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competent123@hotmail.com
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This guide does not require a payment in the form of money, it does require something in
return for you.
DISCLAIMER
Proceed at your own risk! The information here is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I will not be held responsible
if this document causes your computer to explode or burst into flames. In real serious terms, if any corruption of data,
hardware damage or any other kind of damage/losses/etc. arises from the use of this document, I will not be
responsible for it. If you don't like this, please don't read any further.
INTRODUCTION
This is a tutorial step by step guide on setting up uTorrent. It details all the steps from downloading to optimizing
your settings. Many people have used Bit Torrent and think they are running with optimized settings, even then, it is
advised to read through this guide and see what you may have missed to better optimize your settings.
3. BitComet ( http://www.bitcomet.com/ ) (popular but banned by some trackers due to incorrect reporting)
This guide will focus on the top most client, uTorrent. A quick rundown of its major features and we're talking
SPEED here
1. Peer Exchange
Obtains more peers for your downloading torrent in addition to trackers. Peer exchange checks with other
peers to see if they know of any other peers. More Peers = More Speed! (provided the peers are seeds and
are not choked)
2. Protocol Encryption
This is the major speed booster if your ISP throttles bit torrent traffic. It can do wonders on torrents with
high seeds and can give high speeds especially if your peers are using the top 3 clients I mentioned above, as
those are the popular ones that support this standard.
1. An Internet Connection and its maximum download and upload speed. If unsure, visit
http://www.speedtest.net/ to run a speed test. Note: Minimum Flash 7 is required. Remember to select a
download location closest to you, especially if you are outside US. The Recommended Server works out
most of the time.
2. Patched TCPIP.sys to allow more concurrent half-open connections. Windows XP SP2 and Vista limits
the number of half-connections to 10. This limitation can impact your Bittorrent experience. To increase the
limit,
Windows XP Users (NOT Vista users, see next step for Vista users)
2. Click on Downloads.
5. Open the file and run the program located inside the archive, agreeing to the security warning.
7. Enter 100 for the number of concurrent half-open connections and press Enter.
8. Type Y and the file should be patched. Cancel any Windows XP warnings that should appear, it is
part of Microsoft's way of ensuring its files are not tampered with (the utility tempers them to
break the limit on purpose).
10. Look for the item named - EventID4226Fix for Windows Vista (Line 2)
14. If you are running 64-bit Vista, double click on InstallPatch64.bat. If you are running 32-Bit
Vista, double click on InstallPatch32.bat. Unsure? Run InstallPatch32.bat.
15. Some text should scroll by in a MS-DOS window, after it ends, type Y and press Enter.
16. After the restart notice appears, press any key and restart your PC.
3. A Bit Torrent Client - I recommend uTorrent. This guide uses uTorrent for the tutorial.
4. And finally, some torrents to kick off the download. A sample torrent file will be provided later.
DOWNLOAD
2. Click "Get µTorrent 1.7.5 Stable (214 KB)". Choose to RUN it.
3. If any security dialogs appear, click Run as we know this is a safe file.
Configuring uTorrent
The configuration part is where most people mess up. Most of us will just click through the dialogs accepting the
default values. This may apply to some of us, but not the majority.
1. Run the program. Ignore the security warning (Click Run) - we know perfectly well that the file is
legitimate.
You want the program to be easily accessible, don't you? Click Yes and the shortcut will be created in your
desktop and start menu.
There is a big difference between 5Kbps and 5KBps. Make sure you got the right values in KBps (not kbps,
the case of 'b' matters) . Use Google Calculator if you need help with conversions.
With your results of the speed test you did above, select the closest upload speed from the list. uTorrent
immediately adjusts the "Affected Settings" area with recommended values for your upload speed. We're not
finished yet.
Note: The default download speed in utorrent is Unlimited. Even if your download is limited, it is always
better to leave it at unlimited to get maximum download speeds. However, if you need to limit your
download speeds, right-click the utorrent icon on the system tray (bottom right), click Download Limit and
set accordingly. You can also set this in the Preferences dialog.
Note: uTorrent randomly generates a port number in Current Port. This guide assumes the port number to
be 55641 - but you can substitute it with the number uTorrent shows.
5. Port forwarding is also important. Click on "Test if port is forwarded properly" to run the test. If you have
trouble running the test, it could be due to one or more of the following reasons:
1. Home Router
If you are running a router (sometimes called wireless access point) at home, you will have to
configure it to route all TCP / UDP bit torrent traffic to port 55641 to your computer. If so, visit
this page for a guide on how to port forward. Click the router you are using and follow
instructions.
2. Personal Firewall
If you are running a firewall software such as Norton Internet Security, Norton Personal Firewall,
ZoneAlarm, etc, then configure your firewall such that uTorrent has access to port 55641. This is
normally accomplished by starting up utorrent, and the firewall should spring up an access alert.
Simply select the option to "Always Allow" the program to access the Internet.
3. Corporate Firewall
Are you running this software in a corporate network? Bad news - you have to inform the admin
that you want the port to be directed to your computer. The good news - you can still go by without
port forwarding, but speeds will not be optimal.
4. Utorrent.Com Port Forward Checking Website has a problem
Yes, especially if you are accessing the Internet through a transparent proxy that your ISP forces
you to use. This simply means that the website is reporting false info, and the best way to verify
that your port is forwarded is to proceed into the next step. This case is very unlikely as
utorrent.com uses a different port for checking.
Having done all the above, if the website still says that it has problems accessing the port, the ultimate test
will be when we do a test file downloading. Let's click on Use Selected Settings.
1. Minimize uTorrent for now. Notice it resides on the system tray (bottom right) automatically.
2. Click to http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/.
3. Look at the column labeled "complete". Find the row with the largest value. A quick way is to scan for a 4
digit value.
4. Now download the torrent - click the link in the 2nd column of that row
This is the metadata file, it contains information on the file you want to download eventually. That is why it
is so small. We want uTorrent to automatically start downloading it, so click Open.
NOTE: The "Name and Type" may differ on your system. This is normal, as Ubuntu is frequently updated
6. The file opens with uTorrent which automatically pops up this dialog (scaled for easier viewing)
All values are automatically filled in for you. Here is also where you select files that you don't want to
download - if the download has many files which in this case is not. Remember where the file is stored in
"Save As", or save it in a different location that is more convenient for you.
However, after running for 5 minutes, the speed refuses to go above 20 KB/s, which is not possible for a highly
seeded torrent. Could it be my ISP throttling?
2. Click on BitTorrent.
5. Click on Advanced.
Change the "net.max_halfopen" value to 50 by selecting the line, changing the value at the bottom to 50
and clicking Set.
NOTE: It is normal for a asterisk(*) to appear. This is to indicate that the value has been changed from the
default value.
6. Click OK. Stop all torrents, wait 10 seconds, and Start the torrent. Now let's watch the speeds.
Hopefully, the above changes will improve speeds. Ultimately, it depends on the number of seeders and peers with
high upload rate. Remember, you must upload to enjoy good download rates, but not so high that it affects download
speed. Experiment.
1. There should be a green tick at the bottom, not a exclamation mark as below.
If uTorrent keeps showing this even after 5 minutes, check the possible causes.
2. To get more peers, right-click the entry on the list, and click Update Tracker. Do this especially if you are
on a private tracker before you exit the application, so that your ratio is maintained.
3. Setting a high upload can sometimes slow down a fast torrent. For example, in my ADSL connection, if I do
upload at 10KB/s I can get up to 350KB/s. If I upload at 30KB/s, the download speed gets limited to
200KB/s. The total upload available to me is 60KB/s.
This is where you have to experiment by setting a low upload rate (from 10 at Preferences > Network) and
watching if the speeds increase for 5 minutes, especially if the torrent is heavily seeded.
But remember, you must upload in order for peers to share their downloaded data with you. It is possible to
set a very low upload, but the chance of peers sending you their data will decrease, pulling down your
download speed.
4. Some people have reported speed increases by setting the peer.lazy_bitfield setting to false in Advanced
Preferences. However, in my case, it lowered the speeds.
5. Change the Protocol Encryption (Options, Preferences, Bittorrent) to Forced. This will force encryption on
all outgoing packets and will not fallback to un-encrypted mode if the peer refuses to co-operate. Good to
connect to only encryption-enabled peers. Avoid doing this for torrents with low peers/seeds.
6. Remove the check for "Allow Incoming Legacy Connections" (Options, Preferences, Bittorrent). This will
make all your outgoing and incoming packets fully encrypted, except for tracker communications. Peers
who are using a torrent software that doesn't support encryption are dropped. Avoid doing this for torrents
with low peers/seeds.
7. Avoid private trackers, especially those with torrents that specifically tell utorrent to disable DHT
(effectively disabling Peer Exchange and Local Peer Discovery too). You can tell if the torrent is private by
selecting the torrent and looking at the DHT value. If it says "disabled", it is a private torrent.
That said, the main reason private trackers exist is because they enforce sharing rules that tries to prevent a
person from downloading a torrent and running off without uploading back the same amount of data he
downloaded.
For new and popular torrents on such trackers, you may be able to get good speeds as everyone will be
trying to increase their upload/download ratio. Again, experiment. The key point here is the seeds/leechers
ratio and the popularity of them in public and private trackers.
8. Check the Availability column for the torrent. If it is less than 1, chances are that the torrent is new and the
original uploader is still uploading. However, if it remains at a value less than 1 (eg, 0.98) for more than a
day, either the torrent does not have seeds or it is fake. (Thanks TTbarDJ)