Speed up your Torrent Download!
Introducing “Torrents” :
Torrents, typically ending in “.torrent”, are control files for the peer-to-peer file sharing technology called BitTorrent.
It’s actually pretty cool technology that really just boils down to another way to download files. So really, you just use .torrent files to download other files.
BitTorrent is a distributed file distribution technology. Yes, “distributed distribution”. When you download a file using BitTorrent, the file is actually broken up into chunks, that you BitTorrent client program then downloads and reassembled into the final file as the pieces arrive.
Example :
To download Wassoof’s Latest album , Download first the torrents client i,e uTorrent then go to www.torrentz.com (one of my favorite torrents search engine)and search for your file , in our example it’s Wassoof’s latest album , download the .torrent file it will automatically open with uTorrent and Voila!
Okey , so now as you noticed your album is downloading slowly , well there’s reasons…
*** If you’re a Vista user Read the following :
BitTorrent downloads are not as fast as they were on XP. This reduction in speed is due to difference in the AutoTuning function that Vista uses on the TCP/IP stack. The optimizer actually results in slower downloads. This affects BitTorrent and other programs that make use of threaded downloads.
If you are seeing slow downloads in BitTorrent , you can disable the AutoTuning in Vista. To disable the Autotuning, follow these steps.
1. Click on the Start menu and type cmd in the search box. But DO NOT hit Enter after typing cmd. Instead, hold down the Control and Shift keys, and hit Enter while still holding them down. This opens the command prompt with elevated privileges.
2. In the command prompt, type netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable and then hit enter. It should respond with a line that says Ok.
3. It Windows, so you know naturally need to reboot.
Making this change should speed up your BitTorrent downloads, you can always revert the change by following the same steps but replacing the command in the command prompt with netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
*** For Windows XP users and General tips :
1. Cap your upload (most important)
Limit your upload speed to approximately 80 percent of your maximum upload rate. (never trust your isp). Once you know your maximum upload speed, change the max upload (to 80%) speed in your torrent client’s preferences.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone should share as much as possible, but if your upload rate reached it’s max, your download rate suffers significantly.
2. Check seeds and peers
A simple tip, but o so important. Always look for torrents with the best seed/peer ratio. The more seeds (compared to peers) the better (in general). So 50 seeds and 50 peers is better than 500 seeds and 1000 peers. So, be selective.
3. Change the default port.
By default, BitTorrent uses a port 6881-6999. BitTorrent accounts for a lot of the total internet traffic (1/3), so isp’s like to limit the connection offered on the these ports. So, you should change these to another range. Good clients allow you to do this, just choose anything you like. If you’re behind a router, make sure you have the ports forwarded or UPnP enabled.
4. Disable Windows Firewall
It sucks. Windows Firewall hates P2P and often leads a life of it’s own. So disable it and get yourself a decent firewall…
Last but not least… Buy a faster connection…
