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Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

clatz
Grafter
Posts: 95
Registered: ‎21-08-2007

Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

I've recently signed up to Plusnet Unlimited Fibre and now have the most amazingly fast line speed, according to Speedtest.net. A consistent and steady 73mb down and 17.5 upstream.
However, this has not translated into real world gains. Before, when I was on ADSL, I used to download over P2P at around 750kbps. Using Fibre I struggle to even achieve that? I occasionally get just over 1mbps, but 90% of the time it is around 600kbps or slower.
As this was one of my main reasons for moving to fibre you can imagine my disappointment. Has anyone else got any advice or experiences to share regarding P2P performance on Plusnet Fibre?
Sad
9 REPLIES 9
clatz
Grafter
Posts: 95
Registered: ‎21-08-2007

Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

To add some information I've just discovered.
I notice when I check my PC performance VSMON.EXE is hogging the cpu (Zonealarm). When I temporarily stopped this speeds went up from 300kbps to 1mbps, still not fantastic, but maybe limited by the other ends connection speed?
Obviously I don't want to run without a firewall or anti-virus, but maybe I've stumbled on something.
Huh
dvorak
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Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

Sounds like it's something on your system, I hit line speed on p2p traffic.
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HairyMcbiker
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Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

I too can get maxed out if I let it on p2p using deluge. Pause the f/w and if the speed on a well seeded torrent doesn't climb, check your p2p settings. Max clients/max half open/max SPEED/etc.
clatz
Grafter
Posts: 95
Registered: ‎21-08-2007

Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

thanks for the replies. Glad to hear it is possible., now just to find out why it isn't working for me.
Using ZoneAlarm Firewall & AV, which I paused. The speed improved but not that much (1mbps)
Booted up a different PC and tried it, but still not much improvement, used Microsoft Security Essentials on that one instead of Zone Alarm
I'm using uTorrent as my client, but will try Deluge as an alternative.
Have the Plusnet supplied Technicolor TG582n FTTC  Router, which I was full of dread about, but actually it has great wireless performance, (although the PC I download on is hard wired).
HairyMcbiker
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Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

Check also you have the incoming port open on the router (using upnp or manually)
Try with a well seeded torrent like one of the linux distro's with 100's of seeders. (You don't have to d/l the whole thing just see if you get full speed)
clatz
Grafter
Posts: 95
Registered: ‎21-08-2007

Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

OK, will check. The Technicolor router is quite cryptic compared to my old ADSL TP-Link unit and not nearly as well laid out. I had upnp ticked so, if I understand it correctly that should handle the ports?
I've also set up a manual entry too, but neither action made any difference. Getting 1.4MiB/s on a well seeded torrent.
There is nothing in my configuration Plusnet end that could limit me is there?
HairyMcbiker
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Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

Check the firewall settings there, under the user control panel somewhere. I have it disabled.
clatz
Grafter
Posts: 95
Registered: ‎21-08-2007

Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

Felt really uncomfortable turning off the firewall in the router, but it made a difference! Thanks  Smiley
I tried a download on my laptop which is running Windows 8 (no Zonealarm Firewall) and the torrent went straight to 2Mb/s, still nowhere near line speed but an improvement. Then, as an extra test I started another torrent at the same time on my desktop (Windows XP) , that also went up to about 1.5Mb/s.
I also increased the size of my torrent client disk cache as I noticed they were getting full and that was hammering the download speed.
I notice that the speeds of the torrents are not particularly constant, hunting up and down through the download process
My conclusion is that ZoneAlarm is very unfriendly when it comes to torrents. It causes VSMON.EXE to go into overdrive and virtually brings the PC to it's knees (hogging 100% of one processor core and even spilling over onto the other one). 
I also learned that not all torrents are made equal, even when they appear to have loads of seeds. Some are fast and some simply are not.
Whether I can live with not running the firewall in my router remains to be seen. I may just disable it whilst downloading.
Additionally I have learned that I have much to learn  Cheesy especially about how to get the best out of uTorrent.
Thanks so much for your help, you've given me some good pointers I now need to invest some time to further understand how to tune things for the best results.
Smiley
HairyMcbiker
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Re: Fibre speeds not translated to better speed - P2P

If you are unhappy with it off try it on LOW. It shouldn't affect the p2p then.
I have it off, only the f/w on the router, and no local f/w or AV but then again I am running Linux  Grin