Tips and Tricks to Bittorent sites

The first thing to notice when you join a private BitTorrent site is
the eye-popping quality of the torrents. Each one is carefully culled,
hand-picked through a strict moderation process. However, before you
start hammering away on that download link - here are a few things you
need to know.

On private torrent sites, everything revolves around ratios. A 1:1
ratio (or 1.0) means that you’ve downloaded exactly the same amount of
data as you’ve uploaded. Thus a 0.80 ratio indicates that you’ve
uploaded less than you’ve downloaded, which is hurtful to the health of
the torrent. Inversely, a 3.0 ratio means you’ve uploaded 3 times more
data than you’ve downloaded. Strive to achieve at least a 1.0 ratio -
each site will have specific consequences for members who maintain a
ratio of less than this. Attain a ratio over 1.0 and the rewards shall
follow you into the P2P afterlife.

If you’re brand-new to a private site, it will be difficult in the
beginning to acquire a 1.0 ratio. Luckily, users are given a ‘grace’
period to achieve this. Since there are so many more seeds than
leechers (a total flip-flop from public BT sites), it becomes harder to
upload to others - due to the fact that there are fewer people to share
with.

So why go through all the trouble to keep an honest ratio? Because
deep down, you’re an upstanding denizen of file-sharing society! Aside
from that shameless pat-on-the-back, good ratios offer many perks,
including an upgraded account on the tracker (i.e. VIP status), higher
download speeds, free “invites” for your friends, and no waiting
periods associated with accounts in arrears.


Here are Ten Tips to get your ratio in top-shape as fast as possible:

1. Start out with Smaller Files

Initially, opt for smaller (i.e. under 1 GB) files for downloading.
This gives you a greater chance of someone coming along after you and
downloading the same torrent (and you’ll be able to upload to them).
Obviously a 700MB movie file will be more appealing to other site
members than a 30GB ‘Blu-Ray’ rip.

2. Jump on the ‘Newly Released’ torrents

This is a great tip for increasing your ratio in a hurry. Camp out
in your favorite private BT site, and refresh the torrent listings
frequently. Newly added entries will have many more leechers than
seeds, so you’ll be able to share (upload) more data. To maximize this
tip, select smaller files - the “TV Episode” category works great for
this.

3. Select Files that have a High ‘L’ or upload number

This is important. When selecting torrents, base your initial
selections on a high number of leechers (the more, the better). This
will ensure you have many avenues to upload to during (and after) the
transfer. When starting out on a new private BT site, we would even go
so far as to say that you should download torrents that you don’t want
- just start grabbing torrents that have lots of leechers. Once your
ratio get over the 1:1 (1.0) mark, delete them.

TIP: If one of your seeding torrents remains popular, leave it
running in µtorrent permanently. This will always help to boost your
upload ratio

4. Avoid ‘Zero-Leech’ torrents

When you’re new to a private site, steer clear of the ‘zero-leech’
torrents - it is impossible to increase your share ratio when there are
no other downloaders. When viewing a list of torrents, look for the
“Leecher” column (or just “L”) and avoid anything that has a zero ( “0")
in it. After your account ratio has become relatively stable, now is
the time to snag whatever you want.

5. Leave some tasks running in uTorrent

After the completed download of a torrent, leave the task running
(as a seed) in µtorrent to increase your upload statistics. Don’t
delete (or move) the files of a running task! You can, however, extract
(unRAR) the files, or copy the files from one place to the next. In the
event of a movie/video file - you’ll be able to “burn” or “extract” the
*.avi file (or even play it on the PC) without affecting the seeding
torrent.

TIP: Always keep a few things running as ’seeds’ in your BT client.
If you notice that they aren’t uploading, replace them with newer ones.

6. Go for the ‘Freebie’ downloads

Many private sites will offer “free” torrents that won’t count
against your download statistics (thus, your ratio will remain
unchanged). Grab these freebies - especially when searching for
torrents on a new account.

7. Use ‘Credits’ to purchase…

A popular feature among superior private BitTorrent sites is the
addition of a ‘credits’ feature for account holders. Credits can be
used to ‘purchase’ VIP status, increased sharing ratios and other
perks. Not all sites are the same, but some credits can be acquired
just from staying active in their IRC channel, or from just having the
torrents available for download in your BT client.

8. Do NOT try to ‘cheat’ the Private Trackers

There are a variety of ratio cheating tips available out there, but
don’t be tempted. Trackers are fairly sophisticated and ever-evolving.
If you get caught cheating, you won’t even be warned - it’s a permanent
ban for you and bye-bye for good.

9. Set a proper Upload Limit

Setting a proper upload limit in the BT client makes all the
difference! You’ll want to supply a high enough limit to maximize
uploading, but not have it eat into your download bandwidth. The
general rule is to set it at 80 - 85% of your upload limit. To figure
this out, visit www.speedtest.net
and conduct the simple test. Results are shown in kilobits, so divide
the result by 1/8 and then multiply that by 0.85. This will give you
the proper number in KB/s (KiloBytes).

In µtorrent,
go to OPTIONS > Preferences… > Connection and enter your upload
rate. Click “Apply” and then “OK” to save the changes. While your in
that same ’settings’ page, make sure to use a port number from the good
list (e.g. 49152 - 65535).

10. And if all else fails…donate

Most sites allow for monetary contributions to keep up with the
server costs. If you enjoy a particular site immensely but cannot seem
to be able to approach a decent sharing ratio (due to turning off your
computer at night, going to work, or sharing your computer with your
kids, wife, husband or siblings), think about donating. In most cases
even a not-so-generous gratuity will robustly affect your account
status - plus you’ll feel good about helping out the BitTorrent
community.

Other Tips - Follow ‘The Rules’

Yeah, we know: you hate rules! That’s why you probably moved out of
your parents’ basement. Rules are probably why some turned to P2P.
Nevertheless, rules are an important aspect to private BT sites -
they ensure healthy torrents and blazing-fast download speeds for all.
Each site will have their “rules” posted - the link is usually not hard
to find. Below are some general rules / tips that pertain to any
private BitTorrent site:

Use an ‘Accepted’ BitTorrent client

Not all private trackers are the same - and each one has different
rules in regards to which BitTorrent client is on the “allowable” list.
Most sites recommend µtorrent, but only specific versions (or builds) of it. If you stick with v1.6.1 or the latest version v1.7.7
(recommended), you can’t go wrong with ANY private site (avoid any
versions in between these numbers). And do not use BitComet on private
trackers.

Proper BitTorrent client configuration:

Many trackers recommend that you disable DHT and Peer Exchange (PEX)
in your BT client’s settings. To do this in µtorrent, go to OPTIONS
> Preferences… > and select the BitTorrent tab. Remove the three
checkmarks that pertain to DHT and PEX.

Do not ‘Hit & Run’ a Private BT site:

A ‘Hit & Run’ (or H&R) is when someone joins a private
tracker, and downloads as much as they can before making off without
uploading to a proper ratio. While this practice is frowned upon even
on public sites such as mininova.org,
it is deplorable to private sites. This can (and sometimes will) lead
to your IP address being banned from the site - forever.