"heavy duty" cable modem?

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Deleted member 12106

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Ok, I've been at my house going on 6 years. In that time, I bet you I have had 6 diff modems. The problem I am having, is the fact that it seems I am killing my modems. My signals are great, my equip on my end is all great. I notice when I am torrenting, and even with the bandwidth throttled back, that my internet is still slow and times out. Now, its not right away when I torrent, only when I let it go for long periods. If I shut down my torrents, its back to normal.

My question is, is there a modem out there that would be better suited for the higher amount of traffic? I am by no means interested in stealing service from my provider, just interested in improving my experience:p

I also remote into my home systems from work, so its important that I do not have the issues I have suffered from in the past.
 
Sounds more like a router issue than modems...

If you plug directly into your modem do you still experience these slowdowns?

Also you might try throttling your torrents down, or even setting some sort of QoS to reserve some bandwidth for HTTP traffic.
 
What os you torrenting on? It could be a simple fix of setting up a linux box to do that, or even getting one of those newfangled router or NAS thinggies that support BT natively.
 
d3c1us said:
Sounds more like a router issue than modems...

If you plug directly into your modem do you still experience these slowdowns?

Also you might try throttling your torrents down, or even setting some sort of QoS to reserve some bandwidth for HTTP traffic.
Click to expand...

I've had 3 new routers over the last 2 years. The router I have now is a linksys wrt54g-tm w/ dd-wrt. Its done the same with all of the routers. This router is suppose to be better for high volumes of traffic.

No, I have not plugged a pc directly into the modem. I would need a way to disperse the internet to my home network.
 
Keiichi said:
What os you torrenting on? It could be a simple fix of setting up a linux box to do that, or even getting one of those newfangled router or NAS thinggies that support BT natively.
Click to expand...

win2k3. I don't have a lot of experience with linux. Let me rephrase, noting productive, with linux:p
 
the linksys router cannot handle the torrents, most soho routers cant.

drop the connection down in utorrent or whatever program ur using.

or build a better router.

it is not the cable modem.
 
Do you have an old Pentium 3 era or better box laying around? You could turn that old box into a Smoothwall or Clarkconnect box. Much better than DD-WRT but space can be a factor (which is why I don't run one now).
 
Yes, drop the dd-wrt, that fucker can only handle something like 320pps (when I tested mine). Build yourself a cheep linux system to use as a router/firewall. Also I use a Motorola 5100 as my choice of cable modem. I can usually bittorrent and play TF2 at same time.

P.S. there are 'evil' bittorrent clients out there that will flood the network. If you use bitcomet you can kinda tell when it's happening by the speed in the title bar not matching the speed your getting from the peers (there is overhead, so it won't really match, but its obvious when your getting 1k/s and title bar says 40k/s)
 
vxspiritxv said:
Yes, drop the dd-wrt, that fucker can only handle something like 320pps (when I tested mine). Build yourself a cheep linux system to use as a router/firewall. Also I use a Motorola 5100 as my choice of cable modem. I can usually bittorrent and play TF2 at same time.

P.S. there are 'evil' bittorrent clients out there that will flood the network. If you use bitcomet you can kinda tell when it's happening by the speed in the title bar not matching the speed your getting from the peers (there is overhead, so it won't really match, but its obvious when your getting 1k/s and title bar says 40k/s)
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 5100 is a huge improvement over he 4100 I used to use.

So where does the bandwidth go to with these "evil" BT clients?

Also, if you have the money (or rather, desire to spend a little money), you could make that linux system out of a VIA system. Benefit is that they are very small and quiet so they shouldn't be much different that a regular router.
 
This sounds more like you are excceding the maximum number of sessions the router can handle...

Fix:
Configure your BT-client correctly to match your hardware.
 
450 said:
Do you have an old Pentium 3 era or better box laying around? You could turn that old box into a Smoothwall or Clarkconnect box. Much better than DD-WRT but space can be a factor (which is why I don't run one now).
Click to expand...

What kind of fire power do I need? I think I'd try something like untangle.

Atech said:
This sounds more like you are excceding the maximum number of sessions the router can handle...

Fix:
Configure your BT-client correctly to match your hardware.
Click to expand...

Where do I find these settings? I am using utorrent.
 
sc0tty8 said:
What kind of fire power do I need? I think I'd try something like untangle.
Click to expand...

As much as I love Untangle..I use it at lots of clients, it's more of a business grade UTM appliance...not meant for "speed and performance".

I run PFSense at home. It has the best QoS/Traffic Shaping features out there. Doesn't need a lot of horsepower to run on either.
 
I use a Motorola cable modem and a Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato and it works fine. No slowdowns and no dead cable modems or routers yet.

I do set uTorrent to only use about 75% of my upload.
 
Years back before I spent the money on my DGL-4300, I tried out IPCop, SmoothWall, and m0n0wall.

I liked m0n0wall the best, but IPCop was great as well. I didn't get into SmoothWall too much, only kept it around for a weekend or so.

Here is a link to m0n0wall: http://m0n0.ch/wall/
(I am not gonna say it's better than all the others because there are some people that are very very attached to the various firewall distros, but m0n0wall is very good.)

m0n0wall had a feature where you can install a desktop application that would show the bandwidth going through the m0n0wall. It's called Monomon :http://monomon.matf.de/screenshots.php

If you are still interested in running a router, take a look at these results:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/chart,124/
I would recommend a router with the UbiCom StreamEngine processor.

I gave up on my m0n0wall box because at the time I was living in an apartment and didn't like the fact that I was running ANOTHER PC in my living room. So, I bought my DGL-4300 since at the time, it was the best SOHO router on the market. Compared to running a firewall PC, the DGL-4300 was dead silent, used a fraction of the power and put out alot less heat. But now that I own my house, complete with a basement, I have thought about going back to a m0n0wall setup, but since my DGL-4300 is there, works great, and I need the wireless for my laptop, and my phone, and my kid's PSP's I stay with it.
 
I've found routers to sometimes have problems with the number of TCP connections torrenting opens, moreso than modems. My Toshiba modem (don't recall the specific model) works great. But the several linksys routers I've used were crap. Kept crashing when I torrented, couldn't handle the traffic. Surprisingly, now I'm using a vonage provided router and it seems to handle 500k torrent downloading with 90k up for days without problems. QoS could be better. Next up will be a DLink high end router, and hopefully FIOS.
 
I would replace the router with a proper hardware box also. Torrents can destroy the cheap SOHO routers.
 
450 said:
I'd reccommend at least a PIII 600, and 256MB RAM. More RAM and CPU the better though.
Click to expand...

I have a p3 1ghz, duron 1.33ghz, either with 512mb ram.

fibroptikl said:
I use a Motorola cable modem and a Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato and it works fine. No slowdowns and no dead cable modems or routers yet.

I do set uTorrent to only use about 75% of my upload.
Click to expand...

I cut it to 1/2 my upload

Met-AL said:
Years back before I spent the money on my DGL-4300, I tried out IPCop, SmoothWall, and m0n0wall.

I liked m0n0wall the best, but IPCop was great as well. I didn't get into SmoothWall too much, only kept it around for a weekend or so.

Here is a link to m0n0wall: http://m0n0.ch/wall/
(I am not gonna say it's better than all the others because there are some people that are very very attached to the various firewall distros, but m0n0wall is very good.)

m0n0wall had a feature where you can install a desktop application that would show the bandwidth going through the m0n0wall. It's called Monomon :http://monomon.matf.de/screenshots.php

If you are still interested in running a router, take a look at these results:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/chart,124/
I would recommend a router with the UbiCom StreamEngine processor.

I gave up on my m0n0wall box because at the time I was living in an apartment and didn't like the fact that I was running ANOTHER PC in my living room. So, I bought my DGL-4300 since at the time, it was the best SOHO router on the market. Compared to running a firewall PC, the DGL-4300 was dead silent, used a fraction of the power and put out alot less heat. But now that I own my house, complete with a basement, I have thought about going back to a m0n0wall setup, but since my DGL-4300 is there, works great, and I need the wireless for my laptop, and my phone, and my kid's PSP's I stay with it.
Click to expand...

I like the idea of having a plug and play router.

Ockie said:
I would replace the router with a proper hardware box also. Torrents can destroy the cheap SOHO routers.
Click to expand...

Kinda thinking about it, but I don't want to have another physical box if I don't have to.

Met-AL said:
Use some decent NIC's in it. Suggest Intel NIC's

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2052810027 50001157&bop=And&Order=PRICE
Click to expand...

I have 3coms laying around.
 
id use that duron, underclock it, and run what YeOlde recomends.

stick it in a closet on a battery backup and be good to go.
 
marley1 said:
the linksys router cannot handle the torrents, most soho routers cant.

drop the connection down in utorrent or whatever program ur using.

or build a better router.

it is not the cable modem.
Click to expand...



yes it can, i have many seeds and only an upload of 50K but i at times can have 20+ items going at once and it is fine and has never crapped out on me...

as said though it likely isnt the modem... how many tor are you seeding / downloaded?

i may not have trouble due to my 512kb upload speed.
 
How is PFSense in terms of straight forward usability?
 
sc0tty8 said:
How is PFSense in terms of straight forward usability?
Click to expand...

Wicked easy....really no different than managing a Stinksys, Nutgear, or DStink off the shelf router.

Has the best traffic shaping/QoS features of the *nix distros out there...and immensely more powerful than any router you could purchase for less than several thousand dollars. For traffic shaping, it even has a super easy "wizard" you run through to set it up, very very easy to follow...holds your hand through the entire process.

I've tried a lot of *nix distros, IPCop, Endian, m0n0, smoothie, (I'm probably forgetting a few others)...and of course I use Untangle for many clients. But I run PFSense at home, on an old laptop. I have Vonage VoIP phone, I online game several times a day with Battlefield, I have a VPN tunnel to the office, and we have 6 computers in the house with some heavy users..hence why I love the QoS of it so they don't impact my online gaming much.

My old laptop is an IBM Thinkpad T23, just a P3 800something, 256 megs of RAM. Onboard Intel NIC, I used a DLink PCMCIA NIC as my 2nd NIC. The laptop has low energy draw, low noise, small footprint, low heat output, and a built in battery backup. Pounding it hard with all computers doing something heavy online...I've never had the PFSense box work harder than 33% utilization.

For people who want to torrent...it's all about concurrent connections, most off the shelf home grade routers might be up over 100, the best ones barely in the several hundred range. PFSense out of the box has a default max table size of 10,000...and if you have the RAM..you can crank that up higher.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Wicked easy....really no different than managing a Stinksys, Nutgear, or DStink off the shelf router.

Has the best traffic shaping/QoS features of the *nix distros out there...and immensely more powerful than any router you could purchase for less than several thousand dollars. For traffic shaping, it even has a super easy "wizard" you run through to set it up, very very easy to follow...holds your hand through the entire process.

I've tried a lot of *nix distros, IPCop, Endian, m0n0, smoothie, (I'm probably forgetting a few others)...and of course I use Untangle for many clients. But I run PFSense at home, on an old laptop. I have Vonage VoIP phone, I online game several times a day with Battlefield, I have a VPN tunnel to the office, and we have 6 computers in the house with some heavy users..hence why I love the QoS of it so they don't impact my online gaming much.

My old laptop is an IBM Thinkpad T23, just a P3 800something, 256 megs of RAM. Onboard Intel NIC, I used a DLink PCMCIA NIC as my 2nd NIC. The laptop has low energy draw, low noise, small footprint, low heat output, and a built in battery backup. Pounding it hard with all computers doing something heavy online...I've never had the PFSense box work harder than 33% utilization.

For people who want to torrent...it's all about concurrent connections, most off the shelf home grade routers might be up over 100, the best ones barely in the several hundred range. PFSense out of the box has a default max table size of 10,000...and if you have the RAM..you can crank that up higher.
Click to expand...


I really want to get to the point where I can torrent and game at the same time, I have a 20/2 line at home. Now that you mention the laptop, I do have an old pentium m 2ghz with 512mb of ram. I'll also need to forward ports, and the ability to log into the PFSense box remotely would be neat.

I think I am going to look at this more when I get home. I'll need to get a PCMCIA nic. With 512mb of ram in the laptop, I am thinking that should be good.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I've tried a lot of *nix distros, IPCop, Endian, m0n0, smoothie, (I'm probably forgetting a few others)...and of course I use Untangle for many clients. But I run PFSense at home, on an old laptop.
Click to expand...

What is the benefit of PFSense over m0n0wall? I vaguely recall PFSense back when it got it's start.

Is PFSense on it's own development schedule now? Didn't it just used to be a modified version of the current m0n0wall release?

...all this talk is making me want to set one of these up again. I could use my DGL-4300 just for it's wireless capabilities as a access point right? I'd have to get a decent switch though, the only switch I have is a Cisco Catalyst 2800 series switch and it uses way to much electricity.
 
Met-AL said:
What is the benefit of PFSense over m0n0wall? I vaguely recall PFSense back when it got it's start. .
Click to expand...

Traffic shaping was what won me over. It was/is supposed to be much a much more robust support of traffic shaping/QoS.

A good selection of add-on packages also.

Yeah its roots are in m0n0wall, one of the guys that started the PFSense project was one of the m0n0wall contributors. m0n0wall is great, very small, light, but generally I guess they didn't make it very expandable because it's meant more for small platforms, entirely from RAM.
 
if you want a plug and play router i'd recommend the dlink dir655

it has been great... no problems with heavy torrenting.
 
Ok, I am up and running with PFsense right now.

Now, I need to setup everything from my old router to this one, then, let it buck.

I am using a p4 1.4ghz box with 768mb of ram. Its a smaller form factor box. After I installed everything on it, I realized I had a pcmcia nic for the old laptop I wanted to use:eek:

Then, when I first fired it up, I couldn't get a web page to load for the life of me. I finally broke and called the cable co, only to find out my modem was in standby:eek: Man, this flu is a bitch.
 
sc0tty8 said:
Ok, I am up and running with PFsense right now.

Now, I need to setup everything from my old router to this one, then, let it buck.

I am using a p4 1.4ghz box with 768mb of ram. Its a smaller form factor box. After I installed everything on it, I realized I had a pcmcia nic for the old laptop I wanted to use:eek:.
Click to expand...

Nice..that thing should hum along nicely.

Run through the traffic shaping wizard...enter the max speeds for up and down on your broadband connection. Enter which services you wish to beef up with QoS.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Nice..that thing should hum along nicely.

Run through the traffic shaping wizard...enter the max speeds for up and down on your broadband connection. Enter which services you wish to beef up with QoS.
Click to expand...

How does the traffic shaping work if your speeds are not always the same? I am on cable, and most of the time, the speeds are ok.
 
sc0tty8 said:
How does the traffic shaping work if your speeds are not always the same? I am on cable, and most of the time, the speeds are ok.
Click to expand...

It will come into play after you feed it some numbers to base the QoS from. It needs to know some basic info in order to provide some QoS...so it can ...I guess I"ll say divide up your total bandwidth.

It's something you can keep changing, on the fly. Say you have a 6 meg cable connection. And you benchmark an actual 5800 of it on several different speedtests, start by plugging in 5500, and say your package is a 384 upload and you benchmark a 360...plug in something like 350 for upload.

If you feel your bandwidth really takes a hit at night (say you're in a dense area on your node)....plug in lower numbers. Say, 4000 and 250.
 
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