Torrent downloads with Afrihost affecting HTTP traffic

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InTheCube

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Hey guys

Has anyone noticed that with Afrihost, as soon as you start downloading torrents, all HTTP traffic/Web browsing either takes forever, or times out.

But the torrents keep going, at their constant rate (which is :D nice)

The time-out's and sluggish HTTP traffic occur, even if I am not maxing my line out at full speed, even if I set limits in my Torrent Manager to be 1/4 of my actual line speed (which I verify with a Usage Monitor - DU Meter).

But once I kill my torrent Manager, HTTP traffic returns to normal, a few seconds after closing. It's like something weird happens to my connection as soon as I start downloading torrents, no matter how slowly I download them, or how small the file is. I think something on the Afrihost network is detecting torrents, and PRIORITISING it for my particular circuit.

I thought maybe the problem was with my Netgear modem-router. But it is brand new, less than a month old, and I've updated the firmware as well.

The problem is NOT that I am maxing my line out with torrent downloads, causing all other traffic to slow down. I can max my line out with HTTP downloads (windows updates, for e.g.), but still get decent browsing and response times from web browsing.

I have a 512kbps line, with Afrihost R29 per GB bandwidth.
 
For e.g. I am currently downloading an update for my iPod, through iTunes. It is downloading consistently at 55k kilobytes/s, thus maxing (or very close to maxing) out my 512 kilobits/s ADSL line (theoretical max - 512/8 = 64 kilobytes/s)

However, I can still surf the web, with very reasonable, in fact quick, response times. No timeouts, etc.

Now if I were downloading torrents, instead of doing regular HTTP traffic, I wouldn't be able to browse websites, or it would be extremely slow...

Is anybody else experiencing this?
 
You are probably using up all your tcp/ip connections. Its an operating system problem. Are you running Windows XP?

See this link http://www.lvllord.de/ if you are.. apply patch.

Chances are your torrents have created many many different tcp/ip connections that have maxed out your OS tcp/ip limit.
 
I think Afrihost has issues with torrents. Here is a thread regarding usage and torrents. Maybe the problems are related?

Edit: I see you've already been to that thread :o
 
w1z4rd said:
You are probably using up all your tcp/ip connections. Its an operating system problem. Are you running Windows XP?

See this link http://www.lvllord.de/ if you are.. apply patch.

Chances are your torrents have created many many different tcp/ip connections that have maxed out your OS tcp/ip limit.
Click to expand...

This sounds very likely. I'm using Windows XP SP3.

Thanks for the link.. will investigate further...
 
Kaufies said:
I think Afrihost has issues with torrents. Here is a thread regarding usage and torrents. Maybe the problems are related?

Edit: I see you've already been to that thread :o
Click to expand...

Lol.. yes...

It isn't related, at all. I think I've maxed out the number of TCP connections that XP can create.
 
w1z4rd said:
You are probably using up all your tcp/ip connections. Its an operating system problem. Are you running Windows XP?

See this link http://www.lvllord.de/ if you are.. apply patch.

Chances are your torrents have created many many different tcp/ip connections that have maxed out your OS tcp/ip limit.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! My torrents are almost going at line speed now:eek:
 
I have a different problem. If I use my Do1 account from Telkom, my torrents effectively do not download (or at a snail's pace). If I switch to Axxess or Afrihost then they download at an acceptable speed. I have not noticed that it interferes with my normal browsing activity.
 
Saajid said:
Hey guys

Has anyone noticed that with Afrihost, as soon as you start downloading torrents, all HTTP traffic/Web browsing either takes forever, or times out.

But the torrents keep going, at their constant rate (which is :D nice)

The time-out's and sluggish HTTP traffic occur, even if I am not maxing my line out at full speed, even if I set limits in my Torrent Manager to be 1/4 of my actual line speed (which I verify with a Usage Monitor - DU Meter).

But once I kill my torrent Manager, HTTP traffic returns to normal, a few seconds after closing. It's like something weird happens to my connection as soon as I start downloading torrents, no matter how slowly I download them, or how small the file is. I think something on the Afrihost network is detecting torrents, and PRIORITISING it for my particular circuit.

I thought maybe the problem was with my Netgear modem-router. But it is brand new, less than a month old, and I've updated the firmware as well.

The problem is NOT that I am maxing my line out with torrent downloads, causing all other traffic to slow down. I can max my line out with HTTP downloads (windows updates, for e.g.), but still get decent browsing and response times from web browsing.

I have a 512kbps line, with Afrihost R29 per GB bandwidth.
Click to expand...

You are probably maxing out your line with torrents (due to Afrihost being so awesome), thus the rest of your traffic suffer. If Afrihost shaped your line, the torrents would slow down to make "space" for your HTTP traffic (which would normally have higher priority than torrents). This is why shaped accounts are better for most users.

The reason your HTTP still worked fine on the other ISP(s) is most likely because that ISP is shaping torrents (is that account unshaped or not?)

Remember, you can only download as fast as your line can handle.. ;)
 
giepie.delport said:
You are probably maxing out your line with torrents (due to Afrihost being so awesome), thus the rest of your traffic suffer. If Afrihost shaped your line, the torrents would slow down to make "space" for your HTTP traffic (which would normally have higher priority than torrents). This is why shaped accounts are better for most users.

The reason your HTTP still worked fine on the other ISP(s) is most likely because that ISP is shaping torrents (is that account unshaped or not?)

Remember, you can only download as fast as your line can handle.. ;)
Click to expand...

Nice necro, but this was already resolved.
 
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