Yesterday I changed my ISP to one that allows port forwarding. Today the port forwarding has been enabled by the company and I set it up on the router.
After enabling it, my download and upload speed dropped from peaks of 50 MiB/s and valleys of 4-6 MiB/s to a very stable 2 MiB/s. Nothing else has changed in my qBittorrent configuration. If I close the ports again, the speed goes back to normal. I checked if the ports were open on various websites and all of them show that they are forwarded.
I was looking forward to be able to port forward and connect with every possible peer for years, and today has been a big disappointment in that regard!
Has anyone else seen something like this and if so, can you point me to the right direction to fix the problem?
Edit: Thanks everyone for your time and your help! Still working on it, but it’s heartwarming to be on the receiving end of the goodwill of this community.
Sometimes I love the internet!
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If I understand correctly, it sounds like you moved from an ISP that uses CGNAT to one that does not. Does your ISP provide a modem? If so, are you relying on the software features of that modem, or do you have a router inbetween?
You nailed the first part. As for the second one, you’ll have to be patient with me, because I’m not tech savvy and english is not my first language. Mi ISP provides a router, and through the router settings, you can port forward. Is that what you are asking?
Yes, you got it.
It’s possible that however your ISP provided router is designed, it’s got some hidden port forward configuration. If that router has an option typically referred to as “bridge mode”, you could bypass its routing features altogether and use your own router instead.
ISPs often have clauses about using their residential internet for hosting servers or exposed services, and it’s possible your has taken a different approach to mitigating traffic from those sources.
If you can, I’d recommend using your own router rather than what the ISP provides.
I can’t buy a router at the moment, things are not easy, and with the holidays coming, it’s even harder. I had a look to see how much would I be in for and it’s very much outside my budget.
Thank you nonetheless, maybe it’s something I will be able to afford at some point in the future.
Are you sure nothing else is changing? How long did you do these tests for?
I’m completely sure! Yesterday it was running ok all day. Today, I port forwarded and left home for a couple hours, after coming home I checked the computer and saw the low speed. The first thing I did was think about what had changed and I closed the ports. The speed went up immediately. I tested it a couple more times with different ports and the same thing happened.
What the fuck?
Maybe they meter incoming speed? Try running a speedtest using a web server or iperf3 or something.
more likely they just know it’s bittorrent traffic. that’s not hard for an ISP to sniff out, if you aren’t using a VPN. it’s not uncommon for ISPs to throttle bittorrent traffic automatically.
And the reasons they do it run the gamut from ‘mildly shitty’ to ‘profoundly shitty’.
You might consider routing torrent traffic through multiple old garbage laptops on your network, then putting your regular traffic through on an ‘unforwarded’ looking computer at full speed? Might work.
I’ll look into it, but I don’t think this is something I would be capable of doing. Would a couple of raspberrys work?
Yeah but ancient secondhand laptops are about the same price, come with storage, and you’re taking ewaste out of circulation.
That’s a great point!
I would really like avoiding a VPN. Money is tight rn and it’s another payment at the end of the month.
Understandable, but without one you’re totally at the mercy of your ISP. If it turns out they are automatically throttling BitTorrent traffic, there’s nothing you can do without a VPN because on a fundamental level they control your access to the internet. The unfortunate thing about BitTorrent is that it’s not sneaky at all. Your ISP will be able to tell you’re doing it if you aren’t encrypting that traffic.
Yeah, I think I’m just delaying the inevitable. I’ll call the ISP in a couple hours and maybe it will be time to look for a christmas deal with airvpn.
The speed test looks fine. Maybe they meter it as you say. Guess I’ll have to contact them so they can explain wtf is happening to my connection.
How did you do the speed test? You need to have an open port on your side and another IP address outside your network.
Ah, I used the speedtest tool of cloudflare, ookla and openspeedtest. You are referring to https://iperf.fr/, right? When I get home I’ll read how to do it properly!
I am a Unix person I just get it from my distro:s package repository. I don’t know if that URL is the correct address.
The steps are (simplified):
- Get a server on your home IP (your seedbox will do) and a computer on the outside (you may prefer try a VPN) to stress test your connection.
- Open a port to the machine at your house. Run iperf3 server on that port on that machine.
- Connect to that machine from the one outside your home via a command which runs a speed test.
- See results.
This specifically speedtests incoming connections to your IP address. Regular speedtests like fast.com, etc. Test outgoing. With the way TCP/IP works, your ISP can easily differentiate the two.
Man, if this is the simplified version, I’m totally fucked. I understand every word, but the order in which they are stringed together confuses me.
I’m waiting for a call of my ISP’s IT service to see what’s what. If they can’t (or won’t) fix my issue, I’ll bite the bullet and I’m gonna buy a subscription to a VPN.
Thank you for the detailed explanation!
What about other traffic?
Other traffic is fine. That’s what was screwing with me, but after reading some people say they might be fucking with my connection due to seeing it is a bittorrent connection, everything makes more sense.
Are you running on port 6881? Pick a random one above 10000 and see if it changes.
No, I tried with a number of ports all on the 40k and 50k.
Just to be sure, did you already test that the port is actually open and forwarded? e.g. with your torrent client running browse to a port test website like https://canyouseeme.org/ , https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ , etc. put in your torrent client’s incoming port and check if the website can “see” your open port at your torrent client.
And the ISP (or router) itself isn’t doing anything weird to block torrents, right? In your torrent client if you click any working public torrent, click on the Trackers tab, you should see DHT as working along with whatever open trackers are on the public torrent. In other words you won’t see anything like “waiting” something (I forget the exact message you’ll see when DHT is being blocked but it’ll definitely not be working).
EDIT: Also if it’s a new ISP with new router it might have firewall rules set up that are slowing things down, something to check.
Yes, I checked if they were open, and the three sites say they are. I used the ones you sent me, and same results!
Some pwople say that they might be throttling my connection, and I think it is what makes more sense. I’ll have a call with them to see what is happening.
Thanks for pointing out the router firewall, didn’t think about it, but iy is not that either.
your ISP should have nothing to do with your port forwarding, that will have to be set up in your VPN.
I’m not using a VPN. I’m in a country that doesn’t really enforce piracy laws if you are not making a profit.
Are you manually setting your DNS?
No! Should I?
yes, and you should also be using a VPN because it sounds like your ISP is throttling that port because you asked for it to be open and they know what you’re doing with it. either that, or they just automatically throttle bittorrent traffic that their systems sniff out. pick a VPN that allows port forwarding.
And if you pick a vpn that does, it doesn’t matter if your ISP does.
