Recommend a "torrent router"

Strykar · Oct 14, 2005

Currently using a WRT54G, have switched firmware a couple of times, limited downloaders/connections in client, setup static ips, pretty much anything I saw suggested, I tried it and my router STILL disconnects me while torrenting, even if not downloading fast, so Ill restart the router, internet comes back on.

Getting tired of this and I want something stable. If you have had this problem before and fixed it, let me know, otherwise.. recommend some rock solid routers, thanks!

OldMX · Oct 14, 2005

SMC routers work great with emule/bt, can hanlde a big ammount of connections flawless, just make sure the firmware is up to date.

oldmx

Elledan · Oct 14, 2005

486 or P1 with two NICs and Coyote Linux

Asgorath · Oct 14, 2005

make sure its the router's fault. Connect your PC right up to the cable modem and try it out.

Then if that doesn't work, build a monowall based box. You'll love it.

kleptophobiac · Oct 14, 2005

Well, if it doesn't work for him straight in to the modem, then I doubt a router will help him.

The big problem with the SOHO routers and torrents is RAM. It requires a massive state table that they just can't handle.

I use an OpenBSD box with several NICs. It's got a 400Mhz celeron and 256MB of RAM. Never dropped a torrent.

RiDDLeRThC · Oct 14, 2005

what do you guys mean by dropped a torrent? I run bit torrent all day on my SC420 server with a Linksys wireless router and i feel i have no problems at all...

Strykar · Oct 14, 2005

It works fine plugged straight into the cable modem, ill look into building a cheapo system router some

versello · Oct 14, 2005

I used to run a WRT54G with and without custom firmware. It never dropped bittorrent, but access to the internet severely slowed down. Since then I've been using a server with ISA Server 2004 and things have just been dandy.

Strykar · Oct 14, 2005

versello said:
I used to run a WRT54G with and without custom firmware. It never dropped bittorrent, but access to the internet severely slowed down. Since then I've been using a server with ISA Server 2004 and things have just been dandy.

All you needed to do was turn on QoS for Http, works nicely.

Shayughul · Oct 14, 2005

Asgorath said:
make sure its the router's fault. Connect your PC right up to the cable modem and try it out.

Then if that doesn't work, build a monowall based box. You'll love it.

I personally would skip m0n0wall and head straight to pfsense. Just my 2 cents thou

pfSense

JBark · Oct 14, 2005

Strykar said:
All you needed to do was turn on QoS for Http, works nicely.

That's something I did recently on my WRT54G, and it seems to have helped a bit. I set my BT port to lowest, NNTP to low, and HTTP to highest. It isn't perfect, but I do notice my torrent speeds dropping when I surf the web. My 54G will crash if I just let my torrents run wild. If I have no connection limits, it will crash within a day or 2. Limiting the total number of connections to 50 and the number of connections per torrent to 10 has got rid of the crashing completely.

The router was only like $30 after rebate, so I don't expect it to handle the massive number of connections you can get on a high traffic torrent. If I need something with that ability I'll setup a linux router or something like that.

Strykar · Oct 14, 2005

JBark said:
That's something I did recently on my WRT54G, and it seems to have helped a bit. I set my BT port to lowest, NNTP to low, and HTTP to highest. It isn't perfect, but I do notice my torrent speeds dropping when I surf the web. My 54G will crash if I just let my torrents run wild. If I have no connection limits, it will crash within a day or 2. Limiting the total number of connections to 50 and the number of connections per torrent to 10 has got rid of the crashing completely.

The router was only like $30 after rebate, so I don't expect it to handle the massive number of connections you can get on a high traffic torrent. If I need something with that ability I'll setup a linux router or something like that.

Wish i could think of a difference between our setups then, It sucks to get home from work expecting a new set of fansubs or a new distro to be completed to only see disconnected errors

RiDDLeRThC · Oct 14, 2005

Would getting something like this help? I know just building a box would work just as good but i'm looking for a hardware type system that will just work after setting it up and i can for the most part just forget about it. Right now things arent a problem, i do see that my web speeds do slow down when i get on to the internet but if i cap my upload to like 20k/sec its fine but come monday my download speeds will be 15Mbps and my up will be 2Mbps so i want to get soemthing that will really support my new connection.

yujie · Oct 14, 2005

anyone encountering random port closing with the wrt54g? its very annoying when u dont know what is good and whats isnt not good. Currently on dd-wrt 22b2

Asgorath · Oct 14, 2005

Shayughul said:
I personally would skip m0n0wall and head straight to pfsense. Just my 2 cents thou

pfSense

pfsense is good...but monowall is stable. Maybe go the pfsense route after it reaches 1.0.

kleptophobiac · Oct 15, 2005

Ugh, what a waste of money. Seriously, the take an old box and install *nix on it method is just as effective and way cheaper. They are also set and forget... you don't go tinkering with firewall rules every day, do you?

Strykar · Oct 15, 2005

kleptophobiac said:
Ugh, what a waste of money. Seriously, the take an old box and install *nix on it method is just as effective and way cheaper. They are also set and forget... you don't go tinkering with firewall rules every day, do you?

True, any recommended distros? I've got a spare 2.7 Celey with 512mb of ram just sitting around.

Asgorath · Oct 15, 2005

Strykar said:
True, any recommended distros? I've got a spare 2.7 Celey with 512mb of ram just sitting around.

monowall

Elledan · Oct 15, 2005

Strykar said:
True, any recommended distros? I've got a spare 2.7 Celey with 512mb of ram just sitting around.

Coyote Linux. Single floppy-sized router-oriented distro

I've got it running on my current router (P166, 32 MB RAM) with no issues in over 1.5 years.

Asgorath · Oct 15, 2005

Elledan said:
Coyote Linux. Single floppy-sized router-oriented distro

I've got it running on my current router (P166, 32 MB RAM) with no issues in over 1.5 years.

Coyote Linux is minimalist. Monowall will take advantage of all that fancy hardware.

Both work, monowall just has alot more cool stuff in it.

Elledan · Oct 15, 2005

Asgorath said:
Coyote Linux is minimalist. Monowall will take advantage of all that fancy hardware. Both work, monowall just has alot more cool stuff in it.

Coyote routes, firewalls, forwards and offers a browser-based interface. What more could you want from a router?

I've used Smoothwall in the past, but the current version would have trouble running on the 486DX-66 with 16 MB of RAM I previously used for a router. For 99% of the users out there, a KISS-compatible router is all they need ^_-

Footer4321 · Oct 15, 2005

i had a sim prob... i would start up azuerus then my html traffic would just stop.... i was running zone alaram at the time and when i killed it everything worked flawlessly... so kill microsoft firewall or anything else you have running....

Strykar · Oct 15, 2005

Footer4321 said:
i had a sim prob... i would start up azuerus then my html traffic would just stop.... i was running zone alaram at the time and when i killed it everything worked flawlessly... so kill microsoft firewall or anything else you have running....

My problem is not just html traffic, it's everything and I've done a lot more than turn off windows firewall, rofl.

Anyways, I felt generous this weekend and setup the Celeron 2.7 for my brother (watching him install Dod source and Quake 3 atm, such a good feeling to watch a little nub growing up

) So I can't use that as my router anymore, ive got an old old IBM Aptiva with maybe 400mhz at most, so I will definitely give Coyote a chance on that later.

Asgorath · Oct 15, 2005

Elledan said:
Coyote routes, firewalls, forwards and offers a browser-based interface. What more could you want from a router?

I've used Smoothwall in the past, but the current version would have trouble running on the 486DX-66 with 16 MB of RAM I previously used for a router. For 99% of the users out there, a KISS-compatible router is all they need ^_-

Coyote would work, I'm not disagreeing with you on that. But I'm saying monowall (not smoothwall) would give you so much more power and a bit more knowledge. It's ready to go out of the box, but with tweaking it can equal some very expensive cool hardware.

Frangible · Oct 15, 2005

So is there an answer to this question other than "run linux on another PC"? Cost and dicking with Linux isn't the problem, the problem to me is the heat another box will generate. Isn't there a router that can handle torrent traffic?

kleptophobiac · Oct 15, 2005

A down level computer isn't going to generate much heat, especially if you remove nonessential hardware and clock it down and undervolt it.

And no, there isn't any more cost effective solution.

Frangible · Oct 15, 2005

kleptophobiac said:
A down level computer isn't going to generate much heat, especially if you remove nonessential hardware and clock it down and undervolt it.

And no, there isn't any more cost effective solution.

It generates a ton imo, according to my thermometer. Not to mention it's loud.

But that wasn't the question I asked.

kleptophobiac · Oct 15, 2005

Well, then I'm sorry for being cheap.

Also, a thermometer is not a measure of heat.

Asgorath · Oct 16, 2005

kleptophobiac said:
Well, then I'm sorry for being cheap.

Also, a thermometer is not a measure of heat.

Don't bust his balls, he's just getting frustrated with us as we push these awesome BSD/nix routers.

on the otherhand, let me try pushing monowall once more.

If you're willing to spend the money, buy a soekris pc (look on monowall's website), you are running an almost no heat, no noise, totally reliable and small solution. the whole thing runs off a 64MB CF card and can fit in a tiny casing. Not only that but its a super powerful solution.

Personally I have dealt mostly with WRT54G's and they work pretty well. So that's my router of choice that does a good job. But check out the monowall. It's awesome, and if you really want a small device, check out the soekris support they have.

Board size 9.2" x 5.7"
Power using external power supply is 11-56V DC, max 14 Watt
----14W!!! ----

Asgorath · Oct 16, 2005

Frangible · Oct 16, 2005

kleptophobiac said:
Well, then I'm sorry for being cheap.

It WOULDN'T be cheap. I would have to custom build some sort of fanless super low power wonder to do it. And I still have a lot of wireless crap downstairs there is no hard link to. There's no closet or anything to shove an old P2 box in, either.

But please, I'll entertain any suggestion for something that's a) quiet, b) low heat, c) wired/wireless, d) can handle bittorrent, e) costs less than $500. Routers, mini-itx boxes, radioactive mutant gerbils, whatever.

Also, a thermometer is not a measure of heat.

Ok, we'll say it raises the average kinetic energy of the particles in the room a bit too much for my comfort. Happy?

Elledan · Oct 16, 2005

Frangible said:
But please, I'll entertain any suggestion for something that's a) quiet, b) low heat, c) wired/wireless, d) can handle bittorrent, e) costs less than $500.

- P1 (mainboard, CPU, RAM) -> $0 - 5
- 2 PCI NICs -> $0 -10
- FDD -> $0 - 5
- small AT-compatible case -> $0 - 5
- socket A HSF -> $0 - 5
- FD -> $0 - 0.05
- AT PSU w/ volt-modded fan -> $0 - 10
-----------------
Total $0 - 40.05

Replace the P1's HSF with the socket A HSF, minus the fan (passively cooled). Assemble the rest of the parts, volt-mod the PSU's fan, or implement way to regulate its speed. Run the Coyote configuration tool on your Windows/Linux system, retrieve the prepared floppy disk and put it in the router's FDD. Plug in the rest of the router's cables (power, LAN, WAN). Turn it on.

You can add a wireless access point with the money you've saved this way, if you're so inclined

HHunt · Oct 16, 2005

Like some others here, I'd go for m0n0wall. You can do neat things like setting up different pipes with different priorities and max allowed bandwidth, and stuffing different types of traffic into different pipes, if you want. (Limit your max BT upload to x kb/s and give it lower priority? No problem.)

It's a bit too big for a floppy, though. It'll boot from a CD or a HD; they recommend getting a CF->IDE - adapter and an 8Mb CF card. I use a 270Mb HD I had lying around.

canis · Oct 16, 2005

For less than $500 a Cisco 2620 (even a 2621 if you look hard) can be had on ebay.

Frangible · Oct 16, 2005

Appearently adding this line:

echo "600 1800 120 60 120 120 10 60 30 120" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_conntrack_tcp_timeouts

To your HyperWRT startup script works too. Default timeout = 5 days on all connections...

Filter · Oct 17, 2005

have you even tried forwarding the proper ports for bit torrent to your IP addy?

Dew · Oct 17, 2005

If you use Azureus, see if the WRT54G supports UPNP. I found that my Actiontec DSL Modem/Router supports UPNP, speeds are fast, and all port assignments are automatic.

UPnP::SSDP: ignoring loopback address /127.0.0.1
UPnP::SSDP: group = /239.255.255.250:0/eth0:Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection - Packet Scheduler Miniport-/192.168.0.6
Mapping request: UDP tracker client port (UDP/6881), enabled = true
Mapping request: Incoming Peer Data Port (TCP/6881), enabled = true
Mapping request: TCP Tracker Port (TCP/6969), enabled = false
Mapping request: TCP SSL Tracker Port (TCP/7000), enabled = false
Mapping request: UDP Tracker Port (UDP/6969), enabled = false
Mapping request: Distributed DB (UDP/6881), enabled = true
UPnP:SSDP: first response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
CACHE-CONTROL: max-age=1800
DATE: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 13:53:49 GMT
EXT:
LOCATION: http://192.168.0.1:52869/gatedesc.xml
SERVER: Linux/2.4.17_mvl21-malta-mips_fp_le, UPnP/1.0, Intel SDK for UPnP devices /1.2
ST: upnp:rootdevice
USN: uuid:160a0200-ac90-4b05-8adf-f5ccc5a5ebaa::upnp:rootdevice

UPnP: root discovered = http://192.168.0.1:52869/gatedesc.xml, local = /192.168.0.6
Downloading: http://192.168.0.1:52869/gatedesc.xml
Relative URL base is http://192.168.0.1:52869
Actiontec DSL Router
http://192.168.0.1:52869/gateinfoSCPD.xml, http://192.168.0.1:52869/upnp/control/OSInfo1
WANDevice
http://192.168.0.1:52869/gateicfgSCPD.xml, http://192.168.0.1:52869/upnp/control/WANCommonIFC1
WANConnectionDevice *
http://192.168.0.1:52869/gateconnSCPD.xml, http://192.168.0.1:52869/upnp/control/WANIPConn1
Found WANConnectionDevice
Found WANIPConnection
Downloading: http://192.168.0.1:52869/gateconnSCPD.xml
UPnP: Mapping 'UDP tracker client port (UDP/6881)' established
UPnP: Mapping 'Incoming Peer Data Port (TCP/6881)' established
Mapping Distributed DB (UDP/6881) already established

Recommend a "torrent router"

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