Optimizing Bittorrent Clients for Speed

If you use a Bittorrent program and you want the best download speeds then this guide will help you get there.

Introduction

First of all you need to understand that these are not tricks, we got the information from developers of Bittorrent programs, and from FAQ’s.
If you follow these simple steps, you would get your increase speed in no time.

1. You need to choose a proper port, this avoids ISP blocks, and doesn’t conflict with other programs.
2. Forward the port
3. Adjust the internal settings.

If you search for programs that claim to optimize the speed in Bittorrent clients, you need to know that they are fake most of them contain adware and spyware. The developers of Bittorrent programs also say that no program could increase the speed more than the basic steps.

Now that you know about the steps lets take them one by one and explain them proper.

Choosing a proper port

If you don’t want to ruin a network connection that is cleared, check your communications to see if they are blocked or clear. The Bittorrent client should be running while you test the port.

If the test failed, set your port to one that actually works. Don’t use the port within the 6881-6999 range. This is important. This range is blocked by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). If you want something that works for sure choose a single port within 49152-65534 range this will avoid conflict with other applications, and ISP.

Forwarding the Port

Two important things to remember here are, unless an exception is made a router is going to block incoming communications. The same happens with a software firewall, but this will block the outgoing communication as well, unless a exception is made.

Software Firewall- TCP and UDP should be set in both directions. In most cases, you will have to choose to set the permission for the Bittorrent or for the port.
You can check the options by clicking on the guides bellow
Guide 1.
Guide 2.

Router- Here you have two options, the first and the easiest one is using a UPnP.
Without the consent of the owner, UPnP allows programs to create a port mapping.
The second choice is, manually forwarding the port through the router. Unlike the first choice, this is security issue free, but it takes several steps to get there.

UPnP ( NAT- PMP in Apple) – this is the easiest way

Manual Forwarding – The safe way

1. Disable in Bittorrent and in router UPnP ( NAT-PMP).
2. Use the Static IP Guide
3. Setting the permission for the Bittorrent’s port, allows TCP and UDP communications.

You can find here the guides for most programs and routers

Adjust Internal Settings

Important thing to remember here is the more upload you give, the more download you will receive from peers. If the upload is set to unlimited or it is too high then the download speed will have to suffer, because it will interfere with outgoing communications.

If you want to determine your upload capacity, take an online speed test. The test requires flash or JavaScript enabled on your computer. Before taking the test go to settings, this will send you to another page, there you will see ad the bottom of the page, Global Settings. Set the Speed Measurement to kilobytes and then hit save.

Important is to shutdown the torrent and internet activity, and take the test a few times for accuracy. Here is the link for the test.

This is not the only way to test your upload speeds.
Fore example when you are active on a torrent, and you have an average number of peers, set the upload to unlimited, then wait 5 to 10 minutes and see where the speed settles. Put the number into a calculator (kilobytes Section)
When you have the upload speed, go to Azureus Upload Settings Calculator, which you can find here.

Enter the average upload speed in the box.

Then the calculator will automatically give proper figures to adjust some options in your Bittorrent.