Speed Up Bit Torrent Downloads

For this article, I will be focusing on the Utorrent program. The same will work for whatever bitclient you use, but the interface will vary from program to program.

So you're fed up of downloading torrent files at 5kB/s? Then you have come to the right place. I'm going to go through the process of setting up ports to allow your torrent program to download at top speed! The first half of this article is for all windows users. The second half is for windows users on a wireless network. So here we go, for all the windows users who want to give their torrents a little boost:

Go to the control panel and open the windows security center. From here, look at the small security settings section at the bottom of the window. See the windows firewall? Click on that. If you're using any other firewall and the windows one is off, open that firewalls settings instead. This process should be almost identical.

After this, click the exceptions tab at the top.

Now, we're first going to make sure the torrent program itself is being allowed by the firewall. Just go through the exceptions and try to find it. If it is, it's being accepted. If it's not, click "add program" at the bottom and either select the program from the list that appears, or browse to its location. Now, once your program is being allowed by the fire wall, it's time to set it's default port as an exception in the firewall. Open up your torrent program (I'm using Utorrent).

Click options/preferences. In this window, go to the connection tab on the left, then look at the port number. Highlight it and copy it!

Now, go back into the exceptions window in your firewalls properties and click "add port". Call it what you want, but I would recommend something related to the torrent program, and then paste in the number in the port section. It should look like this:

Do the same thing again, but give it a slightly different name and select the UDP option. Now you've opened your firewall ports for your torrent program! Those of you using a LAN or other wired connection can now go and enjoy your improved torrent speeds. Those of you on wireless, continue reading. Your time with me is not yet over.

Next we're going to open up the ports exactly as we just have done, but instead of doing it in the firewall options, we'll do it on the wireless routers options. You should still have the torrent's port number ready to paste, so open up your web browser and access your router through the routers IP address. This is usually either "192.168.2.1" or "192.168.1.1". If one doesn't work, try the other. If neither work, continue without this for now and I'll show you where to get it in a later picture. Now, I'm going to be giving screenshots of my routers virtual servers (ports), if you need instructions for your specific router I recommend going to PortForward.

Now, the first thing we need to do is find your static IP address. The shortest and easiest way of doing this is just to double click on your wireless connection in the tray, then clicking the support tab.

This is your static IP address given to you by your Router. Remember it for later, or just keep this window in your taskbar. The default gateway is your routers IP address, in case you didn't find it earlier. Now, with this new found information we're going to be jumping into the inner workings of your router. Get on your web browser and type in your routers IP address. Log in.

You should see a section about a firewall somewhere in the routers settings. In this section, you should find an option called virtual servers, ports or something like that. Click on this and you should see a big list of empty boxes like this:

or something similar.

Now, we're going to open a port just like we did in the windows firewall. First, check the grey box on the left to enable the port, then type in a name for it. The same names as before will do, or you can think of something new. Depends how creative you're feeling. Next, in the inbound port, put in your torrent programs port number. Do this for both boxes. You should still have this copied. Do the same thing for the private port, then finally put in the extension for your private IP address.

Do the same thing for the next port down. Give it a new name, fill in all the rest of the boxes exactly the same, and then select UDP from the dropdown box. Apply the changes and you're all done! Go and enjoy your full download speed like you were meant to! Just to double check though, this is how it should look (not the same for every router though).

Hope you enjoyed the article! If you did, give it the thumbs up!