WRTP54G and Bittorrents Slowdown

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 12, 2005 Posts: 2

I noticed dramatic drops in speed to the point my phone service was affected and finally attributed it to the WRTP54G Linksys router after noticing I could fix it by disconnecting it for a short period of time. I also found this link that related the problem to other Linksys products when used with BitTorrent.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,7126909?hilite=linksys+bittorrent

I am running the 1.0.0.37 firmware. Are there some settings I can modify to help with this problem or when will there be a fix for this?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 1

I was having the same issue, and the only solution I found was to alter the setting of the BitTorrent client -> lower the Upload speed.

I find my connection is relativley good when I lower it to about 8-15kbps -This is a trade-off: it will also lower your download speed but not too dramatically. Also I increase the upload/download speed late night -where call volumes are less- and in the morn, I have most of my downloads done.

Hope this helps -
Confused

MN

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2005 Posts: 7

I'm having pretty much the same issue, only that I'm using eMule instead of BitTorrent (that doesn't mean BT works for me, I remember having similar issue when I ran BitTornado a couple weeks ago).

Also WTRP54G router, using firmware 1.00.37, with the wireless turned on (my laptop gets internet from it). If I don't use eMule, the connection will be solid for days, but once I do, everything disconnects and reconnects repeatedly. Opening websites slows to a crawl, IM softwares keep losing connection and reconnects, etc.

I called Vonage support, all they could offer was to check my port forwarding (which I turned on long ago), and limit my eMule upload and download to 6KB/s, which I did, and the problem persists (I tried rebooting my cable modem). Then I tried Linksys support, they told me to change the QoS settings (I haven't touched QoS before, everything was on low priority). Again, it didn't help.

After some research, I'm inclined to believe that my problem can be explained by this post: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,13310012

Briefly speaking, it says the default TCP timeout for this router is 5 days, and when using a P2P application, the router tries to keep track of too many dead connections, and setting the value to 30 minutes will fix this problem. However, I can't find a 3rd party firmware for WRTP54G that will hopefully let me load a startup script, so I can't tell if this will fix it.

Has anyone fixed a similar issue, or know a way I can change the TCP timeout for the router?

Edit: My road runner cable modem connection gives me 5M bps download and 384K bps upload (tested to be 4.91M bps and 372K bps, respectively).

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 12, 2005 Posts: 11

This router has been one showstopper after another. I'm using edonkey and limiting connections to 40k still cause it to crash. It seems the thread reference you posted has the answer but not for this router. Have you been able to fix this? I cannot believe their testing is not more thorough.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2005 Posts: 7

No I haven't been able to fix this. My only option right now is to not use the P2P softwares until they update the firmware and fix it or someone writes a 3rd party firmware for this model.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 19, 2005 Posts: 6

pjege wrote:

I noticed dramatic drops in speed to the point my phone service was affected and finally attributed it to the WRTP54G Linksys router after noticing I could fix it by disconnecting it for a short period of time. I also found this link that related the problem to other Linksys products when used with BitTorrent.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,7126909?hilite=linksys+bittorrent

I am running the 1.0.0.37 firmware. Are there some settings I can modify to help with this problem or when will there be a fix for this?

This seems to have less to do with your VOIP adapter, and more with the way bittorent works, Bittorrent will eat up every last bit of your available upload bandwidth if you let it, and if all your UL bandwidth is in use, you wont be able to use Vonage (or any other net application, as even if you have plenty of DL bandwidth left, if you cant upload, things will slow down)

The only thing you can do is to dramatically limit your BitTorrent bandwidth, Remember that unless you use bandwidth saver, you need 90k upload speed reserved for a full quality call, so you need to set your bittorrnet client so taht that 90K plus your bittoreent upload do not meed/excede your total upload capacity.

remembering again, that if you use up all your upload bandwidth, things will slow down and you won't be able to make phonecalls using Vonage

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 3

I'm having the same issue w Netgear router on a DSL Verizon system. I am prepared to switch out the Netgear router which is old and given me tons of headaches. Any suggestion of the "best" router to handle Vonage, wireless, ethernet and a few users?

Or is this just a capacity issue?

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 12:21 pm Post subject:

I'm using Linksys WRT54GS routers w/Sveasoft Alchemy firmware all over the place and haven't had an issue. Even running BitTorrent wide-open doesn't cause any issues. QoS works quite well..

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 19, 2005 Posts: 6

mwa wrote:

I'm having the same issue w Netgear router on a DSL Verizon system. I am prepared to switch out the Netgear router which is old and given me tons of headaches. Any suggestion of the "best" router to handle Vonage, wireless, ethernet and a few users?

Or is this just a capacity issue?

it's a bandwidth/capacity issue IMHO, and will happen with any equipment,

i've done it to myself at home by maxxing out my upload bandwidth, and also we've had customers at the internet cafe i manage use up all our upload bandwidth while using Bittorent.

My advice would be to modify your BT settings, or stop your BT downloads when on the phone.

i personally think spending cash on a new router would be a waste of money.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2005 Posts: 7

mhochman wrote:

pjege wrote:

I noticed dramatic drops in speed to the point my phone service was affected and finally attributed it to the WRTP54G Linksys router after noticing I could fix it by disconnecting it for a short period of time. I also found this link that related the problem to other Linksys products when used with BitTorrent.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,7126909?hilite=linksys+bittorrent

I am running the 1.0.0.37 firmware. Are there some settings I can modify to help with this problem or when will there be a fix for this?

This seems to have less to do with your VOIP adapter, and more with the way bittorent works, Bittorrent will eat up every last bit of your available upload bandwidth if you let it, and if all your UL bandwidth is in use, you wont be able to use Vonage (or any other net application, as even if you have plenty of DL bandwidth left, if you cant upload, things will slow down)

The only thing you can do is to dramatically limit your BitTorrent bandwidth, Remember that unless you use bandwidth saver, you need 90k upload speed reserved for a full quality call, so you need to set your bittorrnet client so taht that 90K plus your bittoreent upload do not meed/excede your total upload capacity.

remembering again, that if you use up all your upload bandwidth, things will slow down and you won't be able to make phonecalls using Vonage

I understand that you're not addressing my issue specifically, however I want to be very clear that in my case, bandwidth was not the problem. I can get stable 370K upload confirmed, but even when I run eMule with a upload limit of 6K, everything stops. I'm not even talking about VoIP calls, I'm talking about websites failing to open, IM connections constantly dropping, etc. And if I bypass the router and feed my cable modem directly into the computer, I can run eMule with 50K upload and none of this happens. So the only logical conclusion I've been able to draw is that this particular router just does not work well with P2P softwares.