Speed up uTorrent in 5 steps!
- Difficulty (Easy): **********■*****■ -

[IMG]http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2329/utorrent.png[/IMG]

Intro

I know there are many other tutorials around this topic but I didn't find one which used my methods so I decided to write this short HQ one since my speeds jumped from 2MB/s to 5.6MB/s :)

Download uTorrent

In order for this tutorial to work you obviously need the BitTorrent client uTorrent, it can be downloaded here: http://www.utorrent.com/downloads

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STEP 1 Run the uTorrent Speed Guide

[img]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3024/speedtesteu.png[/img]

• Go to Options -> Setup Guide -> BitTorrent. (Or press CTRL + G
  


• In Bandwith; Choose a location which is nearest to where you live.
  


• In Network; Choose an appropiate Incoming Port, in this example it's "31821"
  


• After that just click "Run Tests" and wait.
  

The first thing we want to do is running the Speed Guide, by doing so uTorrent will automatically set default settings for your connection, hence giving you some optimized and pre-defined settings!

STEP 2 Portforward

[img]http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6458/portforwardv.png[/img]

Remember the port we used in the Speed Guide earlier? If your behind a router that port needs to be forwarded in order to work properly with uTorrent.
Please refer to my Portforwarding Guide if you have any problems with Portforwarding.

STEP 3 Enable Protocol Encrypting

[img]http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3204/protocol.png[/img]

• Go to Options -> Preferences -> BitTorrent.
  


• Set Outgoing under Protocol Encryption to "Enable", check "Allow incoming legacy connections".
  

Most ISP's may filter packets containing P2P traffic in order to reduce their bandwith requirements.
Leaving this option disabled may result in download speeds becoming slow, by using Protocol Encryption uTorrent will encrypt the traffic;
resulting in the ISP hopefully treating the BitTorrent traffic as ordinary traffic.

STEP 4 Advanced: net.max_halfopen

[img]http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1723/advancedmax.png[/img]

• Go to Options -> Preferences -> Advanced.
  


• Set net.max_halfopen to "100"
  

The net.max_halfopen setting is a TCP Connection limit option in uTorrent, by increasing it's value we can enable more simultaneous connections, hopefully resulting in an increased download speed.

NOTE

• The recommended values are anywhere between 50-100 , any number lower or higher may result in unstable or poor performance.
  
  


• If your using Windows XP/Vista you may need to upgrade the tcpip.sys before editing, you can do so by downloading this tool: http://half-open.com/download_en.htm

STEP 5 Torrent connections & Download limit

[img]http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/1228/connectionrate.png[/img]

• Go to Options -> Preferences ->Bandwith.
  


• Set Global Maximum download rate (kb/s): [0: unlimited]: to a value higher or equal to 90000
  


• Set Global maximum number of connections to a value between 200-400
  


• Set Maximum number of connected peers per torrent to a value between 200-400
  

When you download a torrent your are downloading it from multiple users (P2P) each user has their own bandwith limits.
So by increasing the number of max connections we can download from more users and thereby increase our speed.

Now, this is the part that you really shoulden't miss, In 4 years I believed that leaving the setting "Global Maximum download rate" to "[0: unlimited]"
would as described make uTorrent download torrent at the highest possible speed, however lately Iv'e came to realize that it was not the case at all.
uTorrent have some kind of preset value on "[0: unlimited]:" (I suspect it coming from the Speed Guide) which prevent downloads from reaching their highest speed.

NOTE

• More is not always better, you wont jump higher in speeds by changing the connections values to like 700> or more, it will most likely affect uTorrents performance and make it slower.
  
  

Final words

I hope this short guide helped you in boosting your uTorrent downloads!
Do notice that changing for example the "Global Maximum download rate (kb/s):" to 958340958309531 wont magically increase your download speeds.
There is always a limit. By following this guide; your uTorrent downloads will hopefully be at their MAX speed :)