Ports fowarded but no seeding
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This may be a common problem but none of the other posts I've seen fitted my current conditions.
In the recent days I've noticed no peers are connecting to the torrents I'm seeding. Even though my ports are forwarded and testing in canyouseeme.com comes out okay, no one in the swarm connects to my any seeding. I do however manage to seed on other websites.
The problem is that it is effecting my ratio and from 3.0 I've fallen down to almost 1.0
I've been using this site for a while now and seeding was never an issue but now all of a sudden it is
I use qBittorrent ver.4.3.4.1 on a Windows 10 64 bit machine
Thanks in advance
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So, one of the problems with forwarding ports through your router, and seeding "fro home" is that your ISP will sometimes realize you're torrenting on a particular port, and block it. The thing is, often they'll block it ONLY for specific IPs (the trackers).
Now, for "public" torrents, this isn't a problem - people from other trackers will find you! But on PRIVATE torrents, this is a fatal block.
The fix (you say you're using qBittorrent) is to change your port (Options -> Connection -> Listening Port -> click Random to change it!)
Now a couple of things here:
- Congrats if you know how to forward the ports manually in your router, but you may not NEED to... newer routers will respond to UPnP/NAT-PMP requests... and if you turn that on in your qBittorrent client, your router may "update" automatically! (If it does, then go back and ALSO change the "Use different port on each startup" setting... turning it ON!
- If this setting does NOT work for you, you should upgrade your router! LOL (No, actually, you can just login to your router and change your port forward there!)
- You ALSO need to "fix" your Windows firewall. If you just "trusted" the qBittorrent program in the firewall, this is done automatically! If not, you may need to open those new ports to get things to work again.
More importantly, this can also be alleviated by using a "smart" VPN. (no, those are not free - but they do prevent your ISP from spying on you, as well as making your torrenting more stable -- assuming you pick the right one!)
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Hey @bi4smooth, thanks for the detailed answer!
So if I understood you correctly my ISP can realize I'm seeding torrents and block this site's specific ip correct? Shouldn't I get a message that they are blocking one of my actions? (it's kind of rude).
I'll try changing the ports and hopefully it will help, though for some reason I never managed to forward ports without manually opening the router AND adding an exception in the firewall for these ports (in addition to the qbittorrent ones).
I actually thought about buying a VPN but many people told me it's not really necessary and can even slow down my internet (which is crappy as it is due to old infrastructure). Do you have any recommendations?
Oh, one thing I should mention, yesterday I found out that one torrent did manage to seed a bit. I don't know what made it special since it is still the only one, but maybe it means the problem is elsewhere?Thanks again!
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@poernerlook Yep, VPN your connection and you don't need to worry about port forwarding and stuff. The only thing that I would suggest is test your VPN setup before paying for it. Another thing, is depending on how much money you are willing to spend buy a seedbox, there are several options but the gist is that the seedbox lives in a more sane part of the globe and then you SFTP (the S is important here) to and from the seedbox.
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@vmalar I'm not entirely sure what a seedbox is.
Should I get a VPN in general or is it mainly for the seeding? -
@poernerlook A seedbox is a 'virtual computer' connected to the internet that you can connect to remotely and it only has 1 application running: as torrent client.
- You connect to it via an encrypted channel from your computer so it's private to you
- The seedbox itself is usually on a country different than yours and the same laws don't apply there.
- Seedboxes usually provide a VPN service as a plus (depends on the seedbox)
As I'm writing this I realize that this might be more involved that you want. But it's a possibility. And you are already forwarding ports and stuff. This might be an interesting project for you!
