The original post: /r/torrents by /u/JamesGibsonESQ on 2024-12-28 08:40:09.

I run a p2p system on win10 using NordVPN on a Canadian ISP. Thankfully I always obey the law and only download Linux ISOs. For a bit of a background, I started looking into ISOs around early 1990s in the BBS days. My setup hasn't changed in months, and for this topic let's just say I'm a CompSci PhD grad or have that level of internet understanding.

I recently found a few linux ISO torrent files that have been vexing me in a very weird problem. Whenever I start these specific 4 torrents (4 parts of a complete set of something) or even just one of them, my downloads drop to 0bps and I experience what seems like massive throttling of services.

What I can say is I can rule out ISP meddling or VPN issues. I can recreate this issue on another ISP, and I can also cause it to happen regardless of whether the VPN is active.

I have tried the following:

-reinstalled the windows instance

-reinstalled qbittorrent

-tried with AND without VPN

-tried almost all of the available countries in Nord's list

-tried on another ISP

-tried saturating my tcp/udp connections with 500 concurrent downloads with no issue

-tried saturating my connection limits on other torrents

-tried 50+ different ports

After troubleshooting every possible situation, I have come to the conclusion that there is somehow a connection on those torrents that can somehow make me drop DHT connectivity or they're somehow messing up my routing tables. I can't explain it and have never seen this before. The SECOND I activate any of these 4 torrents, I drop to 0, and it looks like qbit is trying to regain connections but something is actively throttling me down to 0 bps. It climbs to 100kbps, then 0... 1.2mbps then 0... like a yoyo. I turn off the problematic torrents and change VPN locations and I'm back to full speed. Tbf, the company that put out these ISOs is hated, but the media is technically legal material... Nothing that would justify joint shutdowns (in other words, nothing that would put me on a list).

Has anyone else experienced this? A torrent file with the power to effectively shut down all torrent traffic? 3 of the 4 torrents rely on DHT alone, so I can't just delete specific trackers. I can try to monitor individual ip addresses in the peers list, but so far I haven't seen 1 specific ip every time that I can point a finger at.