Common Torrent problems

The following 3 posts detail just about every question that can come up with using torrents. Again it's not a be all answer guide, however it will help...alot. If you don't want to read it, I will not read your question.

These are a most common problems people have when downloading .torrent files.


1. If you have a client installed, but it's not associated with your .torrent files:
SYMPTOMS: You'll know you have this problem if you click the "Download Torrent" button (or "Download .torrent" link) But you:

• you get prompted by your browser to decide where to save the .torrent file.
• some other file-sharing application tries to handle the .torrent file.

* CAUSE: Sometimes sh*t happens.

* CURE: Save the torrent to your desktop, then from your desktop right-click the .torrent file. Select "Open With..." and even if your BT Client is on the list do NOT choose that. Instead select "Choose Program..." - you'll get a pop-up which will allow you to select your BT Client, but the critical step is to CHECK the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" - then click OK. From now on when you click the "Download Torrent" button, your BT Client should start up automatically.


2. I can't get .torrent files to download.
SYMPTOMS: You'll know you have this problem if you click the "Download Torrent" button (or "Download .torrent" link) and:

• In Firefox, it sends you to a blank page.
• In IE, it sends you to the "This Page cannot be displayed" page.

* CAUSE: Some ISP's and many schools/residences block .torrent files from being downloaded (to reduce network traffic).

* POSSIBLE CURE: As of 07sep2006, you can get around this restriction by clicking the "Download .text" link instead of the "Download Torrent" button or the "Download .torrent" link. Save the file on your desktop, then rename the ".text" extension to ".torrent" - then just click the .torrent file and your BT Client should start right up.

Please note that school/work network administrators are quite familiar with BitTorrent technology, and have probably added additional levels of security (not just blocking the .torrent files). Trying to bypass their security will likely get you fined/expelled.


Common BitTorrent Error Messages - Explained

3. Bad Data from Tracker or Bad Tracker Data

This means the tracker is having problems. Either it is down and returning an error page, or is overloaded with requests. Simply leave your client on for a while and see if the problem resolves itself.

4. Connecting to peers

Maybe there are no users to connect to. Leave your torrent open and maybe the BT Client will connect (it may take some time).


5. Windows cannot find... "C:\Documents and Settings\{YOUR NAME HERE}\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.ie5.....

It is an error that can sometimes occur in Windows XP; either download the torrent to your Hard Drive and launch it from there.... or clear out your temp internet files. This will generally resolve the issue (XP starts compressing temporary internet files once it reaches certain number of files or 1/2 the allotted drive space and that's what causes the error).
Just let the torrent run in your client and the client will keep checking the tracker and should resume eventually.


6.No space left on device

The client allocates the space needed to store the file on your Hard Drive, you get this error when you don't have enough space on your hard drive for your BT Client to fully allocate the file.


7.Problem getting response info - {errno2} No such file or directory

The directory of C: // is probably causing your problems; it's most likely a temporary directory that Internet Explorer uses when you left click on the torrent file. Try right clicking on the .torrent and selecting "save target as" . Then save the .torrent file to a directory of your choice. Keep them all in a folder exclusively for your torrents and your life will be much easier. Then when you start your BT Client and you're ready to download the files you can navigate to that folder and double click on the .torrent file to start downloading in your BT Client.


8. (IOError - {Errno13} Permission denied)

Sometimes your BT Client is still running in the background from your last session, and if you start more than one instance of the client, it will try to download the same torrent twice, and it will give you permission denied, start-up Task Manager and close down all instances of your BT Client. Start your BT Client again and everything should work fine. Restarting your pc will also fix this.

9. Rejected by tracker - Your IP is not registered to use this tracker for this file

You have to register with the site that hosts this torrent and be logged in when you first start the torrent downloading.

10. Piece XXX failed hash check, re-downloading it

BT Client downloaded a wrong packet, so it's re-downloading it, just ignore this message, unless it happens repeatedly.


11. Upload failed: The tracker that hosted your torrent is listed as 'dead'!

Possibly the tracker is all full.


12. MsgCode:xxxxxxxxx::add_torrent::dead_tracker::395

That error is pretty straight forward. The tracker you are trying to use is currently not available. Just because you used it before doesn't mean it's working today. It's currently down for whatever reason. To solve this issue you either have to find a different tracker, one that is up right now.

Or just wait and see if that one comes back.


13. \"Error on Line xx\" or \"Cannot execute free Script\"

Do you have any ad blocking software running? Some firewalls like NIS and Agnitum Outpost have such options built into them.There is also at least one pop-up-stopper that now supports ad blocking.If you have any of those turn them off and try again.You also might like to check your security settings in your Browser. Perhaps you have very aggressive security and privacy settings that are causing it?

14.Missing/Can't See Categories

Disable your ad-blocking, it may be part of your firewall.


15. No known mirrors

That normally means the mirror hosting the tracker is too busy or is having problems.


16. Web page is filled with errors

Means the torrent is dead, down or overloaded. You really can't tell which of the three.
It only means it can't get a connection with tracker, so anything that caused the tracker to be non-responsive during checking could be causing that error message.


17. "rejected by tracker - Port xxxx is blacklisted"

Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default BT ports (6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.The tracker in question does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols. The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports (that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).

The blocked ports list include, but is not necessarily limited to, the following:

• Direct Connect 411 - 413 Kazaa 1214
• eDonkey 4662
• Gnutella 6346 - 6347
• Torrents 6881 - 6889

In order to use the tracker you must configure your client to use any port range that does not contain those ports (a range within the region 49152 through 65535 is preferable, cf. IANA). Notice that some clients like Azureus 2.0.7.0 or higher use a single port for all torrents, while most others use one port per open torrent. The size of the range you choose should take this into account (typically less than 10 ports wide. There is no benefit whatsoever in choosing a wide range, and there are possible security implications).
These ports are used for connections between peers, not client to tracker. Therefore this change will not interfere with your ability to use other trackers (in fact it should increase your speed with torrents from any tracker). Your client will also still be able to connect to peers that are using the standard ports. If your client does not allow custom ports to be used, you will have to switch to one that does.

The more random the choice is the harder it will be for ISPs to catch on to you and start limiting speeds on the ports you use. If we simply define another port range on the forum, your ISPs will start throttling that range also.Finally, remember to forward the chosen ports in your router and/or open them in your firewall, should you have them.


18. "Unrecognized Host", "Invalid passkey", "missing passkey", or "Unregistered Torrent" error?

• Some torrent sites have started individually keying torrents to individual members. There is nothing you can do about it, apart from registering with the tracker's site and getting your own torrent from them.
• If this is your first torrent, that MAY mean you have not configured your internet/proxy or BT Client settings correctly. Try another torrent that other users have been able to download successfully (check for recent positive comments)

19. Requested download is not authorized for use with this tracker

• Usually that means the torrent has been removed from the tracker (or was never placed there properly).
• If this is your first torrent, that MAY mean you have not configured your internet/proxy or BT Client settings correctly. Try another torrent that other users have been able to download successfully (check for recent positive comments)

See The First post for common problems. Below states Problem Connecting to/with Tracker

7, 'getaddrinfo failed' (aka 10007)

• That means that your client can't get a connection to the Tracker's IP address.
• Here are some possible reasons:
  1. Your client can't get through your firewall.
  2. Your ISP's DNS server is down.
  3. Your ISP's DNS server can't resolve the trackers domain to an IP address.
  4. The Tracker is down and isn't responding.

47, 'address family not supported' (aka 10047)

• This error is generated only because of incorrect network settings in Windows.
• Make sure you:
  1. Have "Client for Microsoft Networks"
  2. Install the Microsoft version of "TCP/IP"
  3. You're logged in and have a current IP address. You can use "winipcfg" or 'ipconfig/all' from the Command Prompt.
  4. Test other network applications for proper operability

54,'Connection reset by peer' (aka 10054)

This occurs when an established connection is shut down for some reason by the remote computer, just ignore it.


55, 'No buffer space available' (aka 10055)

• A lot of routes in your routing table (due to a misconfigured router, or misconfigured default route)
• Or lots of stale connections in your connection table
• Or a lot of data that is pending for sending or receiving on a current connection(s), which can't be sent or received for some reason (destination System dead or unreachable, for example).
• Or opening too many sockets at the same time.
• Or maybe you don't have enough free space on your hard drive.

60, 'Operation timed out' (aka 10060)

• That error means that the tracker is down or too busy to process your request. Just keep trying - leave your torrent open, if it doesn't see some action in about 20 -30 minutes try again later, the tracker may just be busy that's all.
• It may also be your BT Client, try a different client
• If after a few days your download still does not start or continue and you are sure you have correctly configured your environment (i.e. made sure you have read all the FAQs about configuring your client), then you can safely assume the tracker/torrent is gone.

61, 'Connection refused' (aka 10061)

• This means that you cannot for whatever reason establish a connection to the Tracker needed to download a file.
• This is commonly caused by firewalls/routers, trackers/servers going down or being too busy, or your net connection going down.
• You may also be banned from using this tracker because of leeching from it.
• More often than not with this error you can simply leave your client window open and it will sort itself out, or you can close the BT Client and try resuming the torrent.
• If the problem is persisting make sure the Tracker you wish to connect is operating, and make sure your firewall/router is not interfering with TCP traffic on the BT ports.
• If after a few days your download still does not start or continue and you have correctly configured your environment, then you can safely assume the tracker is gone.

65, 'no route to host' (aka 10065)

• This can be caused by the remote host appearing to be down (which could be the port chosen being blocked at the said host).
• This could also be down to a system admin at work having noticed unusual traffic and blocked a port or banned an IP then.
• I would say try connecting for a couple of days, if you are still having problems with the same error message then I suggest you find another .torrent.

111, 'Connection refused' (aka 10111)

Just let the torrent run in your client and the client will keep checking the tracker and should resume eventually.

HTTP Error -1

Leave your torrent running in your client. The client will keep checking the tracker and it should resume eventually.

HTTP error 404: Page cannot be displayed/found The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.

• It might be that the server the .torrent file is stored on is busy. Try it again in a few minutes.
• It could be an old .torrent file. Try to find a new link to the torrent.
• Your internet address may have changed since you downloaded the .torrent file. Did your line drop? Did you have to disconnect? Simply re-download the .torrent file. If necessary, restart your machine. Your BT Client will re-check anything it has download so far and then resume from where it left off.
• If this is your first torrent, that MAY mean you have not configured your internet/proxy or BT Client settings correctly. Try another torrent that other users have been able to download successfully

HTTP error 503: service unavailable

Have you tried to check on the tracker's status? Maybe the tracker is down for a rest or something bad happened


Unrecognized Host

• Probably a private tracker (or one that requires passkeys) - go there and sign-up (or download the torrent from there).
  
• If this is your first torrent, that MAY mean you have not configured your internet/proxy or BT Client settings correctly. Try another torrent that other users have been able to download successfully

This part only Deals with the Stuck @ ~95% Issue some people get.

1. You're Still Getting Good Transfer Rate (But More Hash Fails)

What's happening behind the scenes in your BT Client (if you look at the console or other debugging info) is that a particular piece of data is being detected as bad by the integrity checking function ("hash failure").

The most common cause of this problem is a bad router that is consistently corrupting a specific piece-data packet.

Some routers employ a routing trick called "game mode," where they rewrite the internal and external IP address bytes found within the payload of incoming and outgoing packets. This allows older games, which hard-code IP addresses within their messaging format, to function from behind a NAT setup.

However, when such an address byte sequence is coincidentally present within a file (and that doesn't mean an IP address), when that file is sent via Torrent protocol, the router mistakenly rewrites the data matching the "IP address" it found. This changes the actual received piece data contents, causing them to fail hash checking.

Any incoming packet that has a byte sequence that just happens to match the address byte sequence is susceptible to corrupting, which is estimated to randomly happen about once every 4GB of data.

There are several ways to fix or get around the problem:

1. Please note: There is a possible solution that will only work once for every download and only when your ISP assigns a dynamic external IP address to you. Simply disconnect / reconnect to the internet and hope that the IP changes. If that happens, your router will corrupt another (different) byte sequence and you might be able to finish the download. But the next time a block contains the new byte sequence that'll happen again, thus it's only a temporary solution if you can't disable game mode / DMZ on your router.
   
2. Do not run your router in DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) mode (where packets not explicitly forwarded are routed by default to a single machine), as many routers seem to employ game mode-like corrupting by default for DMZ-bound traffic. Instead, you should enable explicit port-forwarding on your router for the your BT Client's incoming port;
   
3. If your router has such a game mode option (many do not, even though they corrupted anyway), turn it off;
   
4. If you have done the above two, try connecting directly to the Internet (i.e. bypass your NAT router entirely, by switching to bridge mode or by taking out your router if it's separate from your modem) to finish off the last piece. Be sure to have all your latest OS patches and make sure you have a decent firewall otherwise your computer will get compromised in minutes.
   

Also, make sure you use the latest version of your BT Client.


2. Your Transfer Rate Has Dropped; Hash Fails No More Than Usual

This is probably an anti-leech protection feature to make sure that you share your pieces of the file with others. Some BT Clients may do this.


3. Your Transfer Has Stopped Completely

Some routers / firewalls detect data that matches address byte sequences as IP Spoofing. Check your router / firewall security log for IP spoofing entries. If you find entries for the incoming port of your BT Client, you need to disable IP spoofing detection. You may need to disable the firewall function entirely.


4. Other Possible Solutions

Check what the remaining 0.1% is. Open up the torrent details and go to the Files tab and see what files are incomplete.

• If the file is Thumbs.db, desktop.ini, or .DS_Store, choose not to download them. Check the Help / FAQ / Manual of your BT Client to see if and how this option is supported. Operating systems sometimes will generate these files automatically when you browse the directory. Because they are hidden system files they are protected and can't be replaced with the 'correct' versions your BT Client downloads, so it will discard it, fail the hash check, and download again -- forever.
  
• If the file is a textfile/readme file that you don't need to use the product, you can do the same thing if the file is not essential.

If all else fails, try stopping and starting the torrent again, and if that doesn't fix it, stop all transfers, shut down your BT Client, turn off your computer and modem / router, wait a couple of minutes, turn everything back on, restart your BT Client, and start only that torrent for completion.

If it's a video, it might still play.. however thats up to you to try