How to configure uTorrent for best settings

Disclaimer:
Proceed at your own risk!

Introduction:
This is a step by step guide on setting up uTorrent. It details the steps from downloading to optimizing your settings.

A quick rundown of its major features:
1. Protocol Encryption - This is the major speed booster if your ISP throttles bittorrent traffic. It can do wonders on torrents with high speeds and can give high speeds especially if your peers are using uTorrent/Azureus, as those are the popular ones that support this standard.

2. Distributed Hash Table (DHT) - Similar to Peer Exchange, disable this.

3. Capping Upload Speed - Uploading data to other peers at full throttle will severely limit your download rate. This is one key element we have to adjust for a good download/upload ratio. Unless youare purely seeding and not using your computer for other tasks, limit your upload to 80% of full bandwidth.

Tools We Need:
1. An internet connection and its maximum download and upload speed. If unsure, visit:

http://www.speedtest.net

2. Patched TCPIP.sys to allow more concurrent half-open connections. Windows XP SP2 limits the number of half-connections to 10. This limitation can impact your bittorrent experience. To increase the limit,

NOTE: IF UNSURE, DON'T DO THIS PART. Proceed at your own risk!

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Windows XP Users
1. Go to this site- http://lvllord.de/
2. Click on Downloads
3. Right click the link and click "Save Target As"
4. Save it in your Desktop
5. Open the file and run the program located inside the archive, agreeing to the security warning.
6. Some text should scroll by in MS-DOS window, after it ends, type C.
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 tampers them to break thelimit on purpose).

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3. uTorrent
4. A Torrent-Script torrent/s to kick off thedownload.

Getting to the file:
1. Click on thisdownload page - http://www.utorrent.com/download.php
2. Click "get uTorrent 2.*.*". Chooseto RUN it.
3. If any security dialogs appear, click Run aswe know this is a safe file.
4. uTorrent will prompt you with the followingdialog.
5. Click OK to install.

Configuring uTorrent
1. Run the program. Ignore the security warning(Click Run).

2. It will give the following dialog.

You want the program to be easily accessible, don'tyou? Click Yes and the shortcut will be created in your desktop and start menu.

3. Next you will be given another dialog

Click Yes, so the next time you download on a presume torrent, uTorrent will automatically start up to handle the downloading job.

4. And the next dialog box is the most important step

Now the value that we are interested in right now is the Upload Limit in kB/s (aka KBps). If you have trouble understanding yourspeed, consider this: Internet Explorer shows download speed as KBps when youdownload a file.

There is a big difference between 5Kbps and 5KBps. make sure you got the right values in KBps (not Kbps). Use Google Calculator ifyou need help with convertions.

5. Click Current Settings

The authors of uTorrent have been very helpful in providing a list of pre defined values. Your connection should be near to one of the above categories. "xx/384k"means that your download is unlimited and your upload is limited to 384kbps(which is 48KBps).

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.

Note: The default download speed in utorrent is Unlimited

TIP: uTorrent randomly generates a port number in Current Port. This tutorial assumes the port number to be 55641 - but you can substitute it with the number uTorrent shows.

6. 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:

a. Home Router - If you are running a router(sometimes called wireless access point) at home, you will have to configure itto direct all TCP/UDP bittorrent traffic to port 55641 to be routed to yourcomputer. If so, click this
link(http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm). Click the router you are using. Click the application, which is uTorrent, and follow the instructions.

b. 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.

Windows Firewall Users - uTorrent will automatically configure Windows Firewall so there is no action needed from you.

c. 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.

d. Utorrent.Com Port Forward Checking Websitehas a problem - Yes, especially if you are accessing the Internet through at ransparent 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 isforwarded is to proceed into the next step. This case is very unlikely as utorrent.com uses a different port for checking.

Having done all theabove, 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.

7. Now you see the full uTorrent window in full glamour.

Starting a simple torrent
We need to start asimple download, and the one that comes to my mind right now is uTorrent 1.6.1Bit Torrent Client! We will be downloading this file purely for testing and delete it later on.

1. Minimize uTorrent for now. Notice it resides on the system tray (bottom right) automatically.
2. Click to http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php. Click on "Jar, Jar torrent, Source". Click the "JarTorrent" to download the torrent file.
3. Select a mirror and click the download linkon the right most column.
4. You should get this dialog

This is the metadatafile, it contains information on the file you want to download eventually. Thatis why it is so small. We want uTorrent to automatically start downloading it, so click Open.

NOTE: The "Name, Type and From" may differ on your system. This is normal, as uTorrent is frequently updated

5. The file opens with uTorrent which automatically pops up this dialog (scaled for easier viewing)

All values areautomatically 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 adifferent location that is more convenient for you.

All looking good, click OK.

Progress of the Download

Click on the uTorrent torrent (the only item in the list) to view more information on it. Suddenly all the values begin filling up!

Looks like thetorrent has a total of x seeds and y downloaders. x seeds is a lot and it meansyou should get the full file in no time! A seed is a term used to refer to peers who have downloaded and sharing the complete file.

However, after running for 5 minutes, the speed refuses to go above 5 KB/s, which is not possible for a highly seeded torrent. Could it be my ISP throttling?

Enabling Protocol Encryption and Increasing Max Half Open Connections
uTorrent by default disables protocol encryption. We need to enable this so that the ISP's packet shaping hardware will detect our bit torrent traffic as normal traffic and hopefully let it pass.

1. Click on Options, Preferences.
2. Click on BitTorrent.
3. You should get a dialog similar to one below
4. The one we are concerned about is ProtocolEncryption. Set the Outgoing to Enabled.
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.

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 at a high rate to enjoy good download rates, but not so high that it affects download speed. Experiment.


Further Things You Can Try For Optimum Speed

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. Setting a high upload can sometimes slow down a fast torrent. 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.
3. 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.
4. Change the Protocol Encryption to Forced. This will force encryption on all outgoing packets and will not fallback toun-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.
5. Remove the check for "Allow IncomingLegacy Connections". This will make all your outgoing and incoming packetsfully encrypted, except for tracker communications. Peers who are using aclient that don't support encryption are dropped. Avoid doing this for torrentswith low peers/seeds.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1) What are the good/best ports for uTorrent?
There's no"best port" or good ports . All ports are suitable for use with uTorrent, unless you are running a program that is using the port (use a port number above 49152 to be safe).

Note: For some this might be confusing. We won't tell you on what port/s to use but usually using a port above 50000 is a good idea.

However, feel freeto change the default port of it by going to Options, Preferences, Connectionand adjusting the "Port used for incoming connections" as necessary. Remember to re-adjust your port forwarding settings in your firewall/router too.

2) I have tried all the above and my speeds are still slow! What can I do?
Try downloading a different torrent. A high ratio of seeds to leechers (Eg 2000 seeds to 10leechers) will make a big difference in speeds. Make sure there is a green light at the bottom or check the possible causes.

Verify your speed byrunning a speed test from different locations to ensure your connection is fast to the major locations in the world. For example, if you are downloading Chinese torrents, you should select a download location from China (orsomewhere nearby) in the speed test.

Finally, try enabling Forced encryption and performing the extra things you can try as outlined here. If speeds still do not improve, we are also not aware of the cause. Perhaps your ISP has managed to break encryption in bit torrent traffic.

Note: Don't go shouting "how the hell mydl speed sucks though i have a gazillion mb connection!?" as there are lots of external/internal factors to consider. (ISP throttling, Leech/Seedratio, Seed/s connection speed, firewalled router/windows, etc)

Credits to the original creator of this guide. Thanks.

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