Torrents in Thailand

[cag8f]

Hi All. I just moved to Thailand (Bangkok) and I'm having problems with utorrent. Specifically, whenever I open a torrent in Bittorrent, the Status hangs indefinitely on "Connecting to peers." With my current system and configuration, I have previously been able to download torrents without a problem in the US, Afghanistan, India, and most recently, Australia, so I'm reasonably sure (but not certain) that my problem is related to Thailand's relatively strict internet censorship. Here are the details:

--System is a Dell Latitude running Windows 7 32-bit, Google Chrome, Bittorrent 7.8. Also experience the same problem on an Acer Aspire running Windows 7 64-bit, Google Chrome, Bittorrent 7.8.

--I experience the same issue using utorrent (v. 3.3) as well as Bittorrent.

--I experience the same issue with many different torrents, including Open Office (as suggested in the utorrent Setup Guide).

--I experience the same issue with both my hotel's internet connection and the internet connection at an outside coffee shop.

--The "Info" and "Trackers" tabs at the bottom remain completely empty.

--I followed most of the steps in the utorrent forum stickies, including:

1. I carried out Step #1 of the Setup Guide (Configuring for your connection). I received a Bandwidth error of: "Speed test failed" and Network error of "Port is not open (you are still able to download)."

2. I carried out Step #2 of the Setup Guide (Enabling Protocol Encryption) and received the same errors as in Step #1.

3. I performed the "Resolving a NAT problem" test in the Setup Guide, and that also returned the same Network error as in Step #1.

4. I used Glasnost to test if my ISP was blocking P2P. My first attempt resulted in an error message of, "Our tool was unable to measure your link. The connection to the measurement server was lost." I ran Glasnost a second time and it ran for the requisite 500 seconds, but hung indefinitely on "Processing data..." My third and final attempt resulted in the same error as my first attempt.

5. I searched the Bittorrent and utorrent forums but couldn't find any advice I hadn't already tried.

Any ideas on how I can troubleshoot further, or how to resolve/workaround? I posted this in the utorrent forums but received no replies.

Thanks in advance.

[Harold Feit]

--The "Info" and "Trackers" tabs at the bottom remain completely empty.

Even when selecting one of the offending torrents?

4. I used Glasnost to test if my ISP was blocking P2P. My first attempt resulted in an error message of, "Our tool was unable to measure your link. The connection to the measurement server was lost." I ran Glasnost a second time and it ran for the requisite 500 seconds, but hung indefinitely on "Processing data..." My third and final attempt resulted in the same error as my first attempt.

Makes me suspect your internet provider.

[cag8f]

Even when selecting one of the offending torrents?

Ah sorry, I didn't have the torrent selected. The value of each status is "waiting for announce...", "working", "working", and "Connection timed out" for the next four. I have a screenshot, but unfortunately am to naive to figure out how to post it in this message.

Makes me suspect your internet provider.

Right. I suspect that as well. But are there steps I can take to fully diagnose that? And/or are there fixes or workarounds?

[Harold Feit]

Basically given what you've said (multiple clients, multiple torrents, glasnost failing, etc) it's a very high possibility that the internet provider is outright blocking.

Additionally, the results of your trackers tab tells me that at the very least SOMETHING is blocking.

[cag8f]

I'm kind of a novice at P2P. Assuming the ISP is blocking, do I have any recourse? For example, the ISPs here and in Afghanistan blocked certain websites, but using the Tor browser was a viable workaround.

[Harold Feit]

You MIGHT be able to find a proxy service that will work.

Tor will not, and even if it does, it is not supported or recommended.

[cag8f]

Thanks for the info. Are there any proxy services that have previously performed well in this situation?

[Harold Feit]

To be perfectly honest, I haven't bothered looking because my provider doesn't block or otherwise interfere.

[cag8f]

Gotcha. Thanks anyway :-)