kalg1975
@grouptelecom.net
| Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Greetings all,
I have been using a bit torrent client for some time now to download. I have never had any issues with download speeds in the almost 8 yrs I have been with sympatico. I was regualrly getting download speeds of well over 100 kb/s.
However, starting on the Sept long weekend, all of my torrent downloads have been essentially capped. The speeds never exceed 30 kb/s. I have tried several different torrent clients to see if this was the issue, and found it was the same for all. I have even tried the enhanced security settings to supposedly avoid ISP throttling and still nothing faster 30 kb/s. This is occuring on all torretns as well...not just poorly seeded ones.
I have run speed tests and they all come out fine and downloading anything other than torrents occurs at normal speeds.
Other ISP's (noteably Rogers) is known to throttle back torrent downloads, claiming bandwidth reasons (which to anyone who knows anything about it, is a crock), I am just wondering if others are experiencing the same issues.
I have placed a few calls to tech support, and couldnt even get someone who knew what a torrent was!!!
Thanks in advance for any help on this folks. | |
|
 Jorge23
join:2007-09-11
Toronto
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? No, Bell isn't throttling your torrents. I'm downloading them at great rates. Is it possible that they're throttling your torrents specifically? Maybe, but highly unlikely. Depending on what bit torrent client you're using and if you have a firewall/router installed, you will need to open up some new ports.
If you have a software firewall installed, make sure that your bit torrent is allowed in the application settings. If you're by chance using any version of Zone Alarm, that's most likely your problem right there. Uninstall it and get another firewall. Comodo and Outpost are other good ones. If you have Vista, Pc Tools Firwall Plus is also good. All of them are free.
If you have a router hooked up separately or if it comes with your Bell modem, you'll need to follow the instructions here Port forwarding and open up the ports to your bit client.
Bell techs aren't going to help you speed up your torrents, this is something you'll have to figure out on your own. | |
|
 |
kalg1975
@grouptelecom.net
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Thanks for the reply.
Like I mentioned I have been using the same exact setup for years now, same OS, same router, same modems, same torrent client with the same setup but suddenly, over the labour day long weekend, my download rates just tanked...and no matter what changes I have tried, nothing seems to be able to get above the 30kb/s.
I have tried several different clients, and ports and port configurations, etc, etc etc. All the "how to's" I have been able to get a hold of. I finally spoke to someone at bell who had an idea of what I was talking about, and yup, they don't throttle anything, so that is one thing ruled out.
Thanks just the same for the reply  I will have to play around a bit more I suppose | |
|
| | 
Deadpool
Go Sens Go
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-29
Canada | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? You also have to consider that other ISP's throttle now, so the seeders you're downloading from may be with those respective ISP's, which would cause you to have crappy torrents.
--
New season starts October 3rd - GO SENS GO | |
|
| | | Jorge23
join:2007-09-11
Toronto
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Wouldn't that be more of a gradual thing though? Watching your torrent speeds diminish a little over time if that were the case. For him to be getting max speeds one day and then having it slow down to a halt the next, to me that's a sign that something is directly effecting his downloads. | |
|
Jorge23
join:2007-09-11
Toronto
| I guess it's something else then, are you sure you didn't install or download any new software?
If you can find the locations of the peers in your bit client and they're all from local locations, something is definitely wrong with your ports. There should be a mix of remote/local locations.
I know there's a slim chance this works, but it's worth a try, restore your computer to a date a little before the problem appeared using system restore. If you haven't installed any new software since then, you won't lose anything. | |
|
PostAndRun
@bell.ca
| Kalg,
I too have been dicking around with settings since the long weekend, figuring that it was utorrent settings or poor trackers or seeds etc. Now I know I am not alone and realize that I have been wasting precious time. 30 is the speed I am seeing as well. Coincidence that we both have those dl speeds? I think not.
Time to complain or switch to someone else.
Thanks for your post. I just stumbled into this forum by chance, and I'm glad that I did.
Cheers. | |
|
| Prelude76
join:2007-08-30
Barrie, ON
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? I dont know why everyone says 'no they dont throttle' like they know the inner working of Bell, when I myself got that magical 30kb/s limit.
That's why I left Bell in first place.
exact same torrents, same trackers, same utorrent settings, used to be fast on Bell, then dropped to 30kbs, and now that I'm on teksavvy, they are fast once again.
so Kalg, you're not alone. perhaps they are throttling only certain users or certain areas, but there definitely is throttling going on.
But this thread will get locked and forgotten just like all the other 'Bell is throttling my torrents' threads. | |
|
| |
kalg1975
@bell.ca
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Wow, ok well its good to know that i am not going completely nuts. I greatly appreciate all the replies.
I am hesitant to blame other seeders or locations of those seeders. These are very popular files I am trying to download with thousands of seeders. But again, that is not the troubling fact, it was that one day...200 kb/s, next day 30...and never any faster.
I tried the restore as well Jorge, as I was grasping at straws as I had literally installed nothing new in months (with the exception of Microsoft updates) and even after the restore same thing.
I am not trying to cook up a conspiracy or anything, just found it odd that no matter what I did...30 always came up the magic number on several different torrent clients (utorrent, azerus, bit torrent, etc).
Alas, thanks all for the input, it is greatly appreciated. | |
|
| | |
kalg1975
@bell.ca
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Oh one other question, to the two folks that mentioned the same problem (if you happen upon this thread again) what area of the country are you in...myself I am in ottawa, S end...just curious if perhaps it is a localized event.
Thanks again. | |
|
| | | | 
TSI Martin
Bilingual Tech Support
Premium
join:2006-02-23
Chatham, ON | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? you are using something to protect you (peerguardian) right... you wouldn't want to get swampped for nothing would you? | |
|
| | | |
Deadpool
Go Sens Go
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-29
Canada
 ·Bell Sympatico
| said by kalg1975 :
Oh one other question, to the two folks that mentioned the same problem (if you happen upon this thread again) what area of the country are you in...myself I am in ottawa, S end...just curious if perhaps it is a localized event.
Thanks again.
I'm in Ottawa as well and I was downloading at 520 kBps last night.
--
New season starts October 3rd - GO SENS GO | |
|
| | | | | jpabboud
join:2005-12-12
Montreal, QC
1 edit | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? said by Deadpool  :I'm in Ottawa as well and I was downloading at 520 kBps last night. Maybe we need to put those rumors to rest, can someone setup a tracker with say a 100 Meg file to download ?
We could post it here and all the users on DSLR could seed (at near the max upload speed) during those hours. | |
|
| | Reimer
join:2006-08-14
Toronto, ON
| said by Prelude76 :I dont know why everyone says 'no they dont throttle' like they know the inner working of Bell, when I myself got that magical 30kb/s limit. That's why I left Bell in first place. exact same torrents, same trackers, same utorrent settings, used to be fast on Bell, then dropped to 30kbs, and now that I'm on teksavvy, they are fast once again. so Kalg, you're not alone. perhaps they are throttling only certain users or certain areas, but there definitely is throttling going on. But this thread will get locked and forgotten just like all the other 'Bell is throttling my torrents' threads. I don't really know whether Bell is actually throttling or not since I've experienced no such thing on my own line and I'm a fairly heavy user.
But you can't compare a torrent on one day and then try the same torrent on another and say it's the same thing. It's not. | |
|
| | | 
rizzler
join:2004-07-07
canada | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? I am also a very heavy torrent user...I havent had any problem with my torrents. I am on a private torrent site..invites only and always have the same speed. | |
|
| | | | Prelude76
join:2007-08-30
Barrie, ON
1 edit | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? i realize torrent speeds go up and down, depending on the day, on phase of moon, whatever. But when some torrents like EZTV torrents on mininova with 1,000+ seeds stop at 30kb/s on the dot for days (while my uploades where still normal, in 80 to 90 range), something fishy was definitely going on. I tried different ports, even throwing it on FTP port 25, and still no luck.
All I know is those same torrents came back to their full speeds after leaving Bell.
I'm in Barrie area, by the way.
I should note that our Bell Business at work running full tilt in uTorrent, 350+ kb/s. never slows down.
So something is going on, but it could be experimental, and perhaps on a user basis or area basis. | |
|
| | | | | 
Glen1
These Are The Good Ol' Days.
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-24
GTA Canada | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Try using your Bell Business Internet ID at home and see if there is a difference. You will be able to log on as it is the same network. See if you are throttled then.
--
My Canada includes Quebec. | |
|
| | | | | |
kalg1975
@grouptelecom.net
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Morning All,
8 years with Sympatico, and I was never aware I even had a Bell Buisness Interenet ID. I will have to hunt that down.
At this point I would settle for an honest answer from bell really. Again, not trying to be an alarmist or anything, and I know the default position on tech help boards for someone with an uncommon problem is that they must be doing something wrong.
However, in this case, as I have said NOTHING changed...just the day. I have been downloading torrents for years, never had any issues and no I don't think bell is targetting me specifically, however it simply appears like there is a cap at 30 kb/s.
However since I appear to be in the vast minority on this one, and bell is denying that any throttling is going on (which still is a possibility) I think I am hosed...and I just committed to a new contract too...brilliant. | |
|
| | | | | | |
Glen1
These Are The Good Ol' Days.
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-24
GTA Canada
·Bell Sympatico
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? There obviously are different types of Business services, I am assuming you are on a PPPoE based service. That would enable you to troubleshoot whether the issue is on your line or associated with the user ID or IP assigned. Keep track of the assigned IP before you disconnect with the Sympatico IP and see if it changes when you use the Business ID. I have used Teksavvy test IDs, in the past, to try to find an issue on my line. I would get a completely different IP with the Teksavvy Id on my line at home...just a few ideas to assist. You could also go into the newest forum and ask for "one on one" help. PM me for "what to ask".
--
My Canada includes Quebec. | |
|
| | | | | | |
rescin
@bell.ca | Yup, they're throttling BT, (occurs for me from 5pm-midnight). I doubt anyone is going to publicly admit it though. I'm leaving in a few weeks over to TekSav.
| |
|
malvernkid
join:2006-08-22
Pickering, ON
1 edit | I too am getting throttled speeds, never goes above 30 and like others my setup has not changed at all.
I turned on encryption in utorrent and now my speed seems to be throttled at 150.. | |
|
MisawaGQ
Divi Filius
Premium
join:2002-12-19
Mississauga | I'm being throttled at 450kB/sec right now, at 10:30 PM EST on a Saturday night.
--
"Let them hate, so long as they fear" -- Lucius Accius | |
|
Cine
@bell.ca
| I also thought I was going nuts. I've noticed throttling for the past week - 10 days. It's shifting in & out but seems most consistent between 5:00 PM & midnight. Usually I get cut down to roughly 70/70 for an hour or two, then it's down to 26/26.
I've tried getting answers from Bell - after an hour+ with tech support I finally got someone who understood what bittorrent was, he promised to call me back the following day after he got info from the business office. Needless to say, no follow-up so I tried the business office who referred me back to tech support. Urgh!
I don't know if images are allowed here, but can post images of the uTorrent speed grid. In these you can see the throttling. Most dramatic in the grid is the perfect flatline during the thottling period - I've never had bittorrent traffic (and multiple torrents active) that moved at an exactly consistent speed for 12 minutes at a time. (After about 12 minutes I get a brief improvement for about a minute - it's a consistent pattern. )
I'm in downtown Toronto. | |
|
| 
Sman52
join:2004-05-14
Thornhill ON
·Bell Sympatico
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Yes they throttle! Maybe not everyone right now but I know that my torrents are under 30kB/s from 5pm to midnight. Miraculously after midnight I'm back up to over 500kB/s. Can't wait for about an hour from now. What gets me is Sympatico's silence about this matter. I was in a Bell store the other day and saw a poster with one of the beavers noting consistent high speed. Their should be an asterisk to that statement. We have Expressvu, Mobility and a land line from Bell but no-warning-backhanded-throttling will be my reason to say bye bye Bell. I expect technology to make things faster not slower. | |
|
soldatenhund
@bell.ca | Yes and they don't tell the truth or want to about pretty much anything. | |
|
malvernkid
join:2006-08-22
Pickering, ON | well it's after midnight and my speed hasn't improved at all... | |
|
Omr
join:2004-01-10
M1S-1B3
| Well to those that believe you are throttling try this torrent:
Ubuntu ISO
This torrent is for sure going to reach 500KB/s, and should be an indicate whether BT is being throttled or your setup might be giving an issue, or that everything is normal and those Torrents go at 30KB/s regardless. So test this torrent and see how fast it goes ... you don't have to download the whole thing, just see if it goes to 500KB/s and can keep those high speeds for like 5minutes. | |
|
| 
shwing
A Sphincter Says What ?
join:2002-11-14
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? from Windsor,ON | |
|
Cine
@bell.ca
| It's 5:15 PM and I see I'm back down to the moderate throttle rate, in this case 54/54. If it follows the normal pattern I'll drop to 26/26 within the hour.
The following is my uTorrent speed grid. At this point I had 6 active torrents, from 4 different trackers. I can't see any way this is just a chance occurrence.
 | |
|
| |
jpabboud
join:2005-12-12
Montreal, QC
| Getting over 500 KB/s here in Montreal at 5:56 PM.
I'm synced at 7 Megs. | |
|
Omr
join:2004-01-10
M1S-1B3 | Yes but Cine are you trying out the Ubuntu torrent? Try that out and post some pics, or feedback. | |
|
|
Cine
@bell.ca
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Omr, I tried the Ubuntu, I tried other very active software, I even tried adding music that I'd otherwise have no interest in. Once the throttling is in effect nothing has any impact. The only change I can achieve is which torrent gets the bulk of my incredibly shrunken bandwidth.
Here's a current shot of roughly 9 hours of utorrent traffic. Ubunto was included for a few hours but I dropped it a while ago. The precipitous drop was about 4:30 PM. An hour later it plateaued at 26/26, with occasional mini-spurts it's 11:30 PM now & I'm shifting between 26 & 76.
The apparent 'shaping' of my bandwidth is pretty dramatic in this image. I don't see how this could be caused by anything but Sympatico.
»img453.imageshack.us/my.php?imag···lep0.jpg | |
|
| | jpabboud
join:2005-12-12
Montreal, QC | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now???
Cine what about direct downloads from the web ? | |
|
| | |
Cine
@bell.ca
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Direct downloads show no throttling. Speed tests done while throttled uTorrent is running appear normal as well. As far as I can see it's just torrent traffic that's affected. It started roughly 10 days ago. And it keeps to the same rough schedule, kicking in between 4 - 5PM and returning to normal between midnight & 2 AM. | |
|
| | | | jpabboud
join:2005-12-12
Montreal, QC
1 edit | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? Are you behind a router or VOIP gateway ? I'd suggest connecting your modem directly to your computer and testing it again tomorrow. | |
|
| | | | |
Cine
@bell.ca
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? jpabboud, When it first ground to a halt I assumed a problem on my end & tried all the usual fixes - reboot, alternative bittorrent app, removed my router, etc. Nothing had any effect. I don't see how a router could possibly cause this to occur with such regularity.
No VOIP here.
I've been using a lot of bandwidth for the last few months so it's possible I've attracted Bell's attention. So far I seem to still be on unlimited service - maybe this is there way to try & mitigate my usage. | |
|
olegs69
join:2006-06-20
Toronto, ON
1 edit | 8:38 am on Monday sept 17,2007.
Been like this for a few days now. Does not seem to get better throughout the day  .
Pape and Danforth area (Toronto ,ON). Bloody beavers. | |
|
|
See 7 replies to this post |
|
Cine
@bell.ca
| Since I didn't post my uTorrent settings I'd better clarify this point. Upload & download remain uncapped on my client. Traffic shifts dramatically (as seen in the images I've posted) from acceptable speeds to what appears to be throttled. During this period I have been running multiple torrents - from different trackers.
The timing of the throttling is imprecise but it it on a very predictable schedule. It happens if I'm at the computer at the time, or if I'm miles away.
In short, I'm open to the idea that my own computer is plotting against me  but I find it far-fetched. Likewise, I know I'm capable of making mistakes, but such consistent & regularly scheduled mistakes are beyond my skill-set.
If there's any call for them, I can post several more captures of the uTorrent speed grid, showing variously the throttling & opening up of my bittorrent traffic.
It's now 2:00 PM and my bittorrent traffic appears to be absolutely normal. In about 3 hours I'm sure it will be back to a crawl. | |
|
ShaneBarnes
join:2007-08-24
North York, ON
| Figure I could post this in here instead of starting a new post, since it deals with Bittorrent.
All of a sudden my Azureus client shows me as firewalled.. and I really don't think I changed anything on my end. It's done this intermittently before, shown as firewalled, and corrected itself eventually, but now I'm not sure what's happened. Is it somethings on bell's end? Have I reached my download cap or something and they've capped said port for now?
Sorry if I'm talking nonsense, I know a little, but im no networking expert. | |
|
|
| 
Doci
Toothless Fairy
join:2003-02-01 | Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? It appears so. | |
|
Cine
@bell.ca
| Well, for what it's worth, tonight was an oddity. Instead of the full-throttle it's cutting me down every five minutes or so. My speed grid is jumping up to 300+ then sharply back down to 70. Much better that it's been for the last few weeks but really not quite acceptable yet.
Last week I cancelled my service (provisionally, with the hope that this issue could still be resolved. ) Did so because Bell demands 1 month to process the cancellation. Today I was told that the cancellation was not put through & I will have to wait 30 days from today. So that's an extra week I get to pay Bell for service that just isn't up to scratch. More than anything, I'm peeved that Bell penalizes me because their agent failed to file the order.
(I wasn't crazy about the month to process the cancellation but I didn't whine in here about that kink. ) | |
|
|
See 11 replies to this post |
|
art
join:2001-01-24
Bowmanville, ON
| Thanks for this thread. Saves me from a pile of frustration with why my torrents run slow during parts of the day. Kept thinking it was everything from configuration problems to line issues. For me this has been going on a lot longer then the beginning of September though.
This morning I downloaded a torrent at around 150 kb/s but since about 5 pm the maximum I am seeing is 30 kb/s. I did some testing with the torrent on 2 computers and saw that even when I was downloading the same torrent to seperate machines the combined speed stayed around 30 kb/s. Pause one or the other and the remaining one went up to the 30 by itself. Then tested it on one machine with another popular torrent and again the totals equaled around 30.
Clear to me that the torrents are being throttled to around 30 kbs/s. | |
|
BozoTheCl0wn
join:2005-04-01
H0H0H0
| Guys,
To help determine if this is done only in certain areas, for those who are experiencing the throttling please post what device you use to exit the network. Maybe we can narrow it down that way. You can do this by posting a traceroute:
traceroute to www.bell.ca (204.101.196.36), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 2.810 ms 1.159 ms 1.327 ms
2 64.230.197.203 (64.230.197.203) 14.148 ms 13.121 ms 11.664 ms
So I don't have any throttling going on that I can see and I exit via "64.230.197.203" (in Toronto). The first hop is my router...
Anyways... Just a thought.
| |
|
UberSteve
@bell.ca | I lost all Bell connectivity - land line and internet - for about 24 hours yesterday. We were told it was a switch issue.
Today, my max torrent download is 30kB/s. Bell has implemented torrent throttling in a very dishonest way. | |
|
|
Jorge24
@bell.ca
| Re: Sympatico throttling Bit Torrents now??? I had the same thing happen to me, somebody turned off my connection for a couple of hours, I called in and they said it would be back on very soon. I knew something was up, it was like they had a scheduled appointment to do something on my line, that's how set-up it seemed. Although my torrents are still fine, my speed has taken a hit, I was getting 7 easily, sometimes higher before my line went down, I can't on any speed tesr get to 6 anymore. And the hit didn't take affect the same night, it would have been too suspicious that way, the next morning I saw the change, but I was fully expecting something like that to happen. I was actually surprised when the connection was back-up that the degradation wasn't sudden.
I have no doubt in my mind from the undeniable evidence in this thread that Bell is indeed throttling torrents. I think as mentioned around here before that it is in some kind of trial mode and only targeting specific users/locations at the moment. Let's all hope that this trial doesn't turn into a full out throttle operation by Bell.
They're not fooling anyone, at least not the knowledgeable ones. | |
|
|
| (topic locked) |
|
