Router problems

[Elcura]

I'm not sure exactly what's happening, but my torrents seem to be opening up a whole load of ports (or packets?) that aren't closing (or can't be closed) on my router after I'm done, making the network lag to shit constantly and generally be really sketchy. Random disconnects and low speed etc. I was wondering if there was a way to fix all this?

I actually wonder if this makes sense.

[Cephius]

Torrents don't open ports, your torrent program does, and typically it's only one port that you define within the settings. From there you port forward that port from your router to your machine's IP. There is no way your torrent or program or anything else for that matter can "open ports" without you approving it on your router.

If your network is lagging it's probably because your torrents are sucking up so much bandwidth that the router can't route any other traffic. Try limiting your upstream and downstream bandwidth when torrenting to about 75% of what your internet speed is capable of.

[Elcura]

That's the thing, the majority of the problems happen when I stop using torrents. I haven't downloaded anything in a week and the internet has never been worse, and it's been getting worse over the past month. What else could it be?

[Cephius]

Well, there's a couple things you can try. I assume you've reset your router (unplug it, leave off for 10 seconds, plug back in) but if you haven't, do that.

The next thing I'd check is make sure no other computer on your home network is the culprit, make sure they're not running any P2P applications and that they're clean of viruses and spyware. If you still have problems after that, record any custom settings on your router, and reset it to factory defaults and start from scratch to see if the router was causing the problem.

[Elcura]

Ok, I'll try that. AFAIK the router doesn't really have any software that goes with it, so setting it back to factory defaults could be problematic. Thanks for all the help so far.

[Cephius]

You shouldn't need any software. Every router has a web interface, so you can just hook it up to your computer or laptop, and browse to the default IP (usually 192.168.1.1, if not just google your router model) and from there you can configure it as you need. Just make sure you write down all your settings beforehand so you can set it up right.