Tips to Optimize uTorrent Download Speeds
April 02, 08 by sharky 90,240 views
Many torrenters aren’t aware of this, but by default µTorrent functions on some very uncharitable out-of-the-box settings. This is to accommodate users who have a slow Internet connection (dialup) or have a small TCP limit. Or perhaps they’re just an evil crew that wants to download faster than you! Whatever the motives, here’s how to get µTorrent running in tip-top shape.
Before we begin, you’ll need the latest stable version of µTorrent. Most private trackers are moving away from allowing any version that is not 1.7.7 or 1.8.x (but be sure to check their FAQ for more info), and most likely beta versions are also banned. Got it? Great!
1. LLVLord TCP/IP Patch
This isn’t a µTorrent tip, but you’ll first need to do this for most of the other tips to work well. Aside from Microsoft.com, this tip can be found everywhere. WinXP limits the number of max. half-open TCP connections to just ten. Use the Llvlord patch to change your limit to 50, perhaps even 100 (but no higher).
2. Use a Good Port number
Another tip that’s been done to death (but is ever-so important) is to use a port from the good port range - somewhere between 49152 through 65535. These are dynamic and/or private ports - great for keeping your ISP out of your BitTorrent traffic. Go to Options -> Preferences -> Connection and enter in number from the above range (i.e. 57000). Save your changes.
To test your port number, go to Options -> Speed Guide… and click on the button “Test if port is forwarded properly”. This will launch the µTorrent port checker webpage that will tell you if the port is open or not.
If you get an “OK” message - great - move on to Step 3.
If not, keep reading. If you run into problems with the port test, it could be for a few reasons. For the sake of these tests, we chose port 57000.
2a. Personal Firewall - If you are running firewall software such as ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security, Norton Personal Firewall, CounterSpy, McAfee, etc., then you’ll configure your firewall such that µTorrent has access to port 57000. This is normally accomplished by starting up µTorrent, and the firewall should spring up an access alert. Simply select the option to “Always Allow” the program to access the Internet. If you use Windows Firewall, µTorrent is configured (by default) for it, so there’s little to do.
2b. Home Router - If you are running a router (also called a wireless access point), you may have to configure it to direct all TCP/UDP BitTorrent traffic to port 57000 to be routed to your computer. If so, visit - http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm. Click the router you are using. Click the application, which is µTorrent, and follow the instructions.
3. Proper Upload Speed
Set this to about 80% of your overall upload line capacity. To find this out, visit speedtest.net and conduct the exam. After the test, change the results to show the output in kilobytes (see the ‘Speed Measure’ dropdown box to the right).
Multiply this by 0.8 and you have your magic number. Go to Preferences -> Connection and enter in the new number for the Maximum Upload rate. Leave your download rate at “0″ (maximum).
4. BitTorrent Settings
In Options -> Preferences -> BitTorrent you’ll need to make some recommended modifications. In the first section - “Number of Connections”, change these settings to:
| Global Max. number of connections: | 800 |
| Maximum number of connected peers per torrent: | 125 |
| Number of upload slots per torrent: | 80 |
In the next section, “Additional BitTorrent Features”, put checkmarks in all of these boxes:
| Enable DHT network |
| Enable Local Peer Discovery |
| Ask Tracker for Scrape Information |
| Enable Peer Exchange |
Lastly, make sure that “Protocol Encryption” is set to Enable, and there’s a tick in “Allow incoming legacy connections”. Here’s what the BitTorrent tab should now look like:
5. Enable Encryption
In Options -> Speed Guide… be sure there’s a tick in the “Enable Encryption” box. This may assist those users whose download speeds are suffering at the hands of ISPs that throttle P2P traffic.
6. Advanced Settings
In Options -> Preferences -> Advanced you’ll need to make a few adjustments, as well. Scroll down to where it says “net.max_halfopen” and change this from 8 to 50. (If you’re on a dialup Internet connection, don’t do this). Now, scroll up to “bt.connect_speed” and change the value from 20 to 50. Last, go to “diskio.flush_files” and be sure this is set to true. Click Apply and OK to save the changes.
After making these changes, you’ll need to stop & restart all of your active torrents. Or, just quit µTorrent and fire it back up. There should be a green checkmark at the bottom of the µTorrent window - this means you are reachable (the port is properly forwarded and other settings are optimal). Note that it sometimes takes a few minutes to turn green.
Final Notes
If these modifications didn’t increase your download rates, and you’re still suffering from miserable speeds, it’s completely reasonable to assume that your ISP is blocking or throttling your P2P traffic. An SSH account or a free VPN service may be able to help.
©2007-2010 • 
01 • Trackback :: p2pvine.com 02.04.08 at 3:19 pm
Tips to Optimize µTorrent Download Speeds…
Many torrenters aren’t aware of this, but by default µTorrent functions on some very uncharitable out-of-the-box settings. This is to accomodate users who have a slow Internet connection (dialup) or have a small TCP limit. Or perhaps they’re just …
02 • johno Says: 28.07.08 at 6:20 pm
what patch can i use with vista?
03 • joby_toss Says: 30.09.08 at 4:46 pm
Hey, this really works, thanks!
04 • anon Says: 09.10.08 at 9:01 pm
This is a great tutorial. Thanks a lot for it!!!!
05 • Pedro Says: 14.10.08 at 6:53 am
Great tutorial! Got my uTorrent 4x faster!!! Thanks a lot, pal!
06 • Zex Says: 15.10.08 at 3:04 pm
Patch for Windows Vista: Windows XP (ROFTL)
07 • sreenidhi Says: 24.10.08 at 5:45 am
gud job there.i have written a simple portforwarding tutorial for ut300r2u modem.these tips can help my readers.thanks for sharing.
08 • MMA News Says: 05.12.08 at 5:24 pm
Great tips, my speeds doubled after using this.
09 • labnerd Says: 17.12.08 at 8:33 am
i’m having problem with the first step “1. LLVLord TCP/IP Patch”.
i cannot open the .exe file.
can someone help me?
thanks.
010 • maria Says: 02.01.09 at 1:13 am
“LABNERD Says:
17.12.08 at 8:33 am
i’m having problem with the first step “1. LLVLord TCP/IP Patch”.
i cannot open the .exe file.
can someone help me?
thanks.”
Hi Labnerd,
Perhaps your anti-virus software is preventing the patch from installing, or even from downloading. Most anti-virus software will identify the patch as a virus, but this is only a false positive, and you can still safely download the patch despite the “virus” alert.
011 • lukeo Says: 06.01.09 at 10:28 am
very cool.. things moving alot quicker
thanks for your time
peace
012 • Jared Says: 20.01.09 at 1:23 am
You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman.
Many thanks.
013 • Ben Says: 05.02.09 at 1:27 pm
This really helped ^^
Thx for the tutorial…
hope i can get my download even faster cause i’m still stuck at 500 kb/s :s:s
My max should be 3 mb… can’t seem to reach that number though… any other tips?
Grtz
014 • Oli Says: 03.03.09 at 12:29 pm
I did everything that has been posted and it worked great for a few minutes but now my port has closed and i cant get it to open again. How can i make it all go back how it was.
015 • Oli Says: 03.03.09 at 12:31 pm
My download has gone from 300kbs+ down to 10kbs
016 • lith Says: 14.03.09 at 5:58 pm
I have the same issue, my port was previously operational, but after applying the advanced settings, it seems to have closed. Of course, my router still informs me that its open(i havent touched the router settings) and I have disabled all software firewalls. what is going on?
017 • naushad Says: 01.04.09 at 3:00 am
Great Man! i have been trying this for long time, failing. Voila! i got it right.Thanx
018 • Ryan Says: 13.04.09 at 8:11 pm
Hey worked great, increased my speed 250%! Didn’t even need to download the Lord Patch. Thanks alot.
019 • Jess Says: 08.07.09 at 6:33 pm
OMG you are a genious… i was gonna have to wait days before my download was gonna be done… now i just got hours… TY so much
020 • CL Says: 13.07.09 at 7:32 pm
Thanks so much! This is the first tutorial for optimizing Utorrent that has actually worked for me! I was at 0.1 kb/s earlier, now I’m already at 63 kb/s!
021 • Gabe Says: 14.09.09 at 10:06 pm
great step by step details & including images even better but some tabs were skipped for ex. the General - Disk Cache. UI Setting. Directories. Bit Torrent. I mean some boxes should be checked and some should not. I accidently checked em all and now my utorrent is running slower could someone help me?
022 • Vijay Says: 06.10.09 at 9:04 am
Great Stuff, it increased my download speed tremendously. Thanks….
023 • WwR Says: 18.11.09 at 8:23 pm
Hey, just wanted to say, this was very well done. =)
024 • Alvaro Says: 14.12.09 at 4:34 pm
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025 • Amber Says: 18.12.09 at 1:52 pm
Hi!. Thanks a bunch for the blog. I’ve been digging around looking some info up for shool, but i think i’m getting lost!. Yahoo lead me here - good for you i suppose! Keep up the great information. I will be coming back in a few days to see if there is updated posts.
026 • vicente520 Says: 13.01.10 at 2:01 pm
thx alot man……………it really help,it doubles my download rate,super thx !!!
027 • Hotfile Links Says: 13.01.10 at 3:23 pm
some great tips, knew most of them but a couple are new to me
will definitely check it out!
028 • Alex Says: 02.02.10 at 2:12 am
Awesome tips. I only changed the uTorrent settings and my torrent that had been going ~450kbps for 30 minutes is now sitting at about 1.5MBps.
029 • Alex Says: 02.02.10 at 2:13 am
Oh - 2.5 MBps now. yay!
030 • Steven Says: 14.02.10 at 11:10 am
Ty for this tutorial! Really really worked! Download from 500kB/s to stable 3MB/s !!
031 • choudhry Says: 01.03.10 at 2:12 am
didnt effect the speed plz give ur mobile no i call u plz
cmm
032 • sailesh Says: 06.03.10 at 1:06 am
hey man this really works thanks a lot download speed optimized from 10kbps to 30kbps