Weird untability while uploading... Hdd issues or noise on the line?

[Talix]

Hey

I am back after two weeks of getting settled in my new apartment (hehe, or just waiting for my internet ;p ) but now i have run into some problems. As the topic title says, my upload is unstable, and I can not figure out why.

It is not like I disconnect at all really, the upload just goes crazy low. And my browser and games all stay online. It only seems to be torrents having problems. I uploaded an image showing the weird stats in a 30 sec interval:



It could be one of two things tho:
1) I was told my connection might be unstable because of noise on the cables, and when i requested to get a special "profile" lowering pings (what it did was just dropping all packets without waiting for response) it theoretically should get even more unstable. This has, however, not been a problem as I have not yet lost connection to the internet.

2) It may be my faulty external hdd making problems. YES, it IS faulty, because about once a month i get the message telling me about broken sectors and i have to /chkdsk to correct them. I don't know if the harddrive could cause any problems in this direction, as it is a completely different issue i normally have.


Thx for coming this long ^^ Any ideas?


EDIT: Just got some new info from my isp - Even tho my upload goes down, my line is stable - I am NOT disconnecting!

Will it help me if i get a new hdd maybe?

[K7IA]

What utorrent version are you using? I recall a bug in the forums for volatile bandwidth utilization in 1.9.x or higher.

If you are using a modem, it might be congested as well, that means packets are stuck in the buffer of the modem and are causing the transmission to break.

Also I am assuming you are not using wireless to connect to the modem.

Try uploading a big file (~100mb) to a filehost and observe your network activity graph from the Task Manager. (try not to use any other network related application during that time)

IO errors can cause problems as well, and they would show up in a torrent re-check.

The worst it p2p activity shaping I guess

[Talix]

What utorrent version are you using? I recall a bug in the forums for volatile bandwidth utilization in 1.9.x or higher.

I am using uTorrent 1.8.4, just updated itself today I think.

IO errors can cause problems as well, and they would show up in a torrent re-check.

Yeah, those are the ones i get about once every month... Hell annoying! It it is not the issue I have now. I actually forced a recheck of all the 64 torrents over night - nothing came up.

Try uploading a big file (~100mb) to a filehost and observe your network activity graph from the Task Manager. (try not to use any other network related application during that time)

Ok, I will try that now.


EDIT:Already now I can tell that the uploading is firm and stable. Constantly at about 220-230 kb/s - I copied an old 200 mb file to the root of the external hdd and uploaded it from there. 50% uploaded and still no issues.

Actually, the hdd seems kind of silent now... Usually, it makes some more noise when seeding. Could the stability issues have something to do with me having more than 60 torrent seeding at the same time?

[K7IA]

Seeding 60 torrents concurrently on a problematic hdd, hımm.

In that case , increase your read buffer in utorrent (a) and seed one torrent (a popular one that can consume all your upload bandwidth).

(a) utorrent > preferences > advanced > disk cache

if you can seed at your peek after this, then I think you should better change your hdd

[billlanam]

When your hdd has problem sectors it will retry reading a several times which can really slow things down when reading those sectors, try setting up chkdsk (or any other disk checking program) to scan the surface and move any data in suspicious sectors to supposely safe sectors.

[Talix]

Okay, I finally came to a conclusion (I think <.< ).


I think it is my asus eeepc 901 that is the issue. It is a little weakling of a 9'' laptop with an old, very bugged and slow windows XP installation on it. It DOES have 2 gb of ram, but that means little to the machine, when the rest of it is banged up, it seems...

Well, I did plan to reformat it and install Linux Arc, but I also need a torrent client as good as uTorrent (with webUi and stuff like that) but I have not found one yet for Linux -.-  (maybe you know one)?


Well, if a reformat doesn't work, I promise to bump this thread! Thank you both for your help and focus on my problem

[Talix]

BAH - forget what i freakin' said, its the same now, even on my enthusiast stationary pc, consuming 400 watts -.-

I am gonna buy a new drive when i get a job... It is so annoying having no money!

[hilander72]

Make sure your pref settings are within the limit of your hds/OS limit... less upload slots per torrent, global maximum connections not set too high, etc...

(might be that your HD isn't able to do all the disk read/writes required and OS puts your torrent client on "hold" for disk access, until it ready to do more read/writes)

[K7IA]

Make sure your pref settings are within the limit of your hds/OS limit... less upload slots per torrent, global maximum connections not set too high, etc...

(might be that your HD isn't able to do all the disk read/writes required and OS puts your torrent client on "hold" for disk access, until it ready to do more read/writes)

and it will visible in your "System Event Logs" as a "Warning" with source "disk"

My Computer > Manage > Event Viewer > System

hdd IO errors can delay software access and should be visible through the logs.

[edit] but I have to say the volatility is way too systematic for a random hdd glitch, as if bounces from a point above ~180 kb/s which somehow creates a frequency in this volatility. It may be bad sectors , but it would show up a torrent hash check. May be you should cap you upload in utorrent to 150 kb/s and observe what happens.

very weird

I hate trying to solve problems on a computer that I can not put my hands on 

[Xiong Chiamiov]

I also need a torrent client as good as uTorrent (with webUi and stuff like that) but I have not found one yet for Linux -.-  (maybe you know one)?

Learn to love rtorrent.  It has a multitude of web frontends, but I haven't used any, so I can't give a recommendation.

BTG has a most promising philosophy, but I can't say anything about how well it works.  The last time I used it was 0.9, I think, and not only has 1.0 released, but there are RCs for 2.0.

[AceD]

rutorrent is a really good frontend for rtorrent.

[Jarudin]

external hdd

I think that's your problem.

I've used external disks myself and they always break after a few months.

--Jarudin--

[Talix]

In that case , increase your read buffer in utorrent (a) and seed one torrent (a popular one that can consume all your upload bandwidth).

Make sure your pref settings are within the limit of your hds/OS limit... less upload slots per torrent, global maximum connections not set too high, etc...

Yeah... The problem with these kinds of info is that I do not really know with how much I should inrease, or how many upload slots I should enable... Sorry, but you have to be more specific with that ;p (I'm used to just fireing it up and it works!)

hdd IO errors can delay software access and should be visible through the logs.

It is not IO errors or any kind of fault in the hdd (well, at least not anything causing special logging).

[edit] but I have to say the volatility is way too systematic for a random hdd glitch, as if bounces from a point above ~180 kb/s which somehow creates a frequency in this volatility. It may be bad sectors , but it would show up a torrent hash check. May be you should cap you upload in utorrent to 150 kb/s and observe what happens.

I agree, but lowering the upload does not help, I have tried!.

very weird

I hate trying to solve problems on a computer that I can not put my hands on  

Me too ^^

Learn to love rtorrent.  It has a multitude of web frontends, but I haven't used any, so I can't give a recommendation.

BTG has a most promising philosophy, but I can't say anything about how well it works.  The last time I used it was 0.9, I think, and not only has 1.0 released, but there are RCs for 2.0.

Hmm, thanks alot, I will look into those ones

rutorrent is a really good frontend for rtorrent.

Ahh, even more toys to play with ;O

external hdd

I think that's your problem.

I've used external disks myself and they always break after a few months.

--Jarudin--

Yeah, this one is actually 18 months old, and had its first IO device error after 3 months - besides that it is just a 500gb discount drive, so I guess you can not really expect it to  be any better than that.

Still tho', the next drive I am buying will also be an external one, however, I will use some extra cash to get some quality



I have one question left to ask: If I start using Linux for torrenting with my external drive (formatted ext3 or ReiserFS), will I have problems with compatibility when I see shows on a windows ntfs machine?


Thx guys, I appreciate it!

[Xiong Chiamiov]

I have one question left to ask: If I start using Linux for torrenting with my external drive (formatted ext3 or ReiserFS), will I have problems with compatibility when I see shows on a windows ntfs machine?

No, files are files.  You won't be able to read directly off of your linux filesystem in Windows, though.  FAT32 has good cross-OS compatability, but puts a limit at 2 gigs or somesuch per file.  The NTFS drivers for linux are much better now, but I still don't think I'd trust them for something that important, with that much IO... XFS is actually my choice for storing anime, since it tends to do well with large files (Reiser does well with small ones).

[Talix]

I have one question left to ask: If I start using Linux for torrenting with my external drive (formatted ext3 or ReiserFS), will I have problems with compatibility when I see shows on a windows ntfs machine?

No, files are files.  You won't be able to read directly off of your linux filesystem in Windows, though.  FAT32 has good cross-OS compatability, but puts a limit at 2 gigs or somesuch per file.  The NTFS drivers for linux are much better now, but I still don't think I'd trust them for something that important, with that much IO... XFS is actually my choice for storing anime, since it tends to do well with large files (Reiser does well with small ones).

Interesting.

Ok, Fat32 is not an option, the efficiency of this format is too low compared to other, more regular used ones, and I am not gonna compromise speed and stability for compatibility.

The XFS one you mention seems interesting tho'. Is it read/writable on both windows and Linux? How about the read/write speed compared to ntfs or ext3/reiser?

 -> I think I have to do some googling or reading on wikipedia instead of just asking slack ass questions ;p

[EDIT:] O M G, I finally searched for some proper values to use for "global max connections", "max connections per torrent" and the other settings. After putting them in (even tho I only have 6 as my max number of active torrents) the upload rate skyrocketed to my new max of 200 kB/s (it usually takes some minutes), and is stable.
Usually, the instability starts to happen after about an hour of seeding, but lets see this time. I am feeling confident that the problem is solved because of the quick initialization of the upload.

Before, because I just wanted to get as much upload speed as possible, I didn't really think about the consequences of setting for example global max connections to 20.000, or max upload slots to 15.000. Actually, it seems pretty stupid now where I am thinking it through again
-.-

[K7IA]

Before, because I just wanted to get as much upload speed as possible, I didn't really think about the consequences of setting for example global max connections to 20.000, or max upload slots to 15.000. Actually, it seems pretty stupid now where I am thinking it through again
-.-

Is it 20k? That might mean your modem was congested from too much connections.

Never-the-less, as Jarudin put it, I suggest that you don't use external hdd for p2p activities. Especially usb powered 2.5" ext hdd can blow easily because of heat and USB can not feed the hdd electronics enough power. At least by an ext hdd that can be powered via its own DC power supply.

FYI, concerning your ext hdd that has IO problems, I had the same issue. I disassembled the hdd from it's casing and using it internally now. It was the USB-SATA controller circuit on the ext hdd that was the source of IO errors.

[Talix]

I suggest that you don't use external hdd for p2p activities.

Well, this might be difficult, as my torrentbox is an ASUS eee901, a 9-inch netbook with an internal storage of 14 gb... Ofcourse i could buy one of the internal drives for netbooks, but they only go as big as 250gb and the price is 5x higher per gigabyte than with USB hdds.

Even then, I have plans about inserting an eSATA port on the eeepc. This will require some case modding and motherboard welding, but this is not a problem, as I already upgraded the eee with touchscreen and G3 support.

Especially usb powered 2.5" ext hdd can blow easily because of heat and USB can not feed the hdd electronics enough power. At least by an ext hdd that can be powered via its own DC power supply.

Well, DUH ;p
Yes, I am using an externally powered one.

FYI, concerning your ext hdd that has IO problems, I had the same issue. I disassembled the hdd from it's casing and using it internally now. It was the USB-SATA controller circuit on the ext hdd that was the source of IO errors.

Hmm, as said, this will be difficult as the whole netbook with the screen closed is no "taller" than a SATA drive... ^^

[K7IA]

FYI, concerning your ext hdd that has IO problems, I had the same issue. I disassembled the hdd from it's casing and using it internally now. It was the USB-SATA controller circuit on the ext hdd that was the source of IO errors.

Hmm, as said, this will be difficult as the whole netbook with the screen closed is no "taller" than a SATA drive... ^^

ohh, I meant, you can use it internally elsewhere, the hdd is possibly fine.

ps. I intend to buy a netbook too, for torrenting etc, I was waiting for esata support

[hilander72]

[EDIT:] O M G, I finally searched for some proper values to use for "global max connections", "max connections per torrent" and the other settings. After putting them in (even tho I only have 6 as my max number of active torrents) the upload rate skyrocketed to my new max of 200 kB/s (it usually takes some minutes), and is stable.
Usually, the instability starts to happen after about an hour of seeding, but lets see this time. I am feeling confident that the problem is solved because of the quick initialization of the upload.

Before, because I just wanted to get as much upload speed as possible, I didn't really think about the consequences of setting for example global max connections to 20.000, or max upload slots to 15.000. Actually, it seems pretty stupid now where I am thinking it through again
-.-

20k!? Haha.

You can still reduce the number of upload slots per torrent down to 2-5 if needed. Also check the " use additional slots if upload speed is >90%" and let µtorrent automatically decide if more upload slots are needed.

[Talix]

20k!? Haha.

You can still reduce the number of upload slots per torrent down to 2-5 if needed. Also check the " use additional slots if upload speed is >90%" and let µtorrent automatically decide if more upload slots are needed.

Heh, yeah, it is on also.

Ok, it has worked for more than 6 hours now, so I guess it is solved ^^

I will be sure to let you know if there are any other problems ;p