In the past few days utorrent has been acting strangely. When I try to download something while still using the internet it "hangs up". For example...I'm trying to download a movie right now. Everything was looking good. Download speed was climbing. I went to a site to play poker a few minutes later. All of a sudden the game kicks me off the server and I check utorrent. The Download speed is steadily decreasing until it hits 0 and sticks there. I then go back to check the internet page...try to reload it and it refuses to load anything. I then pause the download and my internet goes back to working perfectly.

If I download and go watch a movie on VLC it works fine.

I'm on unlimited WiFi if that makes any difference and I also use a VPN.

I used CCleaner yesterday and thought maybe that would help but it didn't.

What could be causing this and how do I fix it?

Hi, I am unsure whether what I am about to say will be of any use to you, but I have found that the only way to go when downloading,especially these days is via a proxy, I apologise in advance if whilst skimming through this thread I missed you saying you already use a proxy server. If you don't then maybe it would be worth giving it a try to see if it fixes your problems. Hope it helps you

Thanks for that site. I did the test once with my VPN ON and once with it OFF (I get my VPN from NVPN). With the VPN ON it said the connection was too noisy to do a system check even though I had nothing running except that test. With my VPN OFF it said this:
Details:
* There is no indication that your ISP rate limits your BitTorrent downloads. In our tests, downloads using control flows achieved up to 9383 Kbps while downloads using BitTorrent achieved up to 9111 Kbps.
* There is no indication that your ISP rate limits downloads on port 6881 or 41937. In our tests, downloads on port 6881 achieved up to 9111 Kbps while downloads on port 41937 achieved up to 7229 Kbps.
I guess my VPN could be doing this? Thanks for any and all help btw...I am beyond frustrated at this. Now going to google how to change my router channel, lol. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

I got fed up with Utorrent after using it for 6 and a half years earlier this year. Every update, made it more unstable. I now use qbittorrent and haven't looked back.Very fast client.
Give it a looksee. http://sourceforge.net/projects/qbittorrent/

You Sir are an AWESOME OPOSSUM!! I was able to DL a full movie in an hour with just one internet interruption (I can live with that). What I've noticed is that it craps out on me when the trackers are switching over. Instead of bridging over gracefully...it goes flat on me. Not sure how to fix that so if anybody knows please fill me in. QBittorrent is great though.

Do I get a gold start for being the first one to suggest it might be the VPN? Just kidding but I'm glad to see you figured it out and now can download without any big problems using the other client. Congrats on fixing it!!

Proxy servers are about the worst thing to use to protect you. Proxy servers basically protect you when not using the net, once you use the net you're unprotected.
As for the users issue, I'm going with it being his wireless. Does it do the same issue when you turn your VPN off?

My wireless has been tested and is fine. Also I live in the Boonies so I'm the only one on this router channel. I noticed it craps out when it's switching from one tracker to the next while the download is in process. Haven't tried it without my VPN on...too chicken, lol.

use Vuze

your very welcome.

vuze has never dissapointed in over three years of using it