Firewall false positive?

[trashbin]

First, thank you in advance to everybody who takes the time to read this post. Out of respect for your time, I did already read through the FAQ page and other technical threads before posting this, but I am still at a loss so I am hoping someone can lend me a hand.

A show that I downloaded yesterday has not uploaded anything (literally O B) despite me leaving my computer online for the entire time and other people apparently downloading the show during this time frame. Given that, I would have expected to upload at least something. When I saw that it had not uploaded at all, I checked TTD and it says I am firewalled.

Following the directions in the FAQ section, I went to canyouseeme.org, which shows that the port I am using is not actually blocked. Moreover, I have two other torrents that I got from Dime today that have already uploaded enough that they have accumulated share ratios of 2.464 and 2.428.

Given all this, I am assuming that TTD saying I am firewalled is a false positive. Does that seem like the correct conclusion here? Assuming that is incorrect, does the false positive have anything to do with this TTD not uploading at all while the two Dime shows are uploading just fine, or is this just a huge coincidence?

Thanks again for your time and help.

[trashbin]

P.S. Here is some additional information I neglected to include in my original post . . .

The torrent in question is James-2010-09-25-Boston.torrent.

I tried stopping and restarting the torrent, but that did not fix the issue.

My operating system is Windows 11 Pro 22H2.

My router is a Verizon G3100.

I am using BitTorrent 7.11.

My anti-virus protection is Norton 360.

Again, just to recap, canyouseeme.org says my port is not firewalled, stopping and restarting the torrent did not help, and the torrents that I have active via Dime are working without issue, so I am at a loss as to why my TTD torrent will not upload and why TTD says I am firewalled.

[dorrcoq]

U2Lynne has stated a few times that the site is reporting people as firewalled in error. Part of the ongoing issues that hopefully will be corrected soon by Bradley.

[trashbin]

Thanks for your reply. Do you think that this presumed false positive has anything to do with this torrent not uploading even a single byte in two days, or am I looking at two independent issues here?

[dorrcoq]

Thanks for your reply. Do you think that this presumed false positive has anything to do with this torrent not uploading even a single byte in two days, or am I looking at two independent issues here?


I just looked - there are no leechers, so nobody for you to upload to.

[trashbin]

Thanks for looking into that. There might not have been any leechers at the time that you checked, but I believe - although I could be wrong - that there have been leechers during the 48+ hours that I have been seeding the torrent.

[reiemps]

Having the same issue.

[Macrinus]

...same here, right now. I am trying to seed one show here = FIREWALLED. Meanwhile, I'm easily seeding a bunch of shows at LL = no problem.

[78jazz]

I am also still firewalled.

[mychaljack]

Same here, but I hope with the change, this will be corrected. Thanks to all for looking for a solution!

[U2Lynne]

Just to clear something up…. The site does not firewall you. TTD has no control over your ports or if you can connect to others. That is all controlled by your torrent client. TTD only looks to see what your torrent client is seeing and is communicating to us. We are not firewalling you.

[reiemps]

TTD says I am firewalled, although my port is open. I can download, but not upload. I just downloaded Canned Heat 1970-01-24, and out of 30-some seeders, about 3/4 are showing firewalled. Been this way for a while. Headscratcher.

[daddyray]

I get firewalls messages (or did) even when my client was not open. I can still upload and download so I ignore it.

[78jazz]

TTD says I am firewalled, although my port is open. I can download, but not upload. I just downloaded Canned Heat 1970-01-24, and out of 30-some seeders, about 3/4 are showing firewalled. Been this way for a while. Headscratcher.

I am also in this camp. Only TTD says I am firewalled.

[Manillo]

Just to clear something up…. The site does not firewall you. TTD has no control over your ports or if you can connect to others. That is all controlled by your torrent client. TTD only looks to see what your torrent client is seeing and is communicating to us. We are not firewalling you.

sure it does firewall and it has nothing to do with utorrent...the fault is on ttd side..

[blueterra]

Thanks for all you have done so far, xavier242. I show as firewalled since these problems began months ago. Never happened at TTD for years before this. This is the only torrent site out of ten that I use that is firewalled. Also reseeded several shows today as requested and upload ratio has not changed despite sharing a few GB. Something is still a bit screwy.

[xavier242]

I show as firewalled since these problems began months ago. Never happened at TTD for years before this. This is the only torrent site out of ten that I use that is firewalled.

Yeah something is odd. I was able to download the Alanis Morissette 1996-04-01 gig from you, but not for some time. Initially the peers list showed you as firewalled (red port). After a few hours it changed to not firewalled (black port) and downloaded ok. I have queued up most of the rest of your seeds even though all show as firewalled.

What router do you have, or is it a router/cable/fiber modem directly connected to your PC? How old is the equipment?
What operating system and torrent program?
Are you using a VPN?

I will discuss trying an experiment with Cloudflare turned off this weekend, since the server hardware appears to be fixed now and U2Lynne thinks Cloudflare may be causing tracker issues.

xavier242

[blueterra]

Hey.
The router is a Technicolor branded model from my cable co., connected directly.
Client is uTorrent 2.2.1 running on Windows 7, not using VPN.
Again, all is fine elsewhere. I noticed that someone grabbed a few shows earlier and they seemed to upload with decent speed.
blueterra

[xavier242]

Several gigs transferred but the rest are stuck at 0%. U2Lynne is (hopefully) taking a peek at the VAN MORRISON 2000-03-24 'Point Depot gig.

I had the same issue on FIOS (with forwarding rules in place) and TTD only. VPNs that offer forwarding all seem to have the issue with TTD. They all work fine on any other P2P service (when forwarding is proper), so yeah I blame the tracker too.

I'm building a prototype server to be cloned with TTD in my home lab and Wireshark may give some clue what's going on with the these stalled torrents. Parts come next week.

Cloudflare was a bust. The site nearly went down this morning when I turned Cloudflare off. Runaway process creation from the web server gobbling up all the RAM... I suspect the web server config is messed up but can't troubleshoot without the prototype box.

<rant>
To folks munching popcorn laughing... Linux sucks especially when there are no drive image backups (or any system backups) and you're not a Linux SSH guru and the box isn't in front of you. All the stuff I'd normally use on Linux for troubleshooting isn't installed. I'm afraid of changing ANYTHING on the server as that may kill the site permanently. Thus the prototype box build (at every Admin job I've had it was SOP to test on the prototype before deploying to the production box). The new production TTD server is getting a damn GUI desktop I can securely VNC into. I haven't touched a terminal only Linux box in 25 years.
</rant>

xavier242

[Bruschi]

Barely seeing any upload all month, now today my first can't download. Going to have to delete these seeds. Will hold off on deleting older seeds where am only one or two, assuming this is going to be leveled out?

Thank you for all the effort.

[Tarmachan]

I am kind of having the same issues. "Historic" downloads from the site are not connecting and so I appear to be giving nothing back. I tried one new download and it came down the wire just as fast as ever and it does appear to be connecting for upload to the community albeit not as much as I would expect. I too appear to be connecting okay to the other sites mentioned here.

[xavier242]

Barely seeing any upload all month, now today my first can't download. Going to have to delete these seeds. Will hold off on deleting older seeds where am only one or two, assuming this is going to be leveled out?

Thank you for all the effort.

Please try to be patient. The parts for the prototype server box began arriving today.

I and others have begun permaseeding everything. We have sufficient space and bandwidth to seed the site many times over.

I have disabled the torrent expire function of the site. Please do not delete your torrent threads.

You can currently work around ANY firewalled issue by getting a VPN subscription with IVPN. I have verified on two boxes that IVPN is not firewalled and can seed. It's smart to use a VPN for privacy reasons too.

xavier242

[Bruschi]

Please try to be patient. The parts for the prototype server box began arriving today.

I and others have begun permaseeding everything. We have sufficient space and bandwidth to seed the site many times over.

I have disabled the torrent expire function of the site. Please do not delete your torrent threads.

You can currently work around ANY firewalled issue by getting a VPN subscription with IVPN. I have verified on two boxes that IVPN is not firewalled and can seed. It's smart to use a VPN for privacy reasons too.

xavier242

Had to delete all the stuff from this month going nowhere but haven't touched the legacy stuff and will be patient.

IVPN is good idea but not an option with my setup, which is private.

Thank you.

[frank carson]

When the server was put behind cloudflare on Sept 7 the code was updated to pull client IPs from the custom "CF-Connecting-IP" header provided by cloudflare rather than using the client IP that is reported by the local server right ?

https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/get-started/reference/http-request-headers/

If not that could explain some of the seemingly non-determinstic "firewalled" issues.

I can elaborate but i'm not going to bother typing that explanation out if it doesn't apply.

[xavier242]

When the server was put behind cloudflare on Sept 7 the code was updated to pull client IPs from the custom "CF-Connecting-IP" header provided by cloudflare rather than using the client IP that is reported by the local server right ?

https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/get-started/reference/http-request-headers/

If not that could explain some of the seemingly non-determinstic "firewalled" issues.

I can elaborate but i'm not going to bother typing that explanation out if it doesn't apply.

I have no idea. U2Lynne, any ideas?
I just sent her an email to look at this.

xavier242

[Ro-Ro]

I do hope this issue gets resolved. I've uploaded 416 kB since October 7th. I can download obviously but if I can't upload I'm not sharing, just taking. I don't see that as cool. I love the music I download from here and I want as many people to hear it as possible. And if I'm helping that to happen then I'm happy. Equilibrium. Well, not if you look at my ratio but there's more seeds than leechers on most of these torrents so I like to keep my torrents going for a couple months if possible. Upload what I can.

Thanks to all those with the technical knowledge. Hope you guys (gals too?) figure this out. I'm a framer so like I tell everyone, if it ain't made outta wood, I can't fix it.

Roman

[Homebrew101]

Well that share ratio sure ain't made out of wood.

[xavier242]

Ro-Ro-
TTD peer list says you are using uTorrent, correct?
It's saying your port number is 1. That's not going to work.

What settings do you have in Connections on uTorrent?

xavier242

[Ro-Ro]

Why won't port 1 work anymore? It did before.

Randomize is the only unchecked box, UPnP, NAT-PMP and Windows firewall exception all ticked.

No proxy settings used.

Roman

P.S. Homebrew101, I know it's not but like I said there's more seeders than leechers. I like to upload torrents when I make small revisions like fixing gaps at the track change and such. I don't get in above my head with the tech stuff, no remastering or pitch correction. But those uploads are few and far between. Those are the torrents where I do get to do uploading but even with those I'm quickly just one of many seeds. But I ain't goin' nowhere so it'll just be a long, slow slog. It'll be easier though when I can finally connect with others and that's up to what xavier242 can figure out. So I'll be patient and wait and see. Good luck, xavier242. I don't envy you but I'll keep the faith that things will get straightened out.

[U2Lynne]

I do hope this issue gets resolved. I've uploaded 416 kB since October 7th. I can download obviously but if I can't upload I'm not sharing, just taking. I don't see that as cool. I love the music I download from here and I want as many people to hear it as possible. And if I'm helping that to happen then I'm happy. Equilibrium. Well, not if you look at my ratio but there's more seeds than leechers on most of these torrents so I like to keep my torrents going for a couple months if possible. Upload what I can.
Every single one of the shows that you are trying to seed has 0 leechers. And then since you are also downloading other shows, your ratio can only go down right now.

[xavier242]

Why won't port 1 work anymore? It did before.

Randomize is the only unchecked box, UPnP, NAT-PMP and Windows firewall exception all ticked.

No proxy settings used.


Valid port ranges are like 10000 to 65500. There's also some under 10000, but nothing under 1025. I don't know how port 1 worked for you.

Try checking the randomize box (or set a port between 10000 and 65500). Close and then reopen uTorrent.

UPnP, NAT-PMP protocols forward ports on your router and should be checked (otherwise you'd have to create the rules on the router). Windows firewall exception opens ports in Windows' firewall for uTorrent (you have to approve this change the first time uTorrent is run, if you didn't it won't work).

xavier242

[Ro-Ro]

Trust me, I understand how the ratio works. And I've been doing it long enough to remember when ratios actually meant more. With broadband it's not as vital, it's more for me to feel that I'm sharing not taking. And maybe that puts me in a minority but I believe in being fair solely for my own reasons.

My problem with Lossless Legs is that you can't seed there. You have to have permission. Nothing's perfect. Request button there is nice but being able to upload freely here is nice too. Combine them and you're getting to a more perfect union, so's to speak.

Roman

[Ro-Ro]

Okay xavier242, I just spent the better part of 3 hours just to change the port in utorrent (easy) and then forward that port with xfinity (dumpster fire-style nightmare). Logging into the router (10.0.0.1) no longer allows port forwarding instead sending you to xfinity which was part of how I did it a couple months ago. Now you have to download their cell phone app (it's the third one you install, of course) to finally forward the port.

Anyway, that's done. Now can you tell me why I keep getting the warning:
"Failure: Connection limit exceeded! You may only download 3 shows at a time."

I have two torrents downloading and I know the world is flat now but did math change too? Is two more than three now? And why am I getting this same warning on a Seger torrent I completed four days ago?

I have 16 Trader's Den torrents open right now. Is that too many? Is there somewhere I can find the limits? I know Lossless Legs limits how many torrents I can run simultaneously but I don't believe I've ever had this issue with TTD. Or maybe I've never had this many open at once before. I like to keep seeding for awhile, up to a couple months if I can but most of the torrents die out after a couple days. And I'm not constantly connected because I'm using a friend's internet while I'm working at his house.

Well, here's ho-ho-hoping this last issue can be resolved too. If it's on my end tell me what to do, how to limit my connections or whatever. I did turn off all my TTD torrents and the warning went away from the Seger show so maybe I am hitting up against the connection limit. It's still there on the one download though but not the other (and that's been happening for days now).

Thanks for all the work you guys are doing, I'm a little frustrated right now (thanks comcast) but I do appreciate everyone's work that has grown my music collection to what it is today.

Roman

[sparko]

Recently joined the club of being firewalled on TTD which is false positive. Only one torrent currently active which is the Bono NY one. Restarting it did not help.

I have never been firewalled, I have been using the same BT client like I used to, random ports on startup, that are NOT blocked or whatever. Same computer, same router, nothing changed.

[Njones]

Same here canyouseeme.org is good. stopped torrents for several days and restarted still shows firewalled. Not firewalled on every other site.

[xavier242]

Anyway, that's done. Now can you tell me why I keep getting the warning:
"Failure: Connection limit exceeded! You may only download 3 shows at a time."

It's code in the ratio enforcement that's causing that... the staff had a discussion about ratio enforcement and we decided to table the issue.

Then I realized the main cause of so few seeders is the lack of a program to link past (now renamed) downloads with the original torrent file. I'm writing a program that will resolve this. It's going to be free for TTD users. It may not be done for several more months as I have several high priority projects ahead of it, including moving TTD to a new host and server.

I'll see if I can hack the database to give you a ratio that stops the errors.

Edit: Nowhere obvious is a user's uploaded and downloaded amounts stored. I emailed U2Lynne to see if she knows.

xavier242

[xavier242]

Most of you are not aware, but U2Lynne transferred the TTD domain name to me on like Sept 30. The has had the effect of locking us into our current provider for 60 days (domain transfer rules).

At the end of this month, I hope to move TTD to a newer server at a different hosting provider with MLC SSDs and dump Cloudflare. It has a 4 GHz Xeon CPU and up to 128GB RAM. The server is vastly faster than what we currently have (same cost, go figure).

Also, our new seeders found via Reddit Datahoarder forum should be online by the end of November. They'll be seeding over 50TB worth of gigs. I showed them how to find the poorly seeded gigs and focus on them.

xavier242

[Ro-Ro]

I haven't been online for a couple weeks. Thanks for your reply xavier242. And thanks for the possible ratio hack.

For the two guys who are having firewall issues, whatever I did is still working. I'm still not showing the false positive anymore. You can go back and read our conversation and I hope it helps you too. I do not have mine set to random though. It was enough of a pain in the ass to get one port through comcast's crap.

I hope it helps because I know how frustrating it can be.

And thanks again for all the help I've gotten here,
Roman

[78jazz]

I haven't been online for a couple weeks. Thanks for your reply xavier242. And thanks for the possible ratio hack.

For the two guys who are having firewall issues, whatever I did is still working. I'm still not showing the false positive anymore. You can go back and read our conversation and I hope it helps you too. I do not have mine set to random though. It was enough of a pain in the ass to get one port through comcast's crap.

I hope it helps because I know how frustrating it can be.

And thanks again for all the help I've gotten here,
Roman

I wonder if my problem will disappear December 1.

[xavier242]

I wonder if my problem will disappear December 1.

Heh. See this thread:
Firewalled workarounds- OVPN $5/month and others
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=184533

[78jazz]

Heh. See this thread:
Firewalled workarounds- OVPN $5/month and others
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=184533


Please correct me if I am missing something: the current workaround is in that thread?

[xavier242]

Please correct me if I am missing something: the current workaround is in that thread?

Yes, take a look.

My best guess is that some ISPs are blocking some torrent traffic. There may be an unpublished mod to the bittorrent protocol that some sites are using to bypass blockades. No tracker developer talks about the issue publically.

That more folks here are having issues since Cloudflare was turned on I now think was a coincidence. Proof: I have run the site from 3am to 7am several times with Cloudflare turned off. In no case did the firewalled status for anyone change.

[Bruschi]

The problem arose right at that very exact time for so many and has never remedied. Clodflare, as I noted at the time, has a history of this sort of misery. Coincidental ISP conspiracy focused solely on The Trader's Den and no other torrent site whatsoever? Or, in my case, a conspiracy beyond ISPs too?

If it was not clodflare or an unintended consequence of administering clodflare, then it was something else done at that chaotic time. Occam's Razor man. One site making a change, or a multitude of disparate ISPs and other providers around the globe concertedly working to ream one torrent site and no others at the very time that site was slinging code and add ons about?

Appreciate the work more than can quickly say, but this beggars belief to say the least. Already have a monthly VPN nut--and umpteen other monthly digital prophylactic nuts--and not going to assume another for one site, where about half the daily uploads are reseeds within a day or two from a couple three other longstanding popular sources that don't have firewall issues, but thank you just the same for discovering a workaround. Beats the alternative and hope is helpful for others.

[Njones]

When will the new server be operational?

[xavier242]

When will the new server be operational?
That has been postponed. I don't want to get into the reasons why. Just know what's happened behind the scenes is complex.

[daddyray]

I've changed nothing and I have more recently stopped getting flash positives if I can put it that way

[dramakat]

<rant>
To folks munching popcorn laughing... Linux sucks especially when there are no drive image backups (or any system backups) and you're not a Linux SSH guru and the box isn't in front of you. All the stuff I'd normally use on Linux for troubleshooting isn't installed. I'm afraid of changing ANYTHING on the server as that may kill the site permanently. Thus the prototype box build (at every Admin job I've had it was SOP to test on the prototype before deploying to the production box). The new production TTD server is getting a damn GUI desktop I can securely VNC into. I haven't touched a terminal only Linux box in 25 years.
</rant>

xavier242OMG Dude. You're dealing with vBulletin 2004 issues that have been custom tweaked for decades on end. It's been fucked since jumpstreet. You need to legacy this site as a sub-domain and start a fresh server with modern software. Godspeed John Glen. P.S. Remember, you don't have to be the best - just suck less. Love and kisses.