Transmission won't connect to any peers

Question

After my upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to 12.10, Transmission won't download from an anti-leech tracker (ALT). If I download a torrent via Magnet Link, everything works fine, but if I download from that ALT, it doesn't.

The tracker will return OK and also return the List of Seeders and Leechers (each greater than 20), but no peers to download from are returned. Everything worked fine previous to the upgrade.

For testing purposes I downloaded KTorrent. The same occured there.

I had Transmission running for as long as 10 hours and no success.

My port is open and even if the firewall is disabled, this still happens.

Solution 1

Make sure that the TCP port used by Transmission is open.

Port settings are in Preferences/Network tab. You can get a list of open TCP ports by running:

• On modern systems: ss -lnt
• On older systems: netstat -lnt. It's now deprecated, but was relevant when the question was originally asked. Also can still be installed if needed with the net-tools package.

I picked port 51413 since port 51443 was closed (51443 was default for Transmission - in my case).

More information on the options used with netstat can be found in this Super User question

Solution 2

It seems the best solution to your problem is to delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Transmission/Resume folder. I've looked at a few threads and everyone seems to have arrived at that answer. To see more information, look here.

Solution 3

Check

Transmission->Preferences->Peers->Encryption

or

Transmission->Preferences->Peers->Blocklist

to see if you are blocking the peers.

Solution 4

Ok, easy first.

1. Try is updating trackers and making sure your ports are open.

2. Try manually adding the torrent (explained below). If that doesn't work disable any block lists you may have set up (risky), and lastly you could allow unencrypted seeds and stuff like that (very risky).

3. Adding the torrent file manually. All clients have a way to add torrent, then either put in the infohash (listed on most torrent sites), or right click the Get Magnet link and copy the URL into the client.

4. Another thing to try is updating trackers after doing all of those things.

5. When all else fails, reinstall your torrent client.

Solution 5

I'd say the problem might be with the tracker itself. It might be seeing the Transmission (and other linux based clients) as leechers.

Did you try one of the big torrent clients like Vuze or uTorrent?

If that doesn't work, do you have some ports blocked on your ubuntu system that isn't blocked in Windows?

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

Unfortunatley I'm still searching for a solution. though it really is a Ubuntu-related problem. If I boot Windows on the same machine, at least uTorrent will connect to the ALT.

[Admin]

Did you try ktorrent, deluge or qbittorrent, just to see if it is only with transmission or all torrent clients?

[Admin]

@LuisAlvarado I already stated this im my question. "For testing purposes I downloaded KTorrent. The same occured there." I did also try another torrent application. Same same everywhere.

[Admin]

@MarvinDickhaus - Ok then we could be having one of this problems: Router or ISP might be limiting you via a port, checking packets, etc.. Try to use a torrent client with advance features like ktorrent and look for the options that are to protect you from speed limiting factors like ISP, Router, Ports, etc.. There are 2 options that are very important, DHT and "Use protocol Encryption". Do not activate to allow unecrypted protocol while you are testing. Try to download other torrent files for the test that are not on your list and give it 10 minutes time.

[Admin]

@LuisAlvarado I tunnel all traffic through an OpenVPN. So my ISP can't even do a paket inspection. If or if I'm not tunneling the traffic doesn't matter on the same machine with windows. Also I had Transmission and Ktorrent running for a long period of time with no success.

[Admin]

Can you try to install wireshark? This software lets you watch the packets flowing in and out. Naybe this gives a clue.

[Admin]

@qbi I don't really know, what I should look out for. Any suggestions?

[Admin]

After installing Wireshark watch for packets heading out/arriving from the IP address of the VPN provider.

[Admin]

You said you have your port open, but are you sure it can actually be connected to? if not, it is really possible to have hundreds of peers and nobody to connect to. It is still possible even when everything is set OK, so try downloading some very popular file from different section.

[Admin]

Do you use the GUI or the daemon?

[Admin]

use vuze torrent its best alternate, i have tried it catches local peer most effectively

[Admin]

Are you behind a firewall/nat device that is keeping external hosts from getting to your transmission? If so that will keep the ALT from letting you talk to peers.

[Admin]

@BenLutgens I have no trouble connecting to peers in general. Only with that specific ALT.

[Marvin Dickhaus]

I don't have the Libary/-Folder in my home dir.

[Marvin Dickhaus]

It's neither in my home dir, nor in my root dir.

[Anders F. U. Kiær]

/var/lib/transmission-daemon/info/resume still i don't see that it would do any difference.

[iono]

Worked for me on Transmission 3.00 on macOS 10.14.6