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Speed up Torrents
Before you can speed up your torrents, you need to have optimized your BitTorrent settings. Check out the optimize BitTorrent speed guide first if you haven't already. I will explain two tips here that have nothing to do with your actual BitTorrent program preferences and may speed up torrents.
Add more trackers
This method is only useful if it appears like your torrent client is finding very few peers and seeds. This method is not a good idea when it isn't finding any peers or seeds at all, or simply if your torrent client is not having any trouble finding new peers and seeds.
This first method is a very easy one to speed up your torrents. When you're downloading a popular public torrent, chances are very high that the torrent is being tracker by multiple public torrent trackers. However, not all trackers are always included in the torrent file, so a simple step you can take is to add more BitTorrent trackers.
By adding more trackers, you can get in touch with more peers and seeds downloading and uploading the same torrent.
Simply add this list of public trackers to your torrent download in your BitTorrent client. And if you are sure the torrent is being tracked by other trackers as well, use our BitTorrent directory directory to find more public tracker urls. Note: An empty line is required between tracker urls.
Hack max half-open TCP connections
This is an advanced method of trying to speed up torrents because you'll be modifying or replacing critical system files. Basically you'll be increasing the rate at which connections are established. This is not the same as the maximum number of connections!
Windows XP SP2 has a maximum connection rate of 10 half-open TCP connections. If you have Vista it depends on which version you have, ranging from just 2 to 25. (The more expensive your Vista version, the more half-open TCP connections are allowed.)
For Windows XP there is an unofficial but verified patch, you can download it here. If you have BitComet or µTorrent you can also use the built-in patcher. For µTorrent: go to Preferences -> Advanced -> scroll to net.max_halfopen and set a different value. There are a few patches circulating for Vista too, but I don't recommend you try any. Many users have reported severe issues after applying certain patches; like Windows no longer starting.
When deciding on a new maximum don't exaggerate. Choose an amount between 50 and 100. Higher is not always better. There are a few reasons for this: First, it's no use to open thousands of ports because of diminishing returns: As more ports are opened, the impact of opening a new port decreases rapidly.
Second, too many connections will choke your router. Many routers, such as those manufactured by D-link and particularly Linksys, will almost die on you when they need to handle too many connections. For those that don't use a router, too many incoming packets will even cripple programs.
The most important thing to hacking your half-open TCP connections is that you must use good connection settings. If you configure your BitTorrent program so it utilizes all of the open ports, there won't be any room for other programs to connect to the internet. Don't let your browser or online game compete with BitTorrent: BitTorrent will win and slow everything else down to a painful halt. I suggest you always leave at least 10 ports open for other internet use (10 is after all the default Windows XP SP2 limit).
Just to be complete I need to mention that it is possible to assign all ports to your BitTorrent client without crippling your other internet programs: You can prioritize all non-BitTorrent traffic by using a Quality of Service (QoS) traffic shaping solution. A good number of hardware routers support QoS and there are various software solutions that will also do the trick.
Speed up torrents
These tips will help those that want to speed up torrents. It doesn't matter which BitTorrent client you have, these tips will speed up uTorrent and they will also speed up BitComet. It is however important to realize that they may have no effect at all (referring to the first tip) or are quite advanced (referring to second tip). Know that optimizing your BitTorrent settings has a greater guarantee of success — so don't forget to check out my other guide on optimizing BitTorrent.
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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.
