P2P Sharing & ADSL diconnection

[brumster]

Wondered if anyone else has seen this...

The details : Zen Internet Home 1000 ADSL, Buffalo WMR-G54 wireless router (latest firmware), Windows XP Pro, Bearshare

PC keeps a perfectly fine ADSL connection until I start up Bearshare (a peer-to-peer sharing app, for those that don't know) - and then within a few minutes my ADSL connection drops.

Restart router and all is fine, until Bearshare is started again ofcourse. Not much use.

Anyone heard of an ISP purposely dropping connections when they see activity on a particular port?

Any other ideas?!

Cheers chaps (and chapesses)
Dan

[slinky]

Could well be the ISP, I remember Plusnet used to knock our connection off if they detected any dodgy netbios traffic...

Can't see an application causing a router to drop the connection, unless of course it's got some attack detection or something like that and it's getting confused by the app..

Could also be, if you're running NAT and are attempting to share files out, you're buggered! Unless you've setup some port mapping/redirection, you won't be able to share files out..

If you are sharing, it could well be the P2P network attempting to find details of the shared files and tricking your router into thinking it's being attacked..

Does that make any sense?

hth

slinky

[brumster]

Yep, it does, I'll put some logging on and see what it reckons.

I've got port triggering set up and it's routing connection in just fine - in fact it was left sharing fine for a couple of days, two weeks ago, so something has 'changed'... maybe when I flashed the firmware...

Let me have a play and report back

[brumster]

Nope, no joy. I've tried it with and without a NAT entry for the server port of bearshare but it makes no difference. The "carrier" light on the router (ie. the light that indicates a valid ADSL connection to the provider) goes out and the only way to get it back on is to restart the router.

I tried a few times and only once was there an intrusion detection in the log file, but each time the connection for dropped - so I'm putting that down to just a random attack (which anyone with b/b will know seems to just be part of the parcel).

I guess if I can hear off someone else who uses Zen and Bearshare with no problems, then I can rule out the ISP. Maybe a quick glance over ADSLGuide.org.....

Hmm

Cheers,
Dan

[slinky]

You mentioned that you've flashed the router...

Could that not be the cause of it dropping sync?

The routers that we sell to customers quite regularly drop their ethernet connection if not on the correct firmware..

Maybe re-flashing might be something to add into the list of things to try..

slinky

[brumster]

Well it's been patched for 2 weeks and has been fine, and it stays connected no problem UNTIL Bearshare gets started. I might try running BS on a different incoming port in case Zen are checking the common ones... dunno... starting to clutch at straws now

[brumster]

Switched BS to run on a different port and it's been up and running for a while now - go figure :S

Maybe a DOS attack on the "common" original port, or maybe Zen (unlikely I think). Either way that seems to have sorted it, although I did turn RIP on in the router at the same time :-X errr maybe that was it....

[slinky]

brumster said:

Nope, no joy. I've tried it with and without a NAT entry for the server port of bearshare but it makes no difference. The "carrier" light on the router (ie. the light that indicates a valid ADSL connection to the provider) goes out and the only way to get it back on is to restart the router. I tried a few times and only once was there an intrusion detection in the log file, but each time the connection for dropped - so I'm putting that down to just a random attack (which anyone with b/b will know seems to just be part of the parcel). I guess if I can hear off someone else who uses Zen and Bearshare with no problems, then I can rule out the ISP. Maybe a quick glance over ADSLGuide.org..... Hmm Cheers, Dan

Brumster...

I've now discovered I've got exactly the same fault!!! Bearshare appears to kill my router...

What settings (apart from RIP) managed to solve the problem??

Cheers,

slinky

[brumster]

Just for the record - I switch from the default Bearshare port to another one (just a randomly picked one) and all seemed fine after that.

[malman]

Sounds a bit like the problem on some routers when counter-strike refreshed a server list it made a lot of UDP connections suddenly and killed the router. Not sure if BS does this as I don't run it but worth checking

[brumster]

Yep most likely the same thing. Some top end routers (Cisco, Draytek, etc) stand up to multiple connections (and we're talking quite a few hundred here) ok but all the cheapy b/b routers you see out there - most of them on Connexant chipsets - don't do so well.

Bearshare will do exactly what you say, yes.

I'm currently contemplating the costly but worthwhile upgrade to a Draytek... ho-hum

[malman]

I have no idea what chipset mine runs but I've never had a problem with it yet and I've used various versions of counter-strike and gamespy which used to do the same thing I believe. Its getting the server info from 29000 servers that kills it.

Thompson Speedtouch 510V4

Nowt fancy just routes packets - firewall is a pain to configure though (unless they have released a GUI for it?)