uTorrent causes router loss of DNS connectivity

Occasionally (every 4 or so hours) my router loses DNS connectivety
(or the ability to forward my dns inquires). This only seems to happen
when I am downloading torrents, so I assume it is related. I use
"uTorrent" as my client. I've experienced this same phenomenon on
three different types of routers now over the past year or so. It's
something I've battled with quite a few times.

If anyone else has experience with this specific problem (routers
+torrents=dead dns) I'd love to hear your thoughts! Am I just
overwhelming these puny cheapo $30 routers? I read something about the
router NAT tables getting overwhelmed then disrupting DNS, anyone have
more info about this? Will a better router solve my problems?

More Details:
- I'm not a complete moron (meaning: the router is plugged in & turned
on, etc etc!)
- On the router(s) I set port forwarding correctly for the torrent
software.
- This loss of DNS connectivety affects all LAN computers at the same
time, regardless of if they are wired or wireless.
- It happens every 1-10 hours randomly, usually when the router is
under a fair amount of stress (overheating???).
- All computers retain LAN and WAN conectivety; meaning I can still
connect to my shared folders & my torrents are still moving.
- Running NSLOOKUP from dos confirms there is no DNS connectivety.
- I cannot connect to the router via the browser when this is
hapenning
- I've experienced this on 3 different routers: a DLink WBR-1310
Wireless, a Gigafast WF719-CAPR Wireless, and some unknown 4 port
Dlink wired.
- Note: all three routers were "cheapo" models.
- Main computer is running Xp Home and the torrent software.
- I have tried both dynamic and static IPs and DNS settings on the Xp
Home machine.
- I have tried both Zonealarm and Sygate Firewalls. I dont use WinXP's
Firewall. I've tried disabling all firewalls completely.
- I have tried lowering the maximum amount of connections uTorrent can
make, down to 20.

Below are two similar (unsolved) posts I found on google:
http://tinyurl.com/2fqkpg
http://tinyurl.com/262m35



Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'd like to know exactly what's
happening here.

(E-Mail Removed) says...

> Occasionally (every 4 or so hours) my router loses DNS
> connectivety (or the ability to forward my dns
> inquires). This only seems to happen when I am
> downloading torrents, so I assume it is related. I use
> "uTorrent" as my client. I've experienced this same
> phenomenon on three different types of routers now over
> the past year or so. It's something I've battled with
> quite a few times.

> If anyone else has experience with this specific problem
> (routers +torrents=dead dns) I'd love to hear your
> thoughts! Am I just overwhelming these puny cheapo $30
> routers? I read something about the router NAT tables
> getting overwhelmed then disrupting DNS, anyone have
> more info about this? Will a better router solve my
> problems?

If you power-cycle the router when this happens, is DNS
restored?

There's an item in the uTorrent FAQ about a similar problem
with Linksys routers, and that may be the NAT table thing
you read about. I don't know if it applies to you, or that
the fix given there would work for your router.

Here's one thing you might try. When the router gets its IP
via DHCP, which I assume it does, it also gets the actual
ISP DNS server addresses - primary, secondaries. These
should be listed somewhere in your router's admin pages.

But your LAN-side computers are probably configured to use
the router's address as their DNS server - same address as
default gateway. This would be shown in ipconfig /all.

Try setting the computers to use the ISP's DNS servers
instead. This is found in the TCP/IP Properties for the
connection being used. It may even be possible to disable
the DNS function in the router, although mine (Buffalo)
doesn't have that feature.

But, as you say, I'm not sure this is just DNS. Doesn't
uTorrent deal in actual IP addresses that wouldn't require
lookup? So it's probably the NAT table thing. If so, you
would need to find a router that handles it better natively,
or one that can be flashed with better firmware. There's
one thrid-party firmware called Tomato that has the "5-day"
related settings in the regular router settings, so you can
adjust them without doing scripts. But you have to have the
right router to do this, and in the case of Linksys, even
the right version of the right router.

"Peabody" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:lB%yh.135$(E-Mail Removed)
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> > Occasionally (every 4 or so hours) my router loses DNS
> > connectivety (or the ability to forward my dns
> > inquires). This only seems to happen when I am
> > downloading torrents, so I assume it is related. I use
> > "uTorrent" as my client. I've experienced this same
> > phenomenon on three different types of routers now over
> > the past year or so. It's something I've battled with
> > quite a few times.
>
> > If anyone else has experience with this specific problem
> > (routers +torrents=dead dns) I'd love to hear your
> > thoughts! Am I just overwhelming these puny cheapo $30
> > routers? I read something about the router NAT tables
> > getting overwhelmed then disrupting DNS, anyone have
> > more info about this? Will a better router solve my
> > problems?
>
> If you power-cycle the router when this happens, is DNS
> restored?
>
> There's an item in the uTorrent FAQ about a similar problem
> with Linksys routers, and that may be the NAT table thing
> you read about. I don't know if it applies to you, or that
> the fix given there would work for your router.

I had to buy a new router (BEFSR41 v4.1) to replace my old one (BEFSR41
v2.6) and now uTorrent doesn't lock it up.

>
> Here's one thing you might try. When the router gets its IP
> via DHCP, which I assume it does, it also gets the actual
> ISP DNS server addresses - primary, secondaries. These
> should be listed somewhere in your router's admin pages.
>
> But your LAN-side computers are probably configured to use
> the router's address as their DNS server - same address as
> default gateway. This would be shown in ipconfig /all.
>
> Try setting the computers to use the ISP's DNS servers
> instead. This is found in the TCP/IP Properties for the
> connection being used. It may even be possible to disable
> the DNS function in the router, although mine (Buffalo)
> doesn't have that feature.
>
> But, as you say, I'm not sure this is just DNS. Doesn't
> uTorrent deal in actual IP addresses that wouldn't require
> lookup? So it's probably the NAT table thing. If so, you
> would need to find a router that handles it better natively,
> or one that can be flashed with better firmware. There's
> one thrid-party firmware called Tomato that has the "5-day"
> related settings in the regular router settings, so you can
> adjust them without doing scripts. But you have to have the
> right router to do this, and in the case of Linksys, even
> the right version of the right router.


--


Travis in Shoreline Washington

On 8 Feb 2007 23:37:15 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Occasionally (every 4 or so hours) my router loses DNS connectivety
>(or the ability to forward my dns inquires). This only seems to happen
>when I am downloading torrents, so I assume it is related. I use
>"uTorrent" as my client. I've experienced this same phenomenon on
>three different types of routers now over the past year or so. It's
>something I've battled with quite a few times.
I have an Actiontec gt704 DSL router and mine does it to.
Access the routers config page and see if you can enter a hard coded
DNS. Use 4.2.2.1 for primary and 4.2.2.2 for secondary.
If this doesn't work, enter these directly in TCP properties in
Windows.

<snip>