Because I have my own internetconnection now instead of sharing one with around 10 other people, I was tweaking my settings to get the best result for eMule. Everytime I started the application, I got a low ID. So, after checking out how to solve that problem, I opened a range of ports between 4500 and 5000 using the Port Triggering on my modem. The result seemed very good: I got a high ID and downloads resumed shortly after.

But... my ping started to rise beyond recognition: where it usually is around 45 ms, it peeked at almost 3000 ms before timing out for a prolonged period of time. I tried to limit my upload, but to no avail. Only after I closed the ports I had opened for eMule, my ping dropped back to around 45 again.

Does anyone know what caused this? Can anyone help me to solve this problem? Atm I can only use eMule with a low ID, and although it's not life threatening, it's a nuisance because I know eMule is able to perform with a high ID without peeking so high on ping.

Any useful remark will be greeted with gratitude.

You only need 1 port forwarded for tcp and 1 for udp. So no need to forward a range of them. But that shouldn't cause any problems.
Check your max connections. Try to lower them. Having too many connections could cause lag like this..

You shouldn't be using default ports either, i would suggest some random high ports, say 10873 TCP and 9873 UDP.

OK, but how about this:



And if I want to use those non-standard ports, should I open just those two, like in your example, spud?

@ Vae Victis:

I have these settings atm:

Max sources/file - Hard limit 300
Connection limits - Max. connections 400

Should I lower both or only the "max. connections"? And to what, 100, 200 maybe? Or is that still too much?

the ports are configured under options within emule, you need to set them there and then open them on your firewall for it to work.

Those ports you listed are just the defaults, the defaults being the ones that are set when you install emule afresh. The problem with defaults are those are widely blocked by isps all around the world.

Switch the 4662 TCP and the 4672 UDP to something else in options, and use NAT to open just those two ports. Close the range you have open.

Alternatively, some mods do support a range of opened ports, but this is largely to beat traffic shaping actions taken by isps.

OK, my setup looks like this now:



I have those ports open now and I changed them in options on eMule.
But I still have a low ID.

I guess you've restarted emule since you changed the ports?

Yes, I even restarted my PC, just to be sure.

can you humour me about taking a picture of your config in emule where you also opened that port?

Might want to check you turned off your windows firewall too.

Here's the picture, I just filled in the numbers at the TCP and the UDP slots:



About Windows firewall: I didn't turn it off, but I made an exception for eMule. When I lived in my old house I had that same situation and it worked there.

turn off your windows firewall, its a piece of shit and does nothing of value.

OK, it's off. The low ID is still there.

Unfortunately the only explaination is you have failed to do one of the steps properly or that your isp is blocking ports.

So you've
1) you've not rebooted emule
2) you've not opened the ports and shut down all firewalls
3) you've not opened or have forwarded to the ports to the wrong pc.

If you are confident you have done all of these, then you should google your isp to see if they are port throttling or restricting. If they are not, there's a problem with your installation or configuration of the ports.


The fact that you have a highid when you open default ports, but not when you switch ports is likely a firewall (or your pc or on your router) or virus scanner blocking ports.

When you hit the test port button, what does it say btw?

When I hit the Test Port button, it always says "Test Failed! UDP test will not be performed". Even when I did get the high ID.

I have
1) rebooted eMule
2) opened the ports on my modem, like you can see on the screenshot above. I think I can't shut down the firewall that's in the modem itself, because I can't find any clues on my modem management how to do that. Apart from NAT setup I can do something with Virtual Servers and DMZ Host, that's it.
3) there's only 1 PC on my LAN, so forwarding it to the wrong PC is impossible, imo.

I only had a high ID when I opened a range of ports, not when I just opened one, even when it was the default port. The problem I got then, was terrible lag of up to 4000 ms. After having posted this I will google my isp for clues, and/or I'll try to lower max connections with a range of ports.

OK, got it! Solved the problem: with Virtual Servers I added emule with the same ports as I had done in NAT. After rebooting eMule the Test Ports result was succesful and my ID is high now.

I also added emule in my firewall settings, but since I turned the XP firewall off, I don't think that made any difference.

Thanks for all comments, Vae, John and Spud!

One remaining question:

Virtual Server is static, while Port Triggering is dynamic. Actually they do the same, but Port Triggering alone was not enough to get me my high ID. Is eMule not able to ask my modem succesfully to open those ports when needed? Or is my modem set up so secure that it doesn't allow eMule to ask?

just for a bit of closer, the test should never fail. If it does, there's a misforwarding or block in place at some point

Well, when I lived in my "old" house, with 10 people on a network, I could get a high ID while my port-test failed everytime. I can't explain that.

And the other question is still a mystery to me as well:
Virtual Server is static, while Port Triggering is dynamic. Actually they do the same, but Port Triggering alone was not enough to get me my high ID. Is eMule not able to ask my modem succesfully to open those ports when needed? Or is my modem set up so secure that it doesn't allow eMule to ask?

I have no idea what you mean by a "virtual server" to be honest. I recall an awfully shitty router i once saw called port forwarding a virtual server, which imo is the wrong description.

A virtual server in the real sense is one OS running inside another, or in the case of an apache server a domain that is treated with a different set of config. ie a fully fledged server response that doesn't physically exist.

I'm not sure what your referring to, sounds awfully like port forwarding though.

I would suggest consulting your router manual about its configuration, usually the difference between nat and port forwarding is things like specifying the right pc to forward to and whether the port is always open or triggered. Port forwarding just redirects all traffic to the right place, its possible you've entered the wrong ip for your emule server, or your router is sending it to the wrong place. that would explain why you have a low id, since outbound traffic is fine, but incoming packets are lost.

I use port forwarding to open single ports with no problems, and use nat to open ranges when needed, if that helps.

Maybe your router needs updating if you've got it configured up right.

Yeah, it seems Virtual Server and port forwarding are the same in this case:



Right now I have used both Virtual Server Setup and Port Triggering to get my high ID without tremendous lag.

That's wrong, the trigger should be the same as the port, both the protocol and the range should be the same across both. You then need to add a second port forward for the other port.