Optimize Your BitTorrent Download Speed
BitTorrent can be fun, as long as you get decent speeds. Not satisfied with your current speeds? These suggestions might help to optimize your download pleasure
1. Hack the max half-open TCP connections
If you’re on XP sp2, your TCP connections are limited to a maximum of 10. This might hurt your downloading speed because it wont let you connect to as much peers as you want. It is supposed to slow down viruses because their spreading strategy is to connect to a high amount of ip numbers, but it could cripple your torrent downloads.
A nice way to fix this is to download this patch.
Note: Some people report that their antivir reports the patch to be a Virus, This is not the case. Check out http://www.lvllord.de/ for more details on this
The patch allows you to set the maximum allowed connections to any number you want. Any number between 50 and 100 is ok (more is NOT always better).
Next you need to configure your torrent client to allow 50-100 max half-open TCP connections
uTorrent: Options > Preferences > Advanced options > net.max_halfopen
Bitcomet: Options > Preferences > Connection > max half-open TCP
Now you’re ready to go…
A third point of interest is that some “windows updates” revert your tweaked tcp connections back to 10. So it’s wise to check this every now and then. You can check this by going to (in windows xp) Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer > System… Look for event 4226 (sort by event).
For more details about Windows XP SP2 and Event ID 4226 read David Kaspar’s excellent post
If there are a lot of daily occurences it’s likely that the max amount of half-open tcp connections was set back to 10. Or you’re infected with some nasty spyware…
2. Torrent Client Configuration
In order to apply these tips you need to know your maximum up- and download speed. You can test your bandwidth over here (stop all download activity while testing). Also make sure that you applied the tips provided in our previous posts.
Note that there’s a difference between kb/s (kilobits/second) and kB/s (kilobytes/second). To be precise, kB/s = kb/s divided by 8. In this tutorial we use kB/s (like most torrent clients do). This means that you might need to calculate your max speed in kB/s yourself if the speedtest only gives you the results in kb\s (so divide by 8 then).
Settings 1-4 can be found in the options, settings or preference tab of most torrent clients.
1. Maximum upload speed
Probably the most important setting there is. Your connection is (sort of) like a pipeline, if you use you maximum upload speed there’s not enough space left for the files you are downloading. So you have to cap your upload speed.
Use the following formula to determine your optimal upload speed…
80% of your maximum upload speed
so if your maximum upload speed is 40 kB/s, the optimal upload rate is 32kB/s
But keep seeding!
2. Maximum download speed
Although setting your maximum download speed to unlimited may sound interesting, in reality it will only hurt your connection. If you still want to be able to browse properly, set your maximum download speed to:
95% of your maximum download speed
so if your maximum download speed is 400 kB/s, the optimal download speed is 380kB/s
3. Maximum connected peers per torrent
Yet another setting that you don’t want to max out. I experimented quite a lot with the max connected peers settings and came to the conclusion that both high and low number hurt the download speed of a torrent. The following setting worked best for me.
upload speed * 1.3
so if your maximum upload speed is 40 kB/s, the optimal amount of connected peers per torrent is
40 * 1.3 = 52
I didn’t noticed a difference for fast or slow connections here.
4. Maximum upload slots
1 + (upload speed / 6)
so if your maximum upload speed is 30 kB/s, the optimal number of upload slots is
1 + (30 / 6) = 6
3. More Tips
Check seeds and peers
A simple tip, but very 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.
Change the default port.
By default, BitTorrent uses a port 6881-6999. BitTorrent generates a lot 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 your ports forwarded (portforward.com) or UPnP enabled.
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 (free) firewall, Kerio or Zone Alarm for example.
Turn on Encryption
Encrypting your torrents will prevent throttling ISP’s from limiting your BitTorrent traffic. Check out how to enable encryption in Azureus, uTorrent, and Bitcomet, the three most popular torrent clients.
Optimize your internet connection
The TCP optimizer is a freeware utility that optimizes your internet connection. I found it very useful and it helped speeding up my connection for regular internet activity and for downloading torrents. Just download it, and move the slidebar to your maximum download rate (note that it’s in kb/s). Don’t try to set it higher because that will hurt your download speeds!
Last but not least… Buy a faster connection…
Happy Torrenting!
(this post is a compilation of previous “speed up” posts)
Previously: Sealand on Fire
Next: Pirates On The Loose
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[quote comment="255279"]hey
after patching those stop
my downloads stopped!
n i no longer can connect to any seeder n peers!
what should i do??
the port is changed now but to no avail
i am behind a new[but an older version ] router
Internet’s working fine but i cant BT any more wtf[/quote]
Sounds like either some firewall or router is blocking your port, that would be my first guess.
[quote comment="55806"]…
Computers will never take the place of books. You can’t stand on a floppy disk to reach a high shelf.[/quote]
True. But you could use the CPU case…
Cupid placenta.certify sawing piously:- Tons of interesdting stuff!!!
About a year and a half after this article was written, I still couldn’t believe the amount of naivety some users here are showing regarding lvllord.de’s tcpip.sys patch. If you don’t trust the patch then simply don’t use it. I trust the patch, having worked with computers for more than 24 years, I should know enough to know about viruses, worms, trojans, false positives and heuristics scanning.
The patch is specifically for Windows XP last SP2’s version (build 5.1.2600.2892) of tcpip.sys. The patcher may or may not recognize your tcpip.sys if it is versioned older than the one specified above. Therefore, it wouldn’t work (yet) on any edition of Windows Vista.
Virustotal.com is an intelligence guide. If you don’t have enough intelligence, it will not guide you correctly. And it tells you which antivirus vendors are stupid panic mongers for something which is a year-and-a-half old already. It also tells you which antivirus software does not rely too much on heuristics and relies only on FACTS (and factual virus signatures) to determine the validity of a file.
Great tips, yea my avg pick up on the patch being virus, spyware, but i allowed it and all is fine a matter of fact, i was amazed that my D-speed on bittorrent jumped from 40 -130 kb/s and the uplaod well i capped the option to 10 but it sent the dowload speed back down to 40kb/s, and im on an 8 mb line bt wireless homehub, so it,s gave me help the tip to have helped more than anyone else ever has, so my advise follow these post they work so does the patch,very sweet
oh i forgot to back what you say this is better than a bookshelf you can,t find this info and the patch in a book on the top shelve a matter of FACT IT,S NOT A VIRUS it up-ed my connection and trust me it non hackable via to the user or the supplier,to uninstall the patch is just to uninstall bittorrent and reinstall if not happy always remember i found this info searching the internet not books
more info im downloading 6 half gig so it big and bittorrent needs to be reliable with the tips and help at the top i only have to wait 1 day thats right one day,not the best but better than nothing at all thanks to the patch thank you very much lvllord
I herby stev0 verify the patch is not spyware,virus,trojan it,s like a new pair of shoe,s makes me feel good,to use them and try them,i installed to spare computer one that test these file before i tranfer to my computer the one i use and it fine no problems no bugs ect just extract and install to your torrent exe folder and it will give you options you can edit the option ect,the same as a command prompt
and quess what i have no knowledge of these torrent fixes i have no intellegence just what i read above now i am well sponged im gonna soak in some more info as from today lol great
Hi there i got a little problem here i just wondered if you guys had any knowledge of bittorrent DNA application i think it,s designed to boost speeds on bittorrent, am i wrong and if so what do you know, Here is a link incase your not sure of it http://www.bittorrent.com/dna/
Hey,
sorry but after i did everything it still didnt work, my download speed only reached up to 2.6kB/s - maybe i did something wrong? was i suppose to restart my computer straight after downloading the patch? or do you think my internet connection is too slow? it’s normally 44Kbps
Thanks for excellent tips-my Dl speed increased trifold.
Hi there to me,yea when your install the patch to the torrent app folder where u saved it to
open the patch,ingnore warning if any
a black cmd box will open,dont worry it,s the patch
then you will be prompted to keep the settings or change
it allowes u to input bettween 0-100 press C for change then input your numbers your choice between 0-100 ,
i would put 65, hit return
then hit Y for yes
then it will
countdown from 15-0 and your done
exit the torrent app then restart
make sure your torrent app is set to default before u begin with no downloads present
well that worked seen all changes happen afterward wow it works great stuff all great guide line now i know
YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING NUTS !! — BLODDY HELL DUDES !! WHOEVER SAYS THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO INCREASE YOU SPEED WITH PATCHES IS A FUCKING RETARD , AS IT IS NOT POSSIBLE !
hey, brilliant article…my download speed went from 14, 15 right up to 110kB/s! nevertheless though i never installed the patch. not because of the whole virus thing, im all too aware of how ‘viruses’ aren’t always that but simply because i don’t want to be messing with certain folders on my computer. esecially when the only way to reverse it is to run the same patch again, I don’t fancy that at all. Thanks alot anyway!
guys, after doing everything this article say, I started to have a problem, in a CMD, if I type “ping http://www.google.com -t” only a 40% of the request do not fail. And It happens to me only in windows (because in my ubuntu 7.10 %100 of the request succeded). And also started to feel that the problem starts when I run azeurus.
I has been 2 weeks since I did this, and I know that my router is not the problem (because I reset it and configured it again after this). Could you please help me or at least give a try??
thanks!!!
In reference to what “Your Mum” stated on March 7, 2008…
This is a forum for comments that should be positive and intelligent. Unfortunately, your comment held neither information. Truth be told, right when XP came out there was the issue that the OS limited out and incoming transfers to 10 connnections. Don’t believe it? Google it. lvllord.de’s tcpip.sys patch has been out for AT LEAST 5-6 years - and it rocks. Depending on your i-net connection, boosting it up to 50 connections could be the best thing you can do for BT. For N00Bz: Understand that this will also increase your virus propagation (making your system slow when you are infected with virus’ or spyware), which is the reason XP limited this in the first place, so read a lot before you go about thinking you are K00l. That you guys want to use a free AV client that blocks changing tcpip.sys, well, thats your business.
Yes this is a virus. But it just depends on the definition of virus. If you consider a virus to be a program that alters a particular file, then this is one. But if you consider it to be a harmful program, then sorry to disappoint, this isn’t a virus.
[quote comment="227734"]I read the whole thing. I will try and see what happens. Thank you to all those of you who know about the subject and want to positively help–especially those who have a benign spirit.[/quote]
bund mra
[quote comment="286006"][quote comment="55806"]…
Computers will never take the place of books. You can’t stand on a floppy disk to reach a high shelf.[/quote]
True. But you could use the CPU case…[/quote]
Andar Le LE
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