up to about 250 and then drops to zero within the minute.
2. I am using Vuze/Azureus. Previously on the an other VPN it has been working very well, especially by binding the transfer to the TAP-Window Adapter which stops download if the connection fails. Works with AirVPN also, but I need to additionally use the WebRTC Block extension to sort of camouflage the connecting link to the ISP. 
3. My ISP is the German Telekom. I can't say for sure if they indulge in "traffic shaping" or thwart access to any sites. But you never know and can never be sure of the dog in the manger!
4. And my connection is also 50 MBits/s. 
5. I am using Eddie 2.8 as well.
6. And I would consider me fortunate if I could come to a stable average D/L speed of around 5 MB/s.

Now, that you mentioned using SSL, this may well be the remedy in my case, but could please give me or my kind a few steps to go about using SSL. There are many guides on this website, but rather not well documented or explained. Usually only high hat descriptions with no steps at all. And please don't anyone be offended as I am not "belittling" anyone's efforts.

 

Thank you for your help and have a nice week end,

 

Aldebaran 

@ Takayanagi: Please forgive me as I am not trying to "hijack" your thread... 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

My ISP is the German Telekom. I can't say for sure if they indulge in "traffic shaping" or thwart access to any sites

 

I noticed a lowered performance of the BitTorrent protocol over OpenVPN, port 443. I'm also a Deutsche Telekom customer. Port 53 works fine for me.

[Staff 10014]

@aldebaran

 

Hello!

 

Since you run Eddie, if you don't want to go into details, you could just go to "AirVPN" -> "Preferences" -> "Protocols", select some OpenVPN over SSH mode, click "Save" and re-connect to some VPN server.

 

For your purpose, we would also recommend that you test OpenVPN over SSL. In Eddie "Protocols" tab, this is called "SSL Tunnel - Port 443". Technically, OpenVPN over SSL can be less efficient than OpenVPN over SSH [sTRIKE THROUGH: INCORRECT], but in case that your ISP does not shape only port 443 (because it does not want to make the shaping appear to customers using https) and port 80 (for http) then OpenVPN over SSL can provide higher throughput than OpenVPN over SSH (we do not provide SSH to port 443).

 

Kind regards

[aldebaran 0]

@giganerd

Thank you for the suggestion. I've put it to test. Will no better by tomorrow. Though, must mention that I had set it SSL 443 before this and that did show a better through as suggested by "Staff". But it is too soon to say for sure. Perhaps our client work differently.

 

@Staff

Thank for your input and that works, really well. SSL over port 43 went as far as almost 6 MB/s! Never had a D/L like that all of 15 years after starting with "Shareaza" days when you had to painstakingly wait a whole day to D/L a song!

However, there is still an issue - why does it not put in IP# 10.4.0.1 automatically in IPv4 when switching it on as it did before the new settings? It shows a leak without it and have to insert it manually.

 

Must hit the sack now. Tomorrow more...

Aldebaran 

[Staff 10014]

@Staff

Thank for your input and that works, really well. SSL over port 43 went as far as almost 6 MB/s! Never had a D/L like that all of 15 years after starting with "Shareaza" days when you had to painstakingly wait a whole day to D/L a song!

 

 

Hello!

We're happy to hear that.

 

 

However, there is still an issue - why does it not put in IP# 10.4.0.1 automatically in IPv4 when switching it on as it did before the new settings? It shows a leak without it and have to insert it manually.

 

 

Who/what does not put IP 10.4.0.1 in where? Client Eddie can set 10.4.0.1 as primary DNS server IP address of all network interfaces by ticking "Force DNS" in "Preferences" -> "Advanced".

 

Kind regards

[Takayanagi 0]

Thanks for all the advice - I'll be testing using the SSL/SSH methods today and will report back later On first testing, DL speed is not that great, but the main thing for me is just that it works as I only use torrents to download tv shows and can leave it on over night.

[Takayanagi 0]

I'd say my own issue is fixed - only hit around 2Mb/s DL but connection never dropped. Happy now!

[aldebaran 0]

@Giganerd & @Staff

 

Finally, having tested it out a bit, I infer the Output Speed is about the same over SSL 443 and over SSH #53. So I have left it at #53 since Giganerd has also had no problems with it. The speed went as high as 6 MB/s.

 

Only thing disconcerting is that "auto-stop" doesn't really work when the connections fails, it keeps on downloading like the "wildsau"! Therefore I w'll definitely have a look at the 3rd party suggestion made by Giganerd and see if that is any better..

 

Thanks and regards to all.

 

Aldebaran    

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

SSH #53

 

Oh, sorry, I meant UDP/53. Anyway, somewhere around here I read SSL should be preferred over SSH.

[aldebaran 0]

Hi giganerd,

 

I have set it at the moment in Config Generator | Advanced Mode | Advanced as "Resolved hosts in .ovpn files", "All servers in area region" and "SSH Port 53". This way Eddie seeks out the most optimum server ( at least I assume so ) and uses the SSH Tunnel which can take on any server in the area and in my case "Europe". However, it favors more the Dutch servers. This gives me about 6 MB/s and I am thrilled with that.

 

SSL retrospectively uses only one server and this may unnecessarily tax a particular server or one would have to choose a server every time one connects. And since I do all of my work using the default ISP connection, it is not the best option.The speed over SSL is the same as in the SSH Tunnel.

 

I did not try the Securepoint client as yet, but will try it on my laptop and have downloaded it and also port 53 like you do. Thanks for correcting me.

 

Gradually, one gets the hang of it and thereafter one can innovate around.

 

Smooth sailing,

 

Aldebaran

[RealWeaponX 0]

I was having similar problems with BT. Using SSH has massively improved the situation.

[greenhouseblues 0]

I'm with Virgin Media on 100MB/s set up, and tend to find my average torrent speed is woeful at 2-3mb/s, despite whichever set up or ports I use (and I spent ages trying them all!).

 

That being said, I now find that if  use German (only) servers using SSL 433 I can get speeds from 5MB/s to 60MB/s. A vast improvement.

[salacronix 1]

I too am having a similar problem. If I download one of the torrents on the Ubuntu Linux site, I get about 30 megabits download speed. If I download a "different" torrent, no matter how many seeds it has, I get a fraction of a megabit. I'm using UDP over port 443 with an OpenVPN client on my router. This did not used to be a problem, it has only started happening recently.

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

Just a finding: If you are a Windows user and you experience constant ups and downs with your torrent download speed - let TCPOptimizer tweak your registry values a bit.

1. Launch it as admin.
2. Slide the connection speed slider to your connection speed in kbps.
3. Select your primary network interface controller (not TAP!).
4. Click Optimal at the bottom of the window, apply changes, confirm them and reboot if you like.

How do I know this works? Had exactly the same problem just now. I installed a fresh Windows and didn't optimize TCP/IP settings yet. Truth is: A fresh Windows installation will miss many registry entries in regards to your system's TCP configuration (RcvWindow, MaxConnectionsPerServer, MaxMTU, ..). Try it out.

 

Also, if you experience "traffic shaping"-like behavior of your internet connection while connected to AirVPN, let TCPOptimizer do the magic and see if it helps you.

[rainmakerraw 94]

I'm with Virgin Media on 100MB/s set up, and tend to find my average torrent speed is woeful at 2-3mb/s, despite whichever set up or ports I use (and I spent ages trying them all!).

 

That being said, I now find that if  use German (only) servers using SSL 433 I can get speeds from 5MB/s to 60MB/s. A vast improvement.

 

Are you using a VM SuperHub as your router? They are broken (probably intentionally crippled by VM) and don't route openvpn traffic properly. I spent almost 18 months pulling my hair out testing Linux, Windows, BSD etc and getting wildly varying low speeds over both wireless and ethernet. Then I found out it was the superhub! You'll find you cap out around 3MB/sec or less on torrents, which is exactly what you describe. The fix is to run it in modem only mode, and pass the connection to a good router - either a home built pfSense box or else a high end Asus router works great for us. Boom! Back to full speed on torrents.

[cgulledmund 0]

@staff I just seen your advice above regarding protocols. I went into the client into the protocols section to try set the openvpn over ssl advice and it doesnt look anything like you say in your advice in this forum.  I wanted to attach a screenshot, but this forum asks for a url. Obviously the screenshot is a file not a url so I cant provide that but basically its a table with headings "protocol", "port" "entry" "description".  with an example being "SSL, 443, alternative, if your isp applies caps"

Basically torrents are being reduced to one at a time and very slow.

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

Upload pictures as attachments and add the attachments via the media browser.
Also, this asks for your own thread where you also attach your OpenVPN logs and tell us more about your setup. Reviving old threads, even if they are not locked, is a bad practice since you force everyone to reread all the posts above and make them remember it.

Sent via Tapatalk. Means, I don't have a computer available now.