BitTorrent settings calculator might come in handy." />

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Calculate Your Optimal BitTorrent Settings

Configuring your BitTorrent client is extremely important if you want to get the best out of BitTorrent. However, the settings pane of the average BitTorrent client might be a bit overwhelming, and some people just don’t know where to start. For novices, this BitTorrent settings calculator might come in handy.

The calculator gives some good suggestions that might improve your overall download speed. Just enter the maximum upload speed of your connection, and the calculator will give you your recommended upload speed (you can test it here), maximum connections per torrent, and some other settings. The calculator can be used for every torrent client.

The maximum upload speed is by far the most important setting. It might sound strange to some, but you should always cap your upload speed to reach the best download speeds. Your connection is (sort of) like a pipeline (or tube if you prefer), if you max out your upload speed the pipe will be fully used, which means there’s not enough space left for the files you are downloading. The calculator recommends to set it at 80% of your maximum, I agree with that. People with high-speed connections might go a bit higher, and set is at 85% or even 90%.

Some people find that when they are seeding, browsing the web becomes sluggish. This is due to a badly configured upload speed in their BitTorrent client. When you have the correct upload speed entered into your client, browsing the web is noticeably quicker and seeding becomes almost transparent.

How to configure your maximum upload speed?

uTorrent: options > preferences > connection
Azureus: tools > options > transfer
Bitcomet: try this ?

Here at TorrentFreak we also wrote some post about optimizing BitTorrent download speeds, might be worth the read if you want to know more.

Read more on optimizing your BitTorrent Speed.

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    • Rick Falkvinge

      Actually, this only applies to lower-tech Internet connections, like those that are common in the US: DSL, Cable, etc.

      For people in, say, Sweden, Japan and Korea, which have full 100-Mbit or 1-Gbit Ethernet connections straight into the home, the connection is already full-duplex, and upload is completely independent of download.

      I have a 100-Mbit full duplex connection, meaning I can download and upload at 100Mbit each at the same time.

      Rick

    • Martin

      Unless you are paying a couple tens of thousands dollars a month for your internet, there is no way you are getting 100Mbit speeds. Sure you may be connected to your modem at 100Mbit speeds, but that doesnt mean your modem is connected to your ISP at 100. I suggest you do a bandwidth test on websites available on the net..

    • Bam

      Yes , Martin if you are living in a larger city in Sweden you can get a pretty cheap 100 Mbit connection.

    • Joon

      100/100 connections are not that unusual here in scandinavia..

      • DiDa

        Oh yes they are…
        I know you don't have one nor does your friends so be a good boy and stop talking shit…

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    • BobPaul

      I just wanted to add detail to the upload story.

      Generally speaking, one’s upstream and downstream bandwidth are completely independent. However, the TCP protocol sends acknowledgment packets (ACKs) every so often allow, informing the sender you’ve received thus far and to send more. The bitorrent protocol itself creates additional overhead: communicating with the tracker, maintaining connection to peers, etc that requires additional upload.

      So if you’re uploading too much, all of the overhead packets that need to be returned for bitorrent, as well as ACK packets for any TCP protocol (including http traffic) will have to wait in the que–or worse, timeout and get resent. This is why you may notice even your HTTP traffic sucks when torents are upping too much.

      And this will affect even a 100Mbit connection, but you’d have to be actually saturate your upstream. It just happens to be 400x easier to saturate the 256kbit most of us in the states are stuck with.

    • paperslug

      >_

    • lawl

      lawl at the dude that thinks America is the only place in the world with internetz, you can get a 100/100 connection in japan for about 30/month

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    • usadude

      You mean they have the internet outside of America?!

    • Peter

      I have a 100/100 mbit fiber connection. I pay 320 SEK ($45).
      But i never manage to get my torrents to d/u with more then 3 Mb/s.

    • bob

      lol @ #8

      they rob us in north america

      • orapin

        i pay $50 for 512 kbps, hows that

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    • Rick Falkvinge

      Martin: You’re right, I’m usually not getting 100 Mbit speeds. I typically get 60-70 Mbit/s, all day round, at the cost of 249 SEK/mo (about €30/month).

      As for the “tens of thousands of dollars” claim, I think you’re right, you would have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for that kind of speed, yes. But for us who pay in Swedish Krona, Yen, or whatever currency Korea uses, it’s readily available at reasonable rates. Heck, it’s more than just “available”, 100Mbit full duplex is some sort of minimum acceptable standard in urban households today in Sweden. Some have gigabit connections.

      Several industries have had a gigantic financial incentive in delaying the Internet rollout, particularly TV and telco. Ironically, these are the ones who provide low-speed internet connectivity (single digit megabits) in the US and claim it’s fast. They have to do that in order to not lose their major cash cow, TV and land line telecomms.

      What the US needs is independent internet providers without previous cash flows to safeguard against new technology.

      Cheers,
      Rick (pirate party lead)

    • Rick Falkvinge

      Martin (again): I don’t have a modem. That’s part of my point. I have a switch and a router.

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    • Elohssa

      Not to denigrate those 100MBs link (cuz those are some thick pipes, you lucky b@stards,) there isn’t a single European nation that has the kind of land mass the U.S. has.

      I’ll admit that we’ve neglected our infrastructure, but I don’t see your ISPs rolling in to show we yanks how to do it right. I’m sure there are legal issues there (nothing is easy in telecom.) It’s no excuse, but we also developed the Internet, and we’re suffering a national “early adopter” penalty. And of course, the pre-existing tech cash cows are still mooing away.

      The first non-US ISP that wants to spring for stretching fiber across the lower 48, and then offering it up at fair rates is welcome to a blow from my GF. It would only take a 100 years to recoup your investment. With medical technology, some of the original investor might still be alive to turn a profit.

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    • Rick Falkvinge

      Elohssa: It isn’t so much about the investment itself, as it is how large the market is that will be able to bear it.

      That is, what is the population density? If you have a high enough population density, the area itself is irrelevant, as the market is large enough. If the pop density is low enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re just fibring an area as large as a city, you’re still not going to get it back.

      The United States has 50% _HIGHER_ population density than Sweden, even with Alaska counted. The US has 31 people per km^2, Sweden has 20.

    • Rick Falkvinge

      Followup: I reiterate my opinion that the slow rollout of Internet in the US is because of intentional holdback from industries who have a vested interest in preventing it.

      We can see the same thing happening in many countries in Europe. The key reason Sweden didn’t take this road was a few hungry entrepreneurs who founded Internet-Only providers, with no telco or TV business luggage. They quickly established new norms that telco and cable simply had to follow or get the heck out of the market.

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    • Wilhelmsson

      100Mbit/s=1TB/24h.
      What the hell do you guys in Sweden do with all that data? You got 100 TB harddrives as well?

    • Amerikka

      Amerikka needs to get its shit together and get some 100mbit connections. ;;;(((

    • Elohssa

      Rick, I take your point, but we must be missing something.

      If there is a profit to be made, then capitalism demands that it be made. The telcos and cable companies are positioned to dominate this new revenue stream, so why are they not taking advantage? It’s un-American. :]

      More bandwidth could enhance the pre-existing services, not make them extinct. People still watch TV and listen to radio in Sweden, I assume. I know they won’t be stopping any time soon over here.

      Perhaps you are correct, but I still find it hard to imagine that profit-driven companies, regardless of baggage, would outright refuse to feed a hungry market because they are already servicing a different one.

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    • Rick Falkvinge

      Wilhelmsson: When everything is available, all the time, you don’t need to store it locally like you typically did at the dawn of P2P. If you want to see a particular film, you can find it and have it home in a couple of minutes.

      You don’t need to build an archive any longer. That said, I have a couple of terabytes. That’s not unusual today, though.

      Elohssa: I wouldn’t be so sure. Several studies here are showing that the TV is being slowly replaced, and IP telephony is coming very strongly. Myself, I haven’t had a TV set for ten years. I just don’t understand the appeal of tuning in to prepackaged entertainment on somebody else’s schedule, and I haven’t had a landline phone in some eight years (I use cellphone only). Radio is a different matter. I don’t have one of those, either – I mostly have Pandora running.

      There are plenty of historical examples of companies choosing not to pursue new technology in favor of existing revenue streams. My favorite is Polaroid, the instant camera manufacturer, who were actually first with digital photography (which has completely obsoleted Polaroid). They chose not to pursue that technology on exactly the grounds that it would kill their existing business, and they went bankrupt a couple of years ago.

    • brasso

      Wilhelmsson: Take a look at the top 10 countries list at your favourite private tracker and then guess why bittorrent is so fast. ;)

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    • Paul

      Thanks to this website i am now getting good download speeds.
      Here in the UK we seem to be way behind the times when it comes too internet speeds, we only just rolling out speeds of upto 32MB and thats only in two major citys in the UK everyone else has to do with 8MB and less!!!

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    • Joanne

      Thank you soooo much for this site. I was only getting download speeds of about 60 kB/s and after using the BitTorrent settings calculator I am now getting speeds of over 300 kB/s – I’m totally amazed.

      Thanks again!

    • Eoin

      OMG!
      Are you telling me that we’re nearly as bad for broadband as Americans????(No offence)

      I’m only gettin like 2(yes 2!)Mbit/s, but that’s mainly because I live about 150km frm d big shmoke aka Dublin

      The government doesnt really give a **** about the other 90% of the population as long as those d4 pricks can see Ross O’Carroll Kelly say “Awlroysh” in 1080p on a 36″ telly, Live, from The Moon, wearing a leinster jersey, while playing rugby, and drinkin west coast cooler, all while opening a Brown Thomas Outlet

      /\
      ||
      || That was a rant

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    • CW

      U americans should get out of your bubble.
      America is not as good as your greedy politicians are trying to fool u with..
      A old lady in southern Sweden has the fastest connection in the world.. :)

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    • negzero

      To any americans (myself included) Verizon offers a fiber optic package in certain locations currently with those ridiculous speeds and they are expanding their market everyday, so check out their site and see if it’s available to your area.

    • Leon

      For heavens sake stop digging at one another, so mine is faster than yours, who gives a dam, actually we’re already working on tera connections but you won’t see them for a couple of years yet! There I’ve said enough.

    • Electric Mayhem

      We have quite the setup here at the homestead. 2 comps in each room for multitasking, yes we are all adah. And a main server in the attic. Our better processors are 3.4Gb with up to 2 gig of Ram. We have two separate internet connections, one hardline for dl’ing (100/100Mb), the other wireless for surfing (54mb). Every comp equipped with 10/100/1000 ethernet cards. Not a bad setup for a bunch of stoners, Now ehres the thing, wtf are you people talking about dl’ing @ 100Mb.what per second? I doubt it. In Rochester, NY (US) we are noted for some of the best digitally involved technological colleges in the world. T1 & T3 optical connections are normal. We have one of the most widely dispersed free wi-fi in the world. Normal connection speed even in the US is yes listed @ 100Mb, 54Mb for wireless, but do you know that it’s nearly impossible to dl @ that speed? You self proclaimed 100Mb dl’ers, wtf are you using? If you are dl’n faster than even 1-5 Mb/s, (not listed bandwidth or connection speed people, actual dl’n speed, they are COMPLETELY different), you have one hell of a setup, or you are running your own servers. We have a “magic box” that lets us transfer @ 1 gig/sec, but these are hardlined together. Even in swarms of ten of thousands of “torrenters” (which they will most assuredly call us soon), Max dl If we are lucky will reach 5-10 Mb/s. ANd remember one last thing, you could have biggest bestest computer in the whole world, but if the people you are ul’n from only connect @ Kb/s, it all means sqwat.

      The only thing torrents will do is make the rich a little less rich, and the poor a little less poor. I love you people.

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    • Demian

      Guys i live in Greece and i have a cheap duplex connection at 85down/45up and it costs me about 25 euros /month… come on.. if the ppl in the states have still dsl or cable… well… europe rocks.

      Btw after the ;last updates in Azureus and Bitcomet the above tips dont work. One good tip is to access ur rooter and give him the exact ports that ur client uses,
      if anyone is interresting how to have stable speed in torrents just use the following query in google:
      port mantake& or +”routermodelname” bittorent.

      dont use the ” or both & and + signs.
      example
      port mantake+cisco980ft bitorrent.

      u will get the walkthroughts for ur router. or if you are really bored to search and go edit ur router’s options just download connection optimizer,.(from version 2.34 I think i was out on September 2k7) it has a button for optimizing ur bittorrent client. It supports the most known and i can tell u that it works for bitcomet after version 0.91 and azureus vuze..3.0.4.2

      other clients like μtorrent… never tested so play with it.

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    • jake

      Although I applaud Rick Falkvinge’s insight on the internet access of the super rich the majority of people who use the internet can only afford or are limited to dsl or cable. Bragging that one has a 100Mbit connection is irrelevant to me. What is relevant is how to best tweak my PC and internet connection to maximize my download speeds. Now unless Rick will pay for a 100Mbit pipleline to everyone who does not have access to a 100Mbit pipleline I kindly ask him to STFU.

    • bitter_brood

      Wow. What a bit of bitterness here. I live in East Germany, and yes, it is way behind the West, no matter what so-called ‘reunification’ is supposed to have brought.

      We have broad-band typical for american-style ADSL up to 1100 up and 14000 (advertised as 16000) down.

      Telling Rick to STFU because jake don’t have access to what Rick has, sounds like an energy better spent on getting what Rick has or moving somewhere civilized where Rick’s style Internet connection, and many other basic rights of humans, are honored.

      Only, because (I’m guessing here) jake lives in a populist pre-authoritatian state, doesn’t mean Rick has to STFU for a reminder of the hazards for working folks, such as the connection, equal now to dial-up. jake seems to think it gives him license to tell Rick off: in a so-called free speech zone. Free for what?

      Use your bitterness to change your situation, not by cussing out a Swede.

      You know, Rick, us ‘Americans’ (meaning USA, I’m guessing) really need to put down our 44oz sodas, stop our bickering over internal issues, and see the big picture:

      A general strike until we get what we want: including a publicly-owned high-speed infrastructure, no private bank controlling assets and no more monopolies in the so-called ‘market’, and many many other things OT. Unless it happens in, say, 1 year (these things don’t take long), more general strikes. It won’t paralyze the economy, as it’s already 80% dead.

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