A8N-SLI nVidia Firewall and Azures bittorrent [SOLVED!]

[TheNiceGuy]

If you can help at all, or have been able to get bitorrent working through the A8N-SLI, please post. I have been tinkering with this for 1 month, and my wife is getting irritated at not being able to download.

I just built a new system based on the A8N-SLI mobo. It's not compatible with my ZA firewall, so I am using its built-in Nvidea Forceware and ActiveArmor hardware firewall.
However, my BT client is very slow and won't leave 'yellow' status. I followed some advice here- http://btfaq.com/serve/cache/25.html - but no banana.
Can you help me?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

bump

 

[SunSamurai]

This has nothing to do with your motherboard. Config your firewall(s) to have the port(s) your torrent client needs open. Why are you useing that client anyway? Try http://www.google.com/url?sa=U...ourceforge.net/&e=9732 might solve your problem by itself.

 

[liquidboss]

Yeah, I agree Azureus is the way to go for a bitorrent client.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

thanks for the response.

I replaced my client as you recommended, and enabled the .exe through my NVIDIA firewall interface. The 6881 port test during setup also showed 'ok!'. No banana. I also cleared port 6881, then ports 6881-6999, then just 6881 again to test, through the nVidea firewall UDP/TCP Port configuration table. It has the following options, which I just left at default:

Any Remote IP address [checked]

Specify Remote IP address and/or mask [unchecked]

Remote IP Address 0.0.0.0
Remote IP subnet mask 255.255.255.255

Port Protocol [TCP ]

TCP/UDP port inbound action [Allow]

TCP/UDP port outbound action [Allow]


After testing with several healthy torrents for a few hours continuously, I was able to get 1 remote connection on 1 torrent that would flicker on and off (with the accompanying 'green' face). But everything is running reeeally slow (when it does run).

I've left the firewall with port 6881 open, but am nervous as I don't know if that means open for BT or open for hacking, etc.

Windows FW is off. I thought it may be mobo related as there is a hardware firewall. I used to use BT with zero issues on my old PC, same interent line.

Any ideas?

 

[bradley]

Do you have port forwarding set up on your firewall/router?

http://www.portforward.com/

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I believe thats what I did through my nVidea firewall UDP/TCP Port configuration table above.

 

[bradley]

How about, configuring a static IP address?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

well, I have BB ADSL. I just plug into the router (phone line type) and go. So I guess that means I already have a static IP. I didn't have to config this on my old PC, why a new one?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

wump

 

[TheNiceGuy]

hump

 

[TheNiceGuy]

kabump

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Ka-plunk

 

[seattledesi]

here's a setup that works for me..

a) make sure u r using only the windows firewall.. set nvidia firewall profile to "anti-hacking" only

b) follow these instructions for azureus..
http://www.filesharingtalk.com/vb3/showthread.php?p=982382#post982382

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Hello Seattle-
I tried your setup. After about 3 min my system locked up. Tried it twice, no banana. Does XP firewall need some kind of configuring? It seemed to have all my preferenced pre-loaded from before, so I don't know what would cause the lock down...

 

[seattledesi]

locked up? wow..

i dont see why any of the software, firewall or torrent client, would cause a hard lockup (which is typically a kernel issue)..

Did this happen after you changed the firewall settings?

try disabling the nvidia firewall totally..

also try the latest nforce4 chipset drivers / software (6.39) from nvidia's site..

 

[fORM]

BT permissions tab came up, i accepted & haven't had a single problem. Weird that you're getting issues.


Dump the drivers & reload?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I noticed the nVidia update is a "stand alone pack", and has a few drivers in it. This is my first time to dump/install. Which drivers do I uninstall? Is it done through device manager?

 

[seattledesi]

just run the install and update everything.. there are some threads here in AT that talk about the new nForce drivers.. some recommend not installing the nvidia IDE drivers.. i personally dont have a problem with them.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thx Seattle-
I gave it a shot. However, while installing Forceware Network Manager, Instalshield gave an error:
"installed version of the software is not the same as the current setup. Please remove previous version before installing this version."

 

[seattledesi]

well.. uninstall the existing nforce drivers. Reinstall the new ones..

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Yay! Looks like it's all ok!

I actualy went ahead and did that just after I posted the above. A few issues to work through, but finaly got everything working. At this point, I have XP firewall running as default.
I checked the Shields Up! site and it says my PC has all ports closed, but failed the stealth test in "All Service Ports" scan. The "File Sharing" test showed all good though.
Also, under "Windows Security Center", it says the firewall is turned off, but when I check under Windows Firewall below, it indicates it is on.
Additionaly, the reinstalled Azures immediatly restarted up uncompleted downloads from the previous, deleted installation. And XP firewall knew all of my previous NVIDIA FW exceptions, including port 16881 for Azures.

As a side note, I tried NVIDIA firewall and BT again after reinstalling the new drivers. It ran for about 3 min, started to pick up speed, then locked up. It gave me a blue error screen with white text saying something to the effect that Windows had detected a problem and shut down to protect it from damage. It gave a "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" message as well as a lengthy series of numbers as "technical information" that I can post if it is relavant.

In any case, thank you so much for you r help again Seattle. This is the first time in over 2 months I have been able to get BT working properly. Yay!

EDIT: well I was able to turn XP firewall on (in the first screen of Windows Security Center). As soon as I did that, The original slow like molasses BT issue returned. Shields up showed all stealth, except for ping reply. I turned the firewall off for a while and the speeds started to pick up, and a Shields up test showed the same results as I mentioned previously in my post. Any ideas?

 

[seattledesi]

the fact that nvidia's firewall is causing a bug check (aka blue screen) means sign of trouble.. either a bad install or incompatible drivers or both.. personally i have the same setup and everything is rock stable.

When the blue screen displayed, did it show the name of the driver that raised the IRQL error? it'll be something like xxx.sys

If you turn your firewall on, does Azureus show a yellow icon? Try running the "configuration wizard" in AZ and see if you get NAT errors.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Hi Seattle-
On the blue screen (under "technical information") it showed "NVNRM.SYS" with some adress, base, and datestamp information.
The rest is as before. Azures shows yellow with the wall up, rarely green (a very slow green). If I turn it off, it rockets to green, wiht good speed. If I turn it back on, it may stay green, but the speed drops to a trickle again. FW Config (both NV and XP) shows port 16881 open for TCP (as I set), and Azures.exe cleared for programs. I ran the config wiz in Az before during setup (automaticaly) and it showed all clear for NAT errors.

EDIT: OK! Working ok (for real I hope!)! I rechecked the Azures wizard and it gave me a NAT error. So I opened port 6881 in XP firewall, and bob's my uncle. Immediately all torrents 'green' and very good speeds. Previously, I had opened port 16881 only, as per the instructions here.
Running stable for about 20 min, then I had to go to work, but looks great. So now I have both ports open. Should I close 16881? Should I open more ports in the 6880-range as was traditionaly done?
As for the XP firewall, is the default medium OK? It responds to ping from Shields up!

Anyway, I 'm very happy to have things working great - so tahnks again!

 

[seattledesi]

someone else got a blue screen with the nvidia driver..

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...did=1449863&STARTPAGE=74&enterthread=y

if it happens again, rollback to the older driver set.

regarding the port, i suspect you didn't configure AZ to use 16881, as everything worked when you opened 6881 (AZ default port).

Only one port needs to be open for incoming binds.