For many people, the distributed peer-to-peer download power of torrents isn’t all it’s made out to be. If you’re feeling drowned in fake files, choking from ISP speed throttling, and sick of being told you’re unconnectable – this guide is for you. We’ll have your torrent downloads in tip-top shape in no time. Note, I’m not touching on security here. If you’re paranoid about your ISP or the RIAA, your only solution is to run everything you do through a VPN and be done with it. If you follow everything I show you here, your torrent overview screen should soon be capable of looking like this:
Open Those Ports!
What is a good download speed? I find private trackers are significantly faster for me. On a very well-seeded public torrent, I can get 3-4mbps, but on private trackers, I can get 10-11mbps. I would if I wasn't also downloading a bunch of freeleech stuff and other things I don't necessarily want just to boost my ratios.
Your first step how to speed up torrent downloads is to ensure you can actually be connected to from other peers. The latest version of uTorrent is able to test this for you, so launch the Setup Guide from the Options menu. If you have an older uTorrent, you can test specific ports using this tool.
- I extolled the virtues of private trackers with their ridiculously fast download speeds and high quality torrents last week in my 9 Easy Ways To Never Get A Virus.
- Speed Up BitTorrent with latest settings and make BitTorrent download faster. Your BitTorrent download speed will increase on applying these tweaks and settings.
By default, uTorrent will attempt to auto-configure your router using uPnP, which solves so many problems. If your router isn’t compatible, this will fail – but you can perform the following steps to forward the ports correctly.
![Download Torrent Faster Speed Boost Download Torrent Faster Speed Boost](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126390097/380297440.jpg)
Open up a command prompt from Windows, and type ipconfig. Find the IPv4 address of the form 192.168.x.x and note it down.
Open up uTorrent Options-> Preferences -> Connection , and choose your own port or note down the one it has chosen for you. Make sure “randomise port each start” is not checked.
Open up your router config page and look for PORT FORWARDING. Yours may be different, but they are all basically similar. Name the forwarding rule, add the first and last port you want forwarded (just enter the same value in this case), and the IP address or the machine you want forwarded to.
Note that if your network is running an automatic addressing scheme, you may need to reconfigure this if you shut down and are given a new address. You can read my previous tutorial here on how to reserve a permanent IP addressWhat Is a Static IP Address? Here's Why You Don't Need OneWhat Is a Static IP Address? Here's Why You Don't Need OneRouter-assigned IP addresses change occasionally, while static IP addresses do not. Here's why you don't really need one.Read More from your router.
Be sure to re-test when you’re done, though you may need to restart your router.
ISP Throttling & Traffic Shaping
Assuming you’ve gone through all the other steps in this guide and your torrents are still slow, then it’s quite possible that your ISP is shaping your traffic somehow.
This tool from Glasnost can help you tell if your ISP is throttling your speed and specifically tests torrent protocol.
If you find you’re being restricted, you have two possible courses of action. The first is to switch your ISP to one less draconic. In the UK at least, I know Virgin Media are very open about their traffic policies, and do perform some outright speed restrictions (not just on your torrent traffic) if your download/upload goes beyond a certain point during peak times. In general though, they have the least restrictive of any UK ISP.
Your second option is to use a VPN to encrypt your traffic, making it impossible for your ISP to inspect what you are actually doing. Bear in mind this only works if they are “shaping” your traffic for specific protocols, rather than placing general restrictions on the total amount of traffic you can use.
We covered some free solutions before, and you can read a complete explanation of what a VPN is here – but when choosing a service for you it’s important to note that most VPN services explicitly DON’T allow torrent traffic, and certainly not any that are free. The best two paid services I know of that do allow unlimited torrent trafficThe Best VPN for Torrenting: ExpressVPN vs. CyberGhost vs. MullvadThe Best VPN for Torrenting: ExpressVPN vs. CyberGhost vs. MullvadWith hundreds of VPN providers out there, it can be difficult to find the right one to meet your needs. For torrenting, you'll want to stick to one of these.Read More are vpntunnel.se and torrentsecurity.com
Enable DHT Or Join A Private Tracker
I extolled the virtues of private trackers with their ridiculously fast download speeds and high quality torrents last week in my 9 Easy Ways To Never Get A Virus10 Easy Ways to Never Get a Virus10 Easy Ways to Never Get a VirusWith a little basic training, you can completely avoid the problem of viruses and malware on your computers and mobile devices. Now you can calm down and enjoy the internet!Read More article, but be aware that private trackers generally don’t allow peer exchange and DHT to be enabled because it prevents the system from counting your ratio correctly, effectively letting certain users “cheat”. So personally, I would recommend you DISABLE DHT and join a good private tracker or two, but if you can’t find your way into one…
Make sure DHT and peer exchange is enabled from the connections screen. This will have the fortunate side effect of meaning you can still find peers even when the tracker is down.
Windows Firewall
Make sure the firewall exception is on, or turn off the Windows firewall entirely. Again, do this from the connections screen of uTorrent options if you wish to add an exception.
In my opinion it’s another of those unnecessary security precautions like anti-virus that ends up causing far more problems that it’s worth. To turn off the firewall completely, click Start and type “firewall“. Open the first option in the Control Panel results, and you’ll see a link on the sidebar to completely disable it.
Don’t Be A Leech
If you set your torrent client to severely restrict the amount of uploading it can do, and basically just leech the files, most private trackers will restrict the amount you can download too. Make sure you are fully able and willing to give back to the community.
Conclusion
What kind of speeds do you get for torrents, and is that your ISPs fault? Do you have a restrictive ISP and would like to shame them in the comments? Do you still use public trackers? Go ahead and tell the world in the comments! Alternatively, ask for ISP specific advice in the ever growing tech questions community we have here at MakeUseOf.
Explore more about: BitTorrent, .
- I am Downloading Assasin's Creed and it downloaded upto 96%. Then suddenly the download speed is 0.0Kb/s and rarely goes to 0.1Kb/s.But the upload speed is upto 47.4Kb/s. Please help me fix this issue.
- i currently can only connect to the internet through a wifi hotspot that i don't pay for. i have no actual subscription to a service im only able to use my laptops wifi capabilities to connect to an unsecured neighbors internet. can i still use the information you've provided with my current situation or do i need to actually buy and install my own internet service? please help me im stuck in the stone age and need to find a way to make it work. thank you for your time and valuable information
- how do you find port forwarding
- is this trick work in india toooo
- Thanks a lot!!!!
It had doubled my original speed in torrent..... - Thank you you save me!
John, from Greece - Hey, I used to get amazing torrent speeds in my new Internet connection. Don't know how but for a month, I got like 5-6 mbps speed for torrents but I had an internet plan of 1mbps only. Its obvious that I wouldn't get 5-6mbps torrent speed in a 1mbps connection. One day I did some router configurations for my gaming and the torrent speed got down and never came back. Can you place help me regain it?
- restore your router to default setting..? You were probably just getting lucky.
- James Bruce :- does dis tricks even works in india or only in UK????
- Don't be stupid, this is the internet, not a country.
- I have AT&T Uverse, and I am supposed to get 10mb dl and 1.5mb?? upload... However, when I download torrents (via public or private trackers), my speed maxes out at 700kb/s. I have followed the advice given here and other sites, but I still get maxed out. Any suggestions?
- i hav a 256 kbps net connection and using some tricks of mine i got about 20 mbps speed in utorrent
i've made these tricks myself (i'm a bit of hacker) but when i tried it on my friends pc it wasn't working so maybe these tricks work on only my isp.
i'm more than satisfied by this speed coz i can download a 1.5 gb movie in just about 10-12 minutes:)- would u tell me the trick
- There is no trick, this guys is A: Full of shit B: Not a hacker or tech savvy.
- How about BitTorrent ?
- Any advise for a 1Mbps home broadband pity home user for the same topic?
- HI I HAVE PROBLEM USING U TORRENT . I HAVE BOUGHT NEW MACHINE WITH LICENCED WINDOW 7 HOME BASIC INTO IT. WHEN EVER I TRY TO START U TORRENT MY SYSTEM CRASHES AND ALWAYS SHOWS ME BLUE SCREEN AND IT REBOOTS.. CAN ANY ONE HELP ME WHY ? IS IT ANYTHING DUE TO VIRUS ?
- My advice; Do not use all caps. No-one will help you if you use caps in this way because you are effectively SHOUTING at the reader. Would you help someone who SHOUTS at you?
- Agreed, using call caps is very rude!
- Did you download uTorrent from their website?
- Awesome tips James! I get the feeling this was in response to me asking for some advice in your show & tell post. B-)Out of curiosity, what speed level are you at with your isp? (Am I correct in guessing you're in the UK?)I think I've already got most of these done on my setup, but I'll be double checking it later for sure.
- how can we do this in a mac
BitTorrent has been around for quite a few years now and thanks to them millions and millions of users can download all kinds of files. Thanks to BitTorrents you can download files that you normally wouldn’t be able to download because your bandwidth doesn’t allow it. Ever tried to make BitTorrent faster? If not, stay tuned as you’ll learn various tips and tricks to boost BitTorrent downloading speed.
You may have come across an article or two about BitTorrent, but have you ever stopped to think what a BitTorrent is? You might have tried to look up what a BitTorrent is, but abandoned trying to understand what it is because the explanations you came across are just too difficult to comprehend. So let’s know what is BitTorrent before we explain how to make BitTorrent faster using tips and tricks to boost BitTorrent speed.
Also Read:Top 10 Best VPN Service Providers for Highly-Secured Private Internet Access
Contents
- The Pro Review from TechReviewPro
What is BitTorrent and What You can do with BitTorrent?
A BitTorrent is not any type of Files. It is a method that is used by millions to download files thanks to a peer-to-peer sharing system. Thanks to BitTorrent you can download files by connecting to other people’s computers that are also sharing the file. That way, user share part of their connections so other can get in on the fun.
The file that you want to download is downloaded in small parts from various sources or users, simultaneously. Put together all these downloads from multiple sources, and this is going to make up your overall download speed.
Since BitTorrent breaks up and dispense files in a lot of small parts, you can share the files even if it hasn’t finished downloading. That’s why BitTorrent is so popular; you can start sharing a file by only having one chunk of it. You don’t have to wait until the file has finished downloading to share it with others.
Also Read:6 Best uTorrent Alternatives for Windows and Mac OS X
How to Make BitTorrent Faster? – Tips and Tricks to Boost BitTorrent Speed
Since you are using a BitTorrent, you are apparently using a BitTorrent client. Just in case you are in the process of using a BitTorrent for the first time, I would recommend you use a client such as uTorrrent for Windows/Mac, Transmission for Mac and KtTorrent or Vuze if you are using Linux.
1. Use a Lightweight Torrent Client
To improve your BitTorrents speed, try installing a lightweight torrent client. The client you are currently using may have been saturated with ads and extra features that only slow it down. If you install a lightweight client that only concentrates on downloading torrents, that could be the solution you are looking for.
If you don’t have a lightweight client in mind, you can try using qBittorrent. You won’t be seeing any ads with this client, something that will certainly help with the speed.
2. Set a Limit to Your Upload Rate
If users didn’t upload, torrents wouldn’t have a chance in surviving. If you and everyone else were to turn it off completely, torrents just wouldn’t exist. But, if you don’t set a upload limit that will only end up hurting your upload rate. Try setting a maximum upload speed to 80% of what your upload can handle. That way you can still help other with your connection, but also preserve your upload speed for other things.
You can cap the upload rate by opening the Preferences menu or Option for the Torrent client you are using. You should be able to see a Bandwidth or Speed option. Once you are in the option, program the upload speed to about 80% of the maximum allowed. As long as you are in this section, don’t forget to make sure that the Download speed is at 0 (for unlimited). You can either set the download rate to 0 or can also completely disable the download rate.
3.Check The Internet Connection Speed
Checking your Internet speed is another useful tip. The Internet speed may not be working properly, and you can easily fix that by calling your Internet provider.
4. Unblock BitTorrent from Your Firewall
You may not be getting the speed you want because your Firewall isn’t letting you. This is a setting that is on by default, so if you haven’t turned it off, that could explain your slow BitTorrent speed.
To change this setting open the BitTorrent and go to Options > Preference. In the Connection tab, look for Add Windows Firewall exception and make sure that it checked.
You can also access the option by opening up the Start menu and typing windows firewall. Now, Select Windows Firewall from the results.
You should be able to see a link that says Allow an App or feature through Windows Firewall. You can find this option on the left side of your screen. If you are still using Windows XP, you need to select the Exceptions tab.
At the top of the list, you should see the Change settings button. Tap on it and then and scroll down and look for your torrent client. Keep in mind that you will need to check the boxes for Public and Private and then Select OK.
5. Adjust The Number of Permitted Connections
![Torrent Torrent](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126390097/322213287.jpg)
You can prevent your connection from overloading by limiting the amount of user that can connect to you. There isn’t a certain number to use, so it looks like you will need to experiment with the number you leave in. The numbers you try out will affect users differently.
This is something you can easily do by opening Bandwidth or Connections, and towards the bottom, you can add a number of users you want.
6. Get More Seeders and Less Leechers
When you are in the middle of the whole BitTorrent process, you have seen names such as Seeds and Leechers. Keeping it short, Seeders are good and Leechers (as the name indicates) is bad. A Seeder is someone who has already downloaded the entire file that is being shared on the torrent network. A Leecher is someone who doesn’t have the entire file and has just joined the network.
Th best thing to do is to try and get a higher amount of Seeders and fewer Leechers. When choosing a torrent, select one that has more Seeders than Leechers.
7. Use A Different Port
When you first start up a BitTorrent, the port numbers are somewhere between 6881-6999. To improve your speed try using numbers that are above 10000 so you can avoid problems with other applications on your computer. This is something you will need to do manually since a uTorrent port is random every time it starts. You can prevent these random numbers by making sure that the Randomize Port setting is not turned on.
8. Try Encrypting The BitTorrent Traffic
Some Internet service providers will throttle your bandwidth, so you won’t be able to seed while torrenting. They can either throttle you or so other annoying this to keep you from participating.
To beat them at their own game you can try encrypting your BitTorrent. You can do this by going to Preferences (in uTorrent) and on the left sidebar select the BiTorrent section. You will see an option called Protocol Encryption, select the drop-down menu and you will see three option; Disabled, Enabled, and Forced.
Test things out by choosing Enabled for a few days, but if you don’t see much of a difference, try Forced. To the right side of the drop-down menu, you will see the Allow incoming legacy connections. If you are using a torrent that has more Leechers than Seeders, you might want to keep this option checked.
By having this option check, you are ensuring that any other users you connect to will utilize encryption and your internet service provider is not going to throttle you.
Head on over to Transmission and then to the Peers panel. Once you are there, select the Encryption section. You will see options, such as Prefer encrypted peers and Ignore unencrypted peers. These are two options that you want to have checked since they will certainly help you boost your torrent speed.
9. Prevent Other Peers from Spying on You
Spies are everywhere, even in torrents. These spies could be a certain organization that wants to keep you from torrenting. They can either join an already functioning torrent or can create a fake one. You can try and block them by using a useful feature called PeerBlocker.
The good news is that is you are Mac user you can go ahead and use open the Transmission preferences and go to the Peers Panel. In the Blocklist section, you will see the Prevent Known Bad Peers options, check that, and you are a lot more protected than before.
If you are a Windows user, you will need to install the PeerBlock program. While you are setting up the program, you will be taken through a setup wizard, and that’s where you can choose who you want to blacklist. Select the anti-p2p organizations and program it so that it can update as regularly as you want.
Also Read: How to Find If You are Being Spied on Windows?
Download Torrent Faster Speed Boost For Iphone
Quick Tips to Boost BitTorrent Speed and Make BitTorrent Faster
Resist the urge to Force Start the torrent. The only thing that this is going to do is it will start all the torrents that are accessible in the queue. This is going to spread the upload capacity over a lot of connections, and this will certainly slow down your torrent.
Turn on DHT Network and UPnP port mapping but don’t forget to turn off NAT/Firewall configuration. By using UPnP, you could possibly be exposed to a security breach. When using a UPnP, you are allowing any software to make a port mapping through your router. This isn’t a sure thing, so to be on the safe side it would be a good idea to run some tests and see if your connection can be attacked while you are using UPnP.
If you don’t mind the work (since it does require quite a few steps) and want to avoid the security risk, you can always manually forward the port through the router.
Limiting the amount of things you do on the Internet also helps increase the BitTorrent speed. The fewer things you do, the faster your torrent speed is going to be.
Use a Task Manager to identify the processes that are taking up your valuable bandwidth. If there are processes you know won’t hurt the way your computer functions, you can go ahead to disable them, so the torrent speed is increased.
Also Read:Top 7 Best Free DNS Servers – Free DNS Servers for Better Browsing
The Pro Review from TechReviewPro
There are so many methods you can try to improve your speed, and that could write a novel about it. Hopefully, the methods you have read here is enough to improve your speed and make you enjoy using a BitTorrent again.
If you are going to visit the BitTorrent community regularly, it would be a good idea to uploads and many files as you download. By doing this, you won’t be considered a Leecher and that is always a good thing. Did I miss any methods that you recommend? Let me know what they are in the comments.