Computer Locks up with ANY P2P
 

Okay... first the problem:

ANY P2P client causes my computer to freeze after a few minutes. I started with both Shareaza and Limewire. (I prefer Limewire) I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, getting rid of one and just installing the other. I've tried reinstalling java, installing the offline versions of everything, I've gone back to several previous versions. I've tried Ares and Frostwire. They ALL cause my computer to freeze up. I built this computer about 4 months ago. It has NEVER frozen except when running P2P. I can run COD:MW2 and Aion at the same time with max settings. I can surf the net with 7 or 8 tabs open at once, browse RSS feeds in Outlook, play 4 or 5 movies, ALL AT THE SAME TIME... no lock ups.

The Computer:

'Me' Brand
8GB DDR3 RAM
PhenomII X4 955 3.2Ghz
Windows 7
ATI Radeon 4800 1GB GDDR3 RAM
Lynksys Wireless Network Adaptor
RealTek HD Audio (on-board)

ALL Drivers are up-to-date


For God's sake.... please, help me. I'm about to go nuts.:shoot:

Edit: If I'm posting this in the wrong place, I'm sorry... seems like the other likely places are for a specific client.

1: have you verified that you have the BIOS properly set up?

2: is that a retail copy of windoze7, or did you 'acquire' it floating around?

3: are you using a good firewall

4: in addition to the firewall are you using PeerGuardian2

???

Okay.... Asus says yes, bios is up-to-date and correct.
Retail upgrade of Windows7 Ultimate x64 from retail Vista x64
Using Microsoft Firewall (had EZ armor, but too much trouble with 64 bit windows)

Installed PeerGuardian2... didn't even realize something like that was out there, Definitely a good idea. Unfortunately, It didn't make a difference.

hmmmm....well, the fact that you are using windoze firewall is a concern to me...PeerGuardian is good, but it only blocks certain IP addys as opposed to acting like a real firewall (which IMHO the windoze one is not)...

have you tried hitting ctrl-alt-delete to open up the task manager and seeing what's happening when things go south?

I would be looking for how much Mem Usage the apps are taking up (on the Processes tab) and I would also look at the Performance tab and see how much the cpu was being put to use...

if things look good in the Task Manager, then my thoughts would be leaning towards you are being attacked and possibly hacked while using the gnutella network and the results of said attacks/hacking are the symptoms you describe....

I use Kaspersky products for security and if you take the time to do a google search you will find that while its not #1, its right up there with the highest rated products....not sure what exactly is available that's compatible with x64, but I'm sure a little research should give you the info you need....

It could be that your ISP is the problem.

Since some of those clients are quite different from one another, it could be due to some other safety app installed which is causing this e.g. AntiVirus or AntiSpyware.

I don't think your ISP has the ability or the interest to completely freeze your computer.

Edit: regarding below post by LOTR. Have you installed any network connection monitoring program, antivirus, antimalware or similar program given to you by your ISP?

According to a check here you are using Insight. They are not a p2p friendly ISP! ISP's known to BLOCK or Filter p2p or specifically Limewire (Click on blue link)

Yeah, Sleepless is prolly right; the freezing of your machine is more likely due to some kind of malware. If it was your ISP, you would see much slower or no downloads (rather than your whole machine being affected). You should be highly suspicious of any software provided by your ISP.