qBittorrent slows down my entire internet connection

[KOS223]

Using qBittorrent 3.1.3 on Windows 8, I am very disappointed to report that while downloading a file with qB, the rest of my entire internet connection is slowed down horrendously. That means, while downloading with qB, browsing pages with Firefox for instance becomes impossible. They simply won't load or show up. My parents, who are browsing on a seperate laptop with the same internet connection via WLAN report the same problem.


Funny things are:

- The file in qB itself seems to download normally.
- Pausing the download does not entirely get rid of the problem. Doing so will only enable Firefox to load pages like it's 1996 (very sluggish). I have to shut down qB completely in order to have normal access to internet.
- qBittorrent doesn't reach the maximum download rate capacity that is possible with my internet connection. Living in a rural place, I can normally reach up to around 120 kbps, qBittorrent however loads with averagely 80-100 kbps (settings are set to infinite rate of course)
- Looking through the options in qB all settings appear to be normal. To be specific, they're all set to standard.
- The problem does not persist when I download files with other applications. I can download at full speed with Firefox and still normally browse the internet. So it MUST be an issue with qBittorrent.


So what gives?

[loki]

Set upload limits, also make sure your router is up to the task to run enough connections for p2p. You may also try uTP bandwidth management, which is supposed to adjust download/upload speed based on network demand (though some say it might not work correctly).

Same as the other thread, make sure you use a different port, other than the standard port or port range for torrents in case ISP is throttling "common p2p ports."

Torrents are different from "traditional" download methods in a number of ways, main one being that you have to simultaneously upload and download, and keep connected to multiple peers and seeds in the swarm and or DHT, whereas downloading a file with Firefox you connect to 1 computer to download and no simultaneous upload. (so also leave a certain percentage in your upload speed limit to account for maxing out one or the other)

So after you have "properly" set up your qB and you still have problems with it we can discuss further issues which may be at fault. I can assure you that qB itself is not at fault, I can load a popular torrent (an ubuntu disk image) and almost immediately see 3.5MB/s out of theoretical 3.75MB max from my connection with 99/100 seeders. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads 13.10 64bit desktop to be exact.

Lastly, make sure you differentiate between KB/s, MB/s, kbps, mbps. And note that qB at least refers to speeds in MiB or KiB, which is technically correct but it's also not a direct exact comparison to MB or KB.

[KOS223]

[quote="loki"]
Set upload limits
[/quote]

I've tried this to no avail, but actually there's no need to do so. Please read my post carefully again: the problem persists even if all downloads are paused.

[quote="loki"]
also make sure your router is up to the task to run enough connections for p2p
[/quote]

The router is not the problem. I don't get the same problem using uTorrent or any other downloading program. As weird as it sounds, but the problem is qBittorrent.

[quote="loki"]
You may also try uTP bandwidth management, which is supposed to adjust download/upload speed based on network demand (though some say it might not work correctly).
[/quote]

uTP bandwidth management is enabled by default, and that doesn't help.

[quote="loki"]
I can assure you that qB itself is not at fault, I can load a popular torrent (an ubuntu disk image) and almost immediately see 3.5MB/s out of theoretical 3.75MB max from my connection with 99/100 seeders. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads 13.10 64bit desktop to be exact.
[/quote]

I added that ubuntu disk image for qBittorrent to download, but same problem. qBittorrent doesn't reach the maximum speed of what's possible with my internet connection. Why is that?

[quote="loki"]
Lastly, make sure you differentiate between KB/s, MB/s, kbps, mbps. And note that qB at least refers to speeds in MiB or KiB, which is technically correct but it's also not a direct exact comparison to MB or KB.
[/quote]

I was talking about KB/s of course. And yes, my internet is that slow


By the way, qBittorrent fails to seed/upload data after I finished downloading a file. I don't need to mention, that I relentlessly enabled all settings in qBittorrent to fully upload data. What the hell is wrong with this program?

[loki]

Forgot to mention set connection limits based on your speed, should be scaled way back based on your limited bandwidth.

[xaskell]

I have the same problem. I setted up  upload and download limits and checked everything else. But when qBittorent turned on nothing works with internet or work with very slow speed, despite I setted very low upload and download limits for qBittorent. I don't know what to do else.

[Seedthis]

[quote="KOS223"]
By the way, qBittorrent fails to seed/upload data after I finished downloading a file. I don't need to mention, that I relentlessly enabled all settings in qBittorrent to fully upload data. What the hell is wrong with this program?
[/quote]

We're talking about torrents, the data uploaded is highly dependent on how much seeders and leechers are present in the torrent swarm. If there are a ton of seeders and no leechers, you're not going to upload anything. They key with torrents is the long-term seeding. Of course, that demands a lot of space if you want to keep any file you've downloaded and seed it. I've never had issues with qBt and upload but i have a 100/10 home connection. One port is opened in my router (the default one, 6881, is to be avoided as some ISP throttle it) and that's all. I reach the maximum speed of my connection without any problem and browse the web at the same time on several computers.