Home

Optimizing Bittorrent Clients for Speed

Last Update: Fri, 05/01/2009 - 20:18 — keroffs

Introduction

All bittorrent programs need to have their incoming and outgoing communications flow freely in order to achieve the highest download speeds and that is what this guide is about.

This guide was put together using information given by the developers of bittorrent programs at their forums, guides and FAQs.  There are no secret tricks, just the real basics of proper set up of a bittorrent program.  Following these simple steps should result in increased download speed.

These are the basic principles of optimizing a bittorrent client for speed: 

  • Choose a proper port to avoid ISP blocks and conflicts with other programs
  • Forward that port through any software firewall and router to allow incoming connections
  • Adjust internal settings based upon upload capacity of the internet connection to allow room for outgoing communications and to distribute upload efficiently.

NOTE:  This article was originally designed to help achieve the best download speeds in the four clients suggested as Top Picks in my Best Free Bittorrent Client review here at Gizmo's Tech Support Alert.  If you have one of those four bittorrent clients, you should use the new guides as they are more complete and descriptive.

I have left this guide up as a general guide for those who use other bittorrent clients.  These steps are basic to any bittorrent client. 

There are some programs that claim to optimize speed in bittorrent clients.  Those programs should be avoided as they have adware or spyware.  The advice herein has been gathered from my reading of the various information from bittorrent developers and my own experience.  Nothing will get you faster speed than following these basic steps.

Choosing A Proper Port

To avoid messing up a network connection that is already cleared, first check and see if your communications are blocked or are already clear. 

Test Your Bittorrent client's Port  Success  just go to Adjusting Internal Settings  Error - follow all steps.

Choose a Proper Port:  Azureus-Wiki:  Port is Blacklisted
If you failed the test above, then you should first set your port to a proper one.  The most important choice here is to avoid using a port within the 6881-6999 range.  This was the range originally used by bittorrent programs and is often blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).  The safest choice is a single port within the 49152-65534 range as this will avoid ISP blocks and possible conflicts with other applications. 

Forwarding The Port

Introduction
A router will block incoming communications unless an exception is made.  All software firewalls will block incoming communications and most will also block outgoing communications, unless an exception is made.  If you are "firewalled", then other people will not be able to initiate connections with you (see Why Is Being Firewalled Bad).
As there are many firewalls and routers, this guide can not give explanations as to each.  However, there are guides available, on the internet for most firewalls and routers and this guide will link you to them.

Software Firewall - The permission should be set to allow TCP and UDP in both directions.  Generally, you will have a choice to set permission for  the port or for the bittorrent program.  Setting permission for the port is the safer choice.  You can check these options for guides:

Router - There are two choices here.  The easier way is to use UPnP.  However, this has a possible security issue.  Using UPnP allows any program to create a port mapping through the router without consent of the owner.  The other choice is to manually forward the port through the router.  This does not have that security issue, but involves going through several steps to accomplish.  Using the guides linked herein, this should not be that difficult and is the preferred method.

UPnP (NAT-PMP in Apple) - The Easy Way - 

Enable UPnP (NAT-PMP in Apple) in your bittorrent client and router.

Manual Forwarding-The Preferred Way

  1. UPnP (NAT-PMP) Must be disabled in bittorrent client and router.
  2. Use the Static IP Guide.
  3. Set permission for the bittorrent client's port.  This should be set to allow both TCP and UDP communications.
    You can check these options for guides:

Click Here to Re-Test Port    Success-Proceed to next step.   Error- re-do steps or seek help in Forums. 

Adjusting Internal Settings

Introduction
The  most important setting here is to cap upload in your bittorrent client to 80% of your overall upload capacity as there needs to be room for outgoing communications or else download speeds will suffer.  Other adjustments are made to distribute your upload so that you receive back the most download from other peers.

Speed Test: Speedtest.net
First the upload capacity of your internet connection must be determined by taking an online speed test. You should stop all internet activity, including torrents, before taking the test and the test should be taken a few times to obtain a reliable average. Speedtest.net has test locations worldwide and will highlight the one closest to you. Note that the result of Speedtest.net is in kilobits (kb) and bittorrent clients show speeds in kilobytes (kB). This is important as 8kb = 1kB. See Azureus-Wiki: Data Units

Speedtest Results Image

Calculator:  Azureus Upload Settings Calculator
Once you have an average upload speed for your connection go to the online Azureus Upload Settings Calculator. Although designed for Azureus, this calculator will work for all bittorrent clients. Enter your average upload speed in the appropriate box and the calculator will automatically give the proper figures to adjust various options in your client.

Azureus U/L Settings Calculator KiloBits Location Image

Results listed.  Do not use these numbers.  Use the results based upon your upload speed.

Input Results Into Bittorrent Client
After you have inputed your speed test result into the calculator, enter the numbers the calculator returns into the appropriate places in your bittorrent client.  ("0" under download equals unlimited).

Good Torrents

The above settings should work well most of the time.  Downloads of individual torrents depends on other factors.  See Good Torrents

Related Articles

Gizmo's Best Ever Freeware Forums

If you still have issues after using this guide and would like some assistance, please post in Networking & Internet section of our forums.  The comment section here is not well set up for ongoing discussions and the forums would be a better place to post as there will be a seperate thread for your discussion and keeping track of our discussion will be much easier.

Those who wish to post a thanks may post here or in the forums.  I always appreciate hearing from those who this helped and I do read the posts regularly.  I used to respond to each thanks, but realized it was clogging up the comments section.  I thank all those who have posted their appreciation and all those who will.

If you have a suggestion or correction for the guide, you may post here or in the forums.

 

Bookmark/Search this post with:
5
Average: 5 (1 vote)
Your rating: None