Torrents Added Downloads Won't Start Unless

p1871767

I have my uTorrent client configured for PIA SOCKS5 proxy (following the instructions on this forum), and I'm also connected to PIA using L2TP/IPSec. Therefore, I'm not using any port forwarding, just SOCKS with VPN.

Ever since I've done that, I've noticed that using RSS feeds no longer work correctly. New torrents get picked up and added via the RSS feed, but the download status shows "Connecting to peers 0%" forever without any progress. However, if I then restart uTorrent (with the torrent still sitting in the queue), the download now starts immediately, connects to peers, and completes exactly as expected.

Has anyone else run into this issue? Any suggestions for how to fix it?

p1871767

Ping...

p5662738

From what I have experienced and read (and I am only using SOCKS5 not VPN)...

After a while the Proxy connection will timeout but it seems that uTorrent (and some other clients) will not reconnect automatically.  If you kill the application and restart it then a new connection to the Proxy is created and the downloads work.

However, while it would seem correct for a Proxy service to have a timeout in order to catch an orphaned connection uTorrent seems to not accept that this is their issue.  It seems that this issue has existed in several versions of the software but nothing seems to be done about it.

I personally am very new to PIA as I used to Torrent a lot but after a couple notices moved to NewsGroups.  But, in recent months it seems that too many issues are appearing with content in that area and there is not a good way to have user feedback (comments) such as on KAT.  So, I signed up for PIA after some research and really love the speeds that I can get from the Proxy.

Some say that you should just use the VPN however it is no where near as fast for me and I really don't want all of my other internet activity going through their server.

Even worse if you want Port Forwarding with the VPN you have to select one of about four (maybe more) servers and the closest are in Canada.  This then makes all the websites think that I am in Canada and I'm not interested in that.  (Especially for my valid streaming video sources.)

So, the only answer I have found on the net so far is a couple different scripts that can be scheduled in Windows Scheduler Service to automatically kill and restart uTorrent.  I don't like this approach but I guess I might use it for a while as I really do want my automated torrents (RSS Feeds) to download without me having to get involved.

This is a post that I copied from another location.  (I would love to give created to the poster but I actually only copied it for my own use so I didn't make note of the user --SORRY--.

This may not be a root-cause solution for some but certainly is a solution to the "uTorrent stuck at "Connecting to Peers when connected via PIA's proxy" problem in Windows.

As other users have mentioned, killing and restarting uTorrent solve the problem.  With Windows's "task scheduler," a batch file (*.bat) can be written to automatically (in the background, no user interaction required) kill uTorrent every X minutes (or hours) and restart uTorrent.  

The batch file can be written as:

taskkill /F /IM uTorrent.exe /T

start C:\???Enter Path Here???\uTorrent.exe /minimized

I am not a Mac person but I would venture to guess that this can be accomplished similarly in iOS.

p1871767

Thanks, that's a good suggestion. In fact, I am currently using Task Scheduler to similarly ensure I stay connected to PIA (via L2TP) at all times, so I might pack this uTorrent hack into the same batch file.

p1871767

FYI, this still happens in uTorrent version 3.4.2.32239.

kcimpulse

Yep happening to me also> and I have tried the restart script and i dont really love it. 

p1871767

Btw, here is the exact batch file to use:

taskkill /F /IM uTorrent.exe /T
start /min /d "c:\Program Files\uTorrent" uTorrent.exe

(obviously one should adjust the uTorrent app path)

p1871767

I have now discovered that while this does help downloads to start/resume, uTorrent refuses to automatically update the RSS feeds when SOCKS5 is used. I have to go and manually force the RSS updates, which sort of defeats the point of using RSS in the first place. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

kydistiller

I am having all kinds of issues downloading torrents via RSS feed with the SOCKS5 Proxy as well.  It worked fine until about 2 or 3 weeks ago and then just stopped working.

I am using a private tracker and have been seeking help on their forums.  I haven't had much luck there, so I figured I'd come here.  I see that some other people are having the problem as well.  Perhaps something has changed with the PIA Proxy?

dtggm

I'm also having the same issue -- while the script referenced above does great restarting "stalled" torrents, the RSS issue persists.

Has anyone figured out whether this is a uTorrent issue or a PIA issue? Because I need to know to whom to direct my tech support request...

rudders

I have a very similar issue on Vuze for Mac with PIA. Torrents stalling constantly.

lrr100

proxy and VPN at same time is not good. VPN overrides the proxy anyway. It doesn't give you added protection like you think.

I tried uTorrent. I stopped because my goal is to keep uTorrent traffic going through PIA so my chances of getting caught are slim to none. In order for me to do that, I have to set up New Rules in Windows Firewall. I tried to do this last night, but it was very difficult. It didn't work for me. This is off topic, but I switched to Vuze. Here's why:

Yes, it isn't as lightweight as uTorrent, but it binds the VPN IPv4 server. I just typed an article on how to force Vuze to direct all torrent traffic through PIA. So if the VPN disconnects, your real IP address doesn't get exposed.

Type this into the search box if you decide to go with Vuze:

Forcing Vuze to direct all torrent traffic through PIA

jen

That is normal.  utorrent isn't as reliable as it used to be.

rustiferch

If anyone else is having issues when SOCKS5 is enabled in uTorrent and the RSS Feeds don't update anymore I found a simple 'workaround'.

If your feed url is HTTPS, change it to HTTP. It won't be SSL secured anymore but they should automatically update without issue.

Just spent 2 hours googling and then spotted one of my RSS Feeds was working, so I set the others the same.

senkrad

Question on the restart script:
Is it normal for uTorrent to start in what appears to be hidden mode?

Whenever I run the script, it does kill uTorrent, but it restarts it with no window or tray icon. I can still get to it via the web gui, but there is no GUI in Windows.

mfrazzz

Been dealing with this on a linux server I run and just found this thread.  Here's the crontab entry I just created to restart qbittorrent every 4 hours:

30 */4 * * * pkill qbittorrent ; sleep 30s ; export DISPLAY=:0 ; qbittorrent

So this will kill the existing one, waits 30 seconds for things to clean up, then starts it back up  (The DISPLAY is required so it can start up on the main X console).