Torrenting in the Twilight Zone

[Roger3p]

Okay, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone (I know, it's funny I used that analogy because of my avatar right? No? Lame!? *sigh* I'll try harder next time).

Problem:
I keep getting response errors for bakabt and a couple of other trackers. Happens on http and udp. "Response 0" type errors.

Details:
1) I have done nothing (no updates, settings changes, etc) since changing OS a few weeks back but this just started a few hours ago.
2) I have eliminated tracker errors because it makes no sense that so many go down simultaneously, including public bt.
3) Recently, last hour or so, I am still getting this error but I seem to have found peers for some bakabt torrents (which shouldn't work for bakabt torrents because I can't use PEX or LPD for bakabt torrents AFAIK).
4) Bakabt is the one that goes down the most.

Specs:
OS: AntiX Linux (It's a Debian Testing based, lightweight distro).
Client: Transmission 2.52
Router: NetGear

Any theories on what's going on here? Did I divide by zero? Networking isn't really my field so I'm a little confused here. Tks in advance since I'm about ready to go to bed.

[Freedom Kira]

Temporarily try another client and see if your torrents work there. When I use Transmission, I don't feel like it's very... solid. It could be the problem.

Deluge and qBitTorrent are known to be pretty solid for Linux users. Personally I use KTorrent, which works decently in Ubuntu, but I'm not sure about your distro, because it was built in KDE.

[Lillymon]

Personally I use KTorrent, which works decently in Ubuntu, but I'm not sure about your distro, because it was built in KDE.

This part of your comment doesn't seem to make any sense, you start talking about distributions then end talking about a desktop environment.

Either way, if KTorrent is in the repositories for your distribution then it should work fine. You'll need to install a load of additional libraries if you're not using KDE and it may not look pretty if your window manager doesn't integrate Qt applications with native look & feel, but functionality should not be impaired. qBitTorrent would have the same look & feel problems since it uses Qt but doesn't require as many additional libraries as KTorrent. Deluge uses GTK+ and so has the opposite problem, getting native look & feel on my KDE system was an unbelievable pain but it would look fine on GNOME, Xfce, or any other environment where GTK+ is native.

[Roger3p]

Thanks for the info. Luckily, the problem seems to have stopped. Still, I'm curious to try a new client at some point (on that long todo list) and I want to test it if I get a repeat of today. I'll have a look at Deluge, qBittorrent and Ktorrent and see which is the lightest weight.
Maybe I'll give the ISP a call tomorrow and ask if they've been "upgrading" - their euphemism for "we broke something and had to fix it".

An aside: Am running Fluxbox, btw. Have no "desktop", just a wallpaper and a 16px toolbar displaying my current "desktop", open windows and a system clock. Everything is either on my r-click menu and my very commonly used stuff has keybindings. I'm a compulsive minimalist, lol. I presume I have gtk+ libraries because Skype works/looks fine.

[Bozobub]

If this happens again, try power-cycling your router (wait at least 30 sec. before you plug it back in); I'm willing to bet at least $0.25 that'll fix your issue.  Most consumer-grade routers don't really have enough RAM to support the routing table, especially if you use P2P heavily and/or have a cheaper.  Furthermore, many routers keep IPs on the routing table far too long.  For example, Linksys WRT54Gs keep IPs for 24 or 48 hours (I forget which) — which is utterly insane — and after version 4, they halved the RAM.

[Lillymon]

Thanks for the info. Luckily, the problem seems to have stopped. Still, I'm curious to try a new client at some point (on that long todo list) and I want to test it if I get a repeat of today. I'll have a look at Deluge, qBittorrent and Ktorrent and see which is the lightest weight.

Well if you want minimalist (and clearly you do) you should give rTorrent a look as well. It's high-performance and entirely text-based, so toolkits are irrelevant. There's a fair learning curve to it, but once mastered many swear by it. Otherwise, Deluge is able to run headless as well, I only use the GTK+ UI when I need to check or change anything, and it can be started automatically by an init script at boot. Deluge also has web and console interfaces but they don't seem as complete or polished as the GTK+ interface to me.

I presume I have gtk+ libraries because Skype works/looks fine.

Having recently installed Skype on Linux I can confirm it uses Qt4 (same as KTorrent and qBitTorrent), not GTK+.

[Freedom Kira]

This part of your comment doesn't seem to make any sense, you start talking about distributions then end talking about a desktop environment.

Not sure if I mis-typed something, but what you explained was basically what I wanted to say.

I'll have a look at Deluge, qBittorrent and Ktorrent and see which is the lightest weight.

KTorrent is definitely the heaviest of those. I'm running about 500 torrents, and it's using about 650MB of (virtual) RAM. Also, what Lillymon said about rTorrent.

[buchno]

KTorrent is definitely the heaviest of those. I'm running about 500 torrents, and it's using about 650MB of (virtual) RAM. Also, what Lillymon said about rTorrent.

Oui, I'm running about 750 torrents, and rtorrent is currently using about 220MB.

[Roger3p]

Well, my ISP (or rather the nervous kid I spoke to) swears blind that there's nothing out of the ordinary going on. Honestly it sounded as though he wanted to be on the other end of the phone even less than me. It's funny because I phoned up ready to blast them and ended up feeling sorry for the guy instead.
Oh well, doesn't matter much anyway, I'm moving home soon (downsizing a little sadly) and my contract ends at the end of February or March. I haven't renewed it (not going to) because there's an established company offering a line + router + 1Mbps uncapped line for the equivalent of $30 USD per month (similar to what I'm paying for a limited data plan and speed-throttling during peek-use). Where I live this is a good deal although to US and UK residents it's likely laughable. The only downside is it's a 2-year contract.

Having recently installed Skype on Linux I can confirm it uses Qt4 (same as KTorrent and qBitTorrent), not GTK+.

Ah, it seems I was mistaken. Dunno why I had it in my head that Skype Linux was GTK.

Well if you want minimalist (and clearly you do) you should give rTorrent a look as well. It's high-performance and entirely text-based, so toolkits are irrelevant.

Just grabbed it, played with it, looks interesting. Learning curve doesn't seem too bad but it definitely makes its presence known
Will give Deluge a try at some point too, but this rTorrent looks too fun right now so I'll likely keep playing with it for a while.

try power-cycling your router (wait at least 30 sec

I tried that sadly. It usually does solve my internet problems though.

[Roger3p]

[Topic Resolved]

Well, I've ruled out the client. Got rTorrent working and tried a random torrent with hundreds of seeders and nothing (didn't know how to check the errors yet so I'm jus assuming it was the same error).
I also gave Deluge a shot and I kept getting sporadic errors. It must be my internet connection oh well when the month end comes, I 'll be terminating them and then hopefully I can get the new guys in and get everything installed quickly.