Make Download Speed of Torrents Faster

Peer-to-Peer file sharing is becoming more popular then ever, and with the rapidly growing number of legal downloads readily available through BitTorrents, it is now essential for many users to configure their software for optimzed download speeds.

Below is everything you need to know about how to achive the fastest BitTorrent download speeds.

Check Your ISP

It’s a good idea to check the maximum download and upload speed allowed by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Some providers may cap downloads so be sure to check your limitations.

You can test the true speed of your broadband connection using one of many free bandwidth speed tests available online.

Filter Out Unneeded Files

In many cases there will be other files contained withing the folder you are downloading. Before starting the torrent, you should see a pop up box that displays the files you are about to download.

De-select the unneeded files. Because many other will have done this too, there will be less people sharing them, therefore it may take longer to find the packets required to complete the download.

Understanding Healthy Seeds and Peers

As a general rule, the more activity a particular torrent may have, the faster it will download.

A peer is any computer participating in the download and upload of a torrent file. A seed (or seeder) is anyone who has one complete copy of the file being shared, and a leecher is someone who does not have the complete file but is in the process of downloading it.

The most healthy torrents will be the ones will a larger ratio of seeds to leechers.

Allow Exceptions For Your Firewall

Firewalls can block all incoming BitTorrent connections coming through so you should manually configured the firewall to accept the connections.

Windows XP Firewall can be configured through your torrent client by clicking:

Options > Preferences > Connection > check Add uTorrent to Windows Firewall.

But sure to check the Windows Firewall exception because you should keep your firewall on, shutting down the firewall is not recommended as it leaves the computer open to attack.

Limit Your Upload

An unlimited upload rate can affect your download rate too. You should set your Global Upload rate to approx 80% of your maximum upload – use speed tests to determine your upload rate.

Note: Mind the speed units – it may be given in kilobits per second (kb/sec) or kilobytes per second (kB/sec). 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobit

Port Forwarding

The default port for the BitTorrent protocol is any between port numbers 6881-6999. ISPs send huge amounts of BitTorrent traffic through these ports and sharing these ports can slow down your connection.

It’s easy to configure a different port in your torrent client. Below is a simple video guide on how to configure the port your bit torrent client uses.

Note: If you are behind a wireless router or hub, you will need to create a static IP. Click here to read our full article with step-by-step instructions on how to configure a static IP>>>

Increase The Number Of Half Open TCP Connections

This figure refers to the number of times the torrent client should simultaneously attempt to connection. In Windows XP, the default amount is 10.

By changing the number of half open TCP ports, you can help speed up your downloads.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a patch from LvlLord which modifies the TCPIP.sys file in Windows to allow a higher number of TCP connections.

After running the patch, you have to set the number of connections in your torrent client. For example, in uTorrent go to Options – Preferences – Advanced – net.max_halfopen. Set any number from 50 to 100.

But see that net.max_halfopen is set lower than the value set in TCPIP.SYS. Always check if it is still patched because Windows updates sometimes overwrite it.

Protocol Encryption

Some ISPs constrict bandwidth for P2P protocols. Protocol Encryption ensures your connections is untouchable by a providers bandwidth shaping.

To enable the outgoing protocol encryption, check Allow Incoming Legacy Connections. With protocol encryption, ISPs find it difficult if not impossible to detect that the traffic is coming from BitTorrent.

Try to experiment with enabled, disabled and forced settings, you may find speeds are faster with encryption disabled.

Non-encryption makes a torrent connection compatible with someone who is not using encryption but as a minus it makes the torrent detectable to an ISP with a bandwidth restricting policy.

Understanding Bandwidth And Connections

Global maximum number of connections gives the maximum number of connections that a BitTorrent client can make for any P2P exchange. Setting this too high does NOT mean higher speeds. Setting it too high would take up useless bandwidth and too low a figure would miss out on peers.

256kbps connection, I have a setting of 130.

Maximum number of connected peers per torrent is the maximum number of peers that a BitTorrent client can connect to for any P2P exchange. Again, you should experiment with this setting, as a basic guide a 256kps should work well with a setting of around 70.

Number of upload slots per torrent is the maximum number of peers that a BitTorrent client will upload to for any P2P exchange. A low setting may affect downloads. A 256kbps connection, could be set at around 3: Torrent has a Speed Guide which handily calculates the figures for a particular connection.

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