How to Encrypt BitTorrent Traffic

Say goodbye to high speed downloads when using BitTorrent! A growing number of ISPs is starting to employ traffic shaping tactics in order to limit or throttle BitTorrent speeds. Traffic shaping is the practice of prioritizing certain internet traffic over other. Traffic shaping is not new and it does have its uses, but in this case I cannot think of any good reason why us customers would want slower BitTorrent speeds.

No worries.. There is a simple answer to the BitTorrent throttling question: encrypt BitTorrent traffic. I will explain how to encrypt your BitTorrent traffic in three simple steps for the four most popular BitTorrent applications around: µTorrent, BitTorrent (Mainline), Vuze and BitComet.

µTorrent & BitTorrent

1. Go to Options -> Preferences...

2. Select BitTorrent in the left menu

3. Under Protocol Encryption -> choose Enabled

If your download speeds do not increase when you choose Enabled, choose Forced. I recommend you tick the "Allow incoming legacy connections" checkbox. This allows non encrypted clients to connect to you. When exchanging data with non encrypted clients you will still be affected by BitTorrent throttling, but any exchange is better than none. Keep it unchecked if you get faster download speeds without it.

Vuze (Azureus)

1. Go to Tools -> Options...

2. Open the Connections tab in the left menu and select Transport Encryption

3. Under "Transport Encryption / Obfuscation" -> enable "Require encryption transport"

I would recommend choosing RC4 as the minimum encryption level. RC4 encryption will require more CPU power than plain encryption but better encryption will result in better results. Enable both checkboxes so you can still transfer files with non encrypted clients. If you keep them unchecked, you will not be able to download anything in a swarm with only non encrypted clients.

BitComet

1. Go to Options -> Options...

2. Select Connection under the Advanced group in the left menu

3. Switch "Protocol encryption" (last option) to "Auto Detect"

You can also switch the protocol encryption to Always. This means that you will not be able to exchange data with clients with no BitTorrent encryption. I would recommend sticking to "Auto Detect", but by all means choose "Always on" if you get higher download speeds that way.

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This article was written by FileSharingZ.com. Here at File Sharing Z we are interested in file sharing news and downloads. We follow the main file sharing trends and try to help you where we can.