Technical corner........

I rarely use BT and its derivatives, I prefer to download from Usenet or at a push eMule.

But it sounds like Virgin are starting to use traffic shaping to try to keep a check on those they think are doing their best to see if "Unlimited Downloads" is actually unlimited.

There's two ways they can do the traffic shaping, they can either block the usual ports used or they can use packet sniffers. The former is very easy and cheap to do and likewise it's very easy to get round. The latter is very expensive from their standpoint as each and every packet that goes through their system has to be checked for the type of data it is. This is very CPU intensive and causes bottlenecks. The likely answer is that they are blocking or throttling specific ports so the answer is to use non-standard port numbers to connect to the BT hubs. All you have to do in the options/preferences section of your software is to change the TCP and UDP orts (TCP is the port the actual file data is transported on, UDP is the is the protocol port by which the clients and servers talk to each other).

If Virgin have gone the expensive route (which I doubt) and are using packet sniffers then the only way round that is to use secure SSL software and servers. AFAIAA that isn't used yet on BitTorrent

The other thing you can do to improve the stability of the BT client is to reduce the number of connections your software will allow. Also if you are using uPnP to talk to your firewall/router then sometimes the router's CPU can get swamped by the amount of packets it has to perform NAT on. The end result is that it barfs and a router reboot is required.

I don't know if any of those things are relevant to your setup but hopefully it will give you some direction to go in.

Heheheh, I'm permanently on daytime bandwidth limitation for far exceeding my ISP's maximum limits. I download a 20 episode series a night

I used to use my DVD player to play the xvids through my plasma screen, but in the end I gave up and hooked a PC up to it. So I can now have access to round about 1Tb worth of TV shows across my network from my file server. Much easier. In fact I'm tempted to get a 1Tb drive and rip all my DVDs to it so I can have instant access, but that's for a later date.

Courtesy of having the PC there I've been able to get into Hi-Def somewhat cheaper than normal. LG have got a hybrid HD-DVD/Blu-Ray ROM drive (it writes DVDs and CDs though) for 65 quid. So I got myself one and hit eBay for a load of cheap HD-DVDs (£3-£4 each) and Blu-Ray disks (£8-£9 each) so am having lots of fun at the mo', though it's not getting this bloody video edited

Obviously this has nothing to do with Bittorrent but I thought I'd share

It all depends on how much you will be likely to use it, but I've been with Giganews for about 9 years now and their completeness (99%+) and retention (200+ days) is unparalleled. If you're only a light user then their Bronze account would do the trick, it's $7.99 (£4.25) for 2Gb a month. There are of course other Usenet providers but as Giganews is deemed to be the best and I've only ever used them so I can't really recommend any others.

The other thing to look out for is that if Virgin start traffic shaping NNTP packets (Usenet data) Giganews has an SSL service whereby the packets are encrypted so packet sniffers can't see inside them, they also provide an additional port 80 service therefore making it even more difficult for Virgin. The only downside to the SSL is that you have to use a client that can utilise SSL such as Newsbin Pro (which you can get a discount on if you join Giganews and download the special version of NBP). But until then you can use any Usenet client with GN though I don't recommend you use Outlook Express as it's pretty naff for binary downloads. I also believe it doesn't handle yEnc encoded binaries, though I think you may be able to get a plugin for it.

Try Prevx CSI. there's a free version that does a basic scan, or better yet Avast! which is a belting scanner. It's the full version for 60 days then it asks that you register to continue using it, though it's still free for 12 months.



Firstly right-click the toolbar, choose properties and check if !auto hide" is turned on. If it is then that's why it disappears, you just move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and it will reappear. If it isn't autohide that's causing it it could be that it's resizing itself. Try dragging the toolbar to the top of your screen (click next to or under the start button and drag) and see if it still happens when it's in that position.

Failing that, it could be that you need a video driver update/reinstall.

not realy computer realated this, but u seem a clever chap. just brought a sat decoder its an amstrad. conected it to the satalight on the roof, and conected to the tv, it just says no satalight signal is being recieved.??? it hasnt got a card in the reciever do i need one ???

Lumped over from 'tother thread, because I know Peanut's bored & wants to help


Firefox crashing....

it's been doing it for the last couple of days. I've not made any changes etc that I can think of. The bloody thing will only stay on for three or four minutes at a time, then it goes N/R on me. It's the same thing over & over again.

Ermmmm how do I find out which version I'm running Tried right clicking but I can't find it anywhere.

IE appears to be working fine- but I hate the ruddy thing & am now using the desktop- on which MSN has stopped working (another post, methinks!)

Any help greatly appreciated

In edit- I've tried a system restore, to no avail....

Okey dokey- I have a another question....

we have a speedtouch modem supplied by Tiscali. Whilst our neighbours have their wireless disconnected for the summer, I'm swapping the modem twixt the PC and my laptop. It runs fine on both, but it's annoying to keep moving it.

Right, as pooters are both set up to run on that modem, could I get a (plentiful) identical one on ebay, and just plug it in- or would it need to have the setup disk?

Would this enable me to run both pooters at once?

I know....pretty basic stuff, but I'm doing this for the benefit of others, you know!

Ah, but you made the assumption I didn't have permission.

My neighbours are as anti establishment as it gets.