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- BASICS:
To get good DownloadSpeeds on BitTorrent, you need to make sure that both your Network (can be just one computer) and your BitTorrent clientprogram are set up correctly.
Setting up your Network basically means making sure that your BTclient is able and allowed to communicate to others via the internet. To achieve that, you will need to open/forward at least one port on your computer. The Network Configuration section will give you an understanding of what's involved and will explain in detail how to do this (on most systems).
Setting up your BitTorrent client correctly is just as important for getting good speeds, because unlike other Peer-To-Peer (P2P) systems, BitTorrent needs a large portion, if not all, of your internet connection's uploadspeed when downloading, to function well.- s u p e r - m i n i - g u i d e:
(1)-- Browse torrentsites and download the small .torrent file that points to the stuff you want. Seeds/Peers info (not always correct or up-to-date) will tell you if there are still others in the torrent that are sharing the stuff.
(2)-- Open the port(s) that your BTclient uses, on every firewall you have on your computer, and/or forward the port(s) from the router to your computer if you have a router. You need at least one open port to get good speeds.
(3)-- Open & start the .torrent file in your BTclient. The BTclient will create the files (still empty), connect to the tracker online which will give your BTclient a list of IPs of others that are sharing the stuff in the torrent at that moment. Your BTclient will try to connect to those others to start sharing pieces of the stuff. Note that a torrent is always slow at first and builds up speed as you connect to more people.
(4)-- The total uploadspeed set in your BTclient should not be greater than 80% of the real maximum uploadspeed of your internetconnection. The uploadspeed advertised by your ISP is not accurate enough - you need to find out for yourself. Getting it right is crucial for good speeds. Don't rely on the easy presets in some BTclients.
(5)-- Keep the torrent alive by uploading at least as much as you download in each torrent (you can stop & resume a torrent later at any time). Some trackers will ban you if you don't upload enough.
- FULL GUIDE INDEX:
1. Network Configuration1.1. Networking Basics
1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network
1.3. HowTo set a Static IP for your computer
1.4. HowTo open a port on most routers
1.5. HowTo open a port in Windows
1.6. Automatic PortForwarding via UPnP
1.7. HowTo turn off the Windows XP Firewall completely
1.8. HowTo test whether a port is really open or not
2. BitTorrent Client Configuration2.1. BitTorrent Basics
2.2. Crucial Client Settings
2.3. HowTo determine your real maximum uploadspeed accurately
2.4. Additional Client Settings & Explanations
1. Network Configuration:*NOTE* an updated version of this section can be found here: http://85.17.184.130/adl/TSG.html1.1. Networking Basics:- Each point(=computer, router, ...) on a network has an IP address to uniquely identify that point. Compare this with sending someone a letter through the post: the postman needs to know the destination address to deliver the letter to the right person.
- There are two networks at play:
(1)-- the internet. The internet uses 'public' IPs (=unique in the whole world).
(2)-- your Local Area Network (LAN) in your home (can be just one computer). The LAN uses 'private' IPs (=unique on your LAN only).
Why the two? Well, each IP address on a network needs to be unique on that network to make sure that the data arrives at the right point. Checking whether an IP is unique on a small network is a lot faster than checking it against every IP in the world.
Note that the point which connects the LAN to the internet (=the "accesspoint") holds two IPs: the public IP that uniquely identifies the accesspoint on the internet, and a private IP that uniquely identifies the accesspoint on your LAN. For example: a router will be identified by the public IP on its public side, and by the private IP on its private side.
If you're having trouble with more than one device, like a modem+router, then just draw a schematic of your LAN, and write down the IP(s) next to each device - remember that some devices will have two IPs: one on each side. This will make it easier to spot which IPs can be seen directly by a device - a router will always shield the devices connected to its private side from being seen by devices connected to its public side (=the router's NAT function). - Ports are just channels for sending data through. If you had just one port, then only one program at a time would be able to use the connection, so that's why you have 0-65535 ports. Ports below ~3000 are mostly associated with a particular program, so it's better not to use those because some ISPs block certain ports to block the associated programs (sometimes virusses/worms). For BitTorrent, it's best to choose a random high-numbered port (like in the 20000-65535 range) that is marked as "unassigned" by the list on this page:
IANA Port Numbers
I used port 54321 in all the examples below because it's an easy to remember number. Remember also that the port that you're forwarding on the router, or opening on a firewall, needs to be the port that your BTclient is using (or that your game is using, if you're using this guide to open a port for an online multiplayer game). BTclient programs allow you to change the port(s) that's being used.
- Note that each port can only be forwarded to one computer at a time, and should only be used by one program on that computer. So if you are using a BitTorrent client on multiple computers, then each BTclient on every computer needs to have a different, unique portnumber that is not being used by any other computer or program.
- A connection can be initiated by either a computer on your Local Area Network (=Local connection), or by some outsider connecting to you via the internet (=Remote connection).
- A firewall is something that looks at each packet of data, and evaluates whether it is properly formatted, and whether the packet is allowed to reach its destination IP. By default, every firewall will keep all 0-65535 ports closed (the Operating System will open certain ports, like normal webbrowsing).
Always use a firewall !!
1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network:- All connection info can be found by typing ipconfig into a CommandPrompt (type cmd into the START>RUN box to get a CommandPrompt). ipconfig will give you the following output:
If you want even more connection information, then type ipconfig /all
QUOTE (ipconfig output) - IP Address: the internal, private IP Address of your computer.
- Subnet Mask: not important
- Default Gateway: the private IP Address of your router (if you have one). Or in general: the IP of the device connected to your computer that offers you a 'gateway' to the internet. 1.3. HowTo set a Static IP for your computer:The function that makes sure that the private IPs on your local network are all unique, is called the DHCP function. There should be only ONE device(=router, or Operating System on computer) that is configured as the DHCP Server, which tells the other devices(=DHCP clients) what their private IP is, so that all IPs are unique.
To avoid problems with the DHCP Server assigning a different private IP to your computer while you're using a BTclient, and thereby making the portforwarding invalid, it's better to manually assign your computer a private IP which will not change (=static private IP). Here's a guide for setting up a static private IP for your computer:
First, assuming that your normal internet connection is working correctly, use the ipconfig method described in section 1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network to write down the working set of IP Address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway numbers. Second:
START>All Programs>Accessories>Communications>Network Connections will show you the list of installed Network Connections on your computer. Choose the connection that you are using to connect to the internet. Rightclick it for its properties, and the dialogbox that shows up, is the one shown in the picture above. Then follow these steps:
(1)-- On the General page, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the itemlist.
(2)-- Press the Properties button.
(3)-- On the TCP/IP properties panel, on the General page, select the "Use the following IP Address" option.
(4)-- You can then fill in the working set of IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway that you wrote down earlier by checking with ipconfig (see section 1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network) . If you make a mistake, you can always reset the option to "obtain an IP address automatically" or press the Cancel button.
Press the OK buttons until you're out of all dialogboxes, and you will have set up a static IP for your computer. DONE!
Note: on some routers (like Linksys), the static IP of the computer should be outside the default range (try 192.168.0.XXX <<XXX below 100). Some routers, particularly those given out by ISPs, might require you to use a specific private IP for your computer. The method above will work in all cases, but I just mention it to show that you're not free to choose just any IP address. 1.4. HowTo open a port on most routers- Most routers have built-in webpages that allow you to configure the router. You can access those webpages by typing the router's private IP into the URL-AddressBar of your normal webbrowser. You can find the router's private IP by typing ipconfig into a CommandPrompt (type cmd into the START>RUN box to get a CommandPrompt). The router's private IP will be listed as the IP for "Default Gateway" (see section 1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network).
Because outsiders (normally) only know your public IP, the router needs to make sure that datapackets sent to that public IP, end up on the computer that is running the program which needs the data in the datapackets (a router isn't a computer so it can't use the data itself, just deliver the packets of data to the right IP address).
But a router will always shield the devices connected to its private side from the outsiders on the public side, so the router needs to be told explicitly that datapackets sent to the public IP are allowed to be sent on to the private IP Address of your computer. This is called the NAT function (Network Address Translation) and as there are 0-65535 ports that data can be channeled through, the router can be configured to do this on specific ports only, via the NAPT function (Network Address Port Translation -- "Network Address" is another name for an "IP Adress").
The NAPT function is also known as PortForwarding, because you basically tell the router to forward control over [the data coming in on] a specific port, to another point on your network - usually to the computer with the program that will handle the data.
http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm
The site above has specific portforwarding guides for different router-models. The procedure of portforwarding will differ from router to router, and manufacturers often use their own names for certain functions and settings. So my guide below is meant to give you a general idea of how to forward a port on your router if your router does not have a specific guide on that website: - External IP: your normal, public IP. You can find out what that is by browsing to http://www.whatismyip.com/ and the router's webpages will certainly mention it somewhere too. Note that if you have a dynamic public IP which changes occasionally, you will either have to redo the portforwarding each time the IP changes, or you can use 0.0.0.0 as external IP which will make the router automatically replace it with your current public IP.
- Internal IP: this is the private IP of your computer. Check section 1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network to find out what it is. If your router only needs one IP Address to be given, then this is the IP that you should fill in, as your router just needs to know where to send the datapackets to.
- external & internal port: the port that you are opening by forwarding control over it from your router to your computer. This is the port that your BT client should be configured to. Use the same port number for both internal & external. Avoid using the standard BitTorrent portrange (6881-6889), best is to pick a random portnumber between 20000 to 65000, but keep in mind that your BTclient must be configured to use that same port, and make sure that no other program is using it - either on the same computer or on any other computer on your network. Each BTclient on every computer needs to have its own port(s)!
- protocol: TCP is used for normal downloading and uploading. This may change to UDP in the future, though.
1.5. HowTo open a port in WindowsThere are several methods for opening a port in Windows (I'll list three). Method 1 & 3 are only available in Windows XP with ServicePack2. Method 2 will also work in Windows XP SP2, and a part of method 2 (from step 4)can be used in other Windows versions.
First, for all three methods: make sure that the Windows Firewall Service is active. Type services.msc into the START>Run box to view the list of XP Services. Find the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service and rightclick it for 'Properties'. On the General page of its properties, set the "Startup Type" to Aautomatic, press Apply, and then press the Start button so the service is activated.
---------------------------[Method 1]
ControlPanel>Windows Firewall will then give you the dialogbox shown in the picture. Follow these steps in there:
(1)-- On the General page, turn the Firewall ON
(2)-- disable the option "Don't allow exceptions"
(3)-- On the Exceptions page, press the "Add Port" button
(4)-- On the 'Add a port' panel, fill in:- Name: Whatever you want to call it (example: BitTorrent).
- Port Number: the port that your client is using. (port 54321 is just an example)
- TCP: the TCP protocol is the one BitTorrent uses (may change to UDP in the future).
Press the OK buttons until you're out of the Windows Firewall dialogbox and you will have opened that port in Windows! DONE!
---------------------------[Method 2]
ControlPanel>Windows Firewall will then give you the dialogbox shown in the picture. Follow these steps in there:
(1)-- On the General page, turn the Firewall ON
(2)-- disable the option "Don't allow exceptions"
(3)-- On the Advanced page, Select your Local Area Connection, or if there's more than one, select the connection which you are using to connect to the internet.
(4)-- Press the "Settings..." button to see the 'Advanced Settings' Panel. This is the panel that will be shown in other Windows versions (and XP without ServicePack 2) when you use Microsoft's explanation of "Adding a Service to a connection":
(5)-- Press the "Add..." button to show the 'Service Settings' panel, and on this page you can fill in the following: - Description of service: Whatever you want to call it (example: BitTorrent).
- Name or IP address : the private IP of your computer. To find out what that is, check section 1.2. HowTo find IP addresses on your network.
- External Port number: the port that your client is using. (port 54321 is just an example).
- Internal Port number: the port that your client is using. Same as External Port number.
- TCP: the TCP protocol is the one BitTorrent uses (may change to UDP in the future).
Press the OK buttons until you're out of the Windows Firewall dialogbox and you will have opened that port in Windows! DONE!
---------------------------[Method 3]
Instead of opening a port, you can also tell the Windows Firewall to allow a program to open and use the ports it needs. This is the guide for that:
ControlPanel>Windows Firewall will give you the dialogbox shown in the picture of [Method 1]. Follow these steps in there:
(1)-- On the General page, turn the Firewall ON
(2)-- You can partly use the picture for [Method 1] to guide you, but instead of pressing the "Add Port" button, press the "[b]Add Program[/b]" button to add your BTclient program to the list of XP Firewall Exceptions.
(3)-- On the following "Add a Program" panel, press the "Browse" button to select the program you want to give full access to the internet. Note that for most BitTorrent-clientprograms, you can simply select their main .exe program (for example: btdownloadgui.exe for BitTornado -- in its install folder), but for Azureus, you need to specify the javaw.exe program, which can usually be found in this folder (or a similar one, depending on the Java version):
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_04\bin
(4)-- After selecting the program, set the scope for it by pressing the "Change Scope" button. Set it to "Any computer on the internet" so your BitTorrentClient can connect to others.
(5)-- Press the OK buttons until you're out of the Windows Firewall dialogbox and you will have opened that port in Windows! DONE! 1.6. Automatic PortForwarding via UPnP:- Some BTclients have the ability to forward the port(s) they use automatically via UPnP (Universal Plug And Play). What's needed to make this work, is:
-- have a router that supports UPnP, and its UPnP function enabled. Check the router's built-in webpages or the manual.
-- the router needs to be connected directly to the computer (no other devices inbetween).
-- the Operating System (Windows) must support UPnP and have it enabled. In XP, check the XP Services by typing services.msc into the START>Run box. Look through the list of services and find these two:(1)-- SSDP Discovery Service
(2)-- Universal Plug and Play Device Host
For both services (in that order), rightclick them for Properties, and on the General page of their properties, set the "Startup Type" to Automatic, press 'Apply', and then Start the service. The next time you start your BTclient, the portforwarding will then be done automatically. Note that this may lead to error-messages if the ports were not closed automatically when exiting your BTclient. If the services are not in the list, then you need to install UPnP first. Here's a Microsoft guide on how to do that: Microsoft KB8213711.7. HowTo turn off the Windows XP Firewall completely:Do this only if you have another firewall active (on your router for example) - Always use a Firewall!!
Check the XP Services by typing services.msc into the START>Run box. Look through the list of services and find this one:Windows Firewall / Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Rightclick it for Properties, and on the General page of the properties, set the "Startup Type" to Disabled, press 'Apply', and then Stop the service. This will turn off the XP Firewall completely. Note that installing XP ServicePack2 will turn the XP Firewall back on automatically. 1.8. HowTo test whether a port is really open or not:
The port is open if you FAIL the ShieldsUp test at http://www.GRC.com/ (shown partly in the picture)
(1)-- Type the portnumber into the textbox in the middle of the screen.
(2)-- Press the "User Specified Custom Port Probe" button to start the test
(3)-- Result of the port-test. You need to FAIL the test for 'Solicited TCP packets'. If you fail the test, then the port is open, even though it may say "closed" for status, because your BT client isn't using the port at that moment.
2. BitTorrent Client Configuration:2.1. BitTorrent BasicsIn short:- You can download 'stuff' via BitTorrent by finding a small .torrent file that points to the stuff you want. You can find those small .torrent files on websites that allow you to download .torrent files from their webpages (like torrent-listing sites, forums, and mainly 'tracker' sites). Remember that .torrent files don't contain any real data, they will just point your BTclient program to places where to get the stuff that's being shared via that torrent (So any site that asks you to pay to download a small .torrent file is just a scam!). A good place to start looking for torrentsites, is http://www.btsites.tk/ or just check our Trackers forum.
- Once you have the small .torrent file on your computer, you can open it in your BTclient, and when you start it, your BTclient will:
- Create the files & folders mentioned in the torrent, on your computer (the files will still be empty). If the files & folders are already on your computer, then your BTclient will check which pieces of the files you already have.
- Connect to the "tracker"(=program on a webserver) to get a list of IPs of people that are also connected to the tracker to share the stuff in the torrent with eachother.
- Your BTclient will then connect to the others and let them know which pieces you want (and they will let you know which pieces they want if you have any). These exchanges of piece-requests will happen all the time.
- Some of the others will then start to upload the pieces you want to you, and you will start uploading the pieces they want to them. The better everyone uploads to eachother, the more sources there are for each piece, so the downloadspeeds for everyone in the torrent increase.
- It is absolutely crucial for BitTorrent that you upload at least as much as you download in each torrent, even if you complete the download before you have uploaded the same amount. You can stop and resume a torrent at any time, even if it is just to upload only.
- Some trackers will ban you if you do not follow that rule (also known as 1:1 upload:download ratio).
In a bit more detail: - PersonX who wants to share 'stuff', uses a TorrentMaker program (some BTclients have a torrentmaker built-in) to create a small .torrent file that contains:
- Info about the stuff being shared (File & Folder structure and filesizes).
- an "announce-URL" that points to the 'tracker'(=program on a webserver) that will coordinate all the people who want the stuff that the torrent points to.
- info about how the stuff is divided into smaller pieces to make it easier to share, and a hash-code that allows the BTclient to check whether each downloaded piece is intact or not.
- PersonX uploads the small .torrent file to the tracker mentioned in the torrent, to make the torrent active. Once the torrent is activated, the tracker will publish it on its webpages (if the tracker has a torrentlisting) and PersonX can then also upload copies of that small .torrent file to other sites that carry torrentfiles, like torrent-listingsites and forums. Remember that .torrent files don't contain any real data, they will just point your BTclient program to places where to get the stuff that is being shared in the torrent (So any site that asks you to pay to download a small .torrent file is just a scam!). A good place to start looking for torrentsites, is http://www.btsites.tk/ or just check our Trackers forum.
- Any other person can then download the complete stuff by downloading the small .torrent file from one of those websites, and opening and starting the .torrent file in a BTclient, on condition that there are people with a complete set of pieces of the stuff (="seeds") connected to the tracker, or on condition that there is a complete set of pieces spread amongst everyone connected to the tracker, even if nobody has a complete set yet at that moment (="peers" don't have a complete set yet).
This is what happens if you open a .torrent file in a BTclient:- it creates the File&Folder structure as described in the torrent (The files being created are still empty, ready to be filled with the original data). If the Files & Folders already exist, then the BTclient will check which pieces of the files are already downloaded, and which pieces are still missing.
- it then connects to the tracker via the announce-URL (=the webaddress of the tracker) mentioned in the .torrent file. If the tracker is functioning (there may be a delay of some minutes and some timeout errors if the tracker is very busy) then the tracker will send the BTclient a list of IPs of other people's BTclients that are also connected to the tracker at that time to share the stuff in that torrent. The tracker will also periodically send updated IP-Lists to everyone.
- Each time the BTclient gets an IP-List from the tracker, it will try to connect to everyone on the IP-List, and when two BTclients manage to connect, they send eachother piece-requests for the pieces they still need if the other has those pieces. These exchanges of piece-requests will happen all the time.
- Some of the others will then start to upload to you, the pieces that you requested from them (=their uploadspeed to you, is your downloadspeed). And you will start uploading to them, the pieces they requested (=your uploadspeed to them, is their downloadspeed).
- The better everyone uploads to eachother, the more sources there are for each piece, so the downloadspeeds for everyone in the torrent increase. Therefor, it is also better to upload to more than one person at a time because spreading as many pieces as fast as possible will ensure that everyone has more than one source for each piece, which makes it more likely to get it fast. Uploading data to someone is also likely to trigger them into uploading data back to you.
- But no matter how much uploadspeed you have, it is absolutely crucial for BitTorrent that you upload at least as much as you download in each torrent, even if you complete the download before you have uploaded the same amount. You can stop and resume a torrent at any time, even if it is just to upload only.
- Some trackers will ban you if you do not follow that rule (also known as 1:1 upload:download ratio).
2.2. Crucial Client Settings- Configuring your BTclient's uploadspeed correctly is the key to getting good downloadspeeds!
Unfortunately, most internet connections have poor uploadspeeds - even connections that have a very good downloadspeed. Because of this, most connections only support having just one or two torrents active at the same time (unlike other P2P systems). BitTorrent's high speeds come from people uploading pieces of the files in the torrent to others, as soon as they get the pieces. Your downloadspeed is the result of the speed at which others are uploading to you. So, in general, more people in the torrent = better chance of getting good speeds.
Your uploadspeed is used for two things: uploading data(pieces) from the stuff that's being shared in the torrent + uploading piece-requests so the others know which pieces you want. The uploadspeed-setting in your BTclient only sets the amount of uploadspeed used for data, so if that is set too high, then your BTclient has no more uploadspeed left for sending out piece-requests. Result: low downloadspeeds because others don't know which pieces to send to you.
To prevent this from happening, when downloading, the uploadspeed in your BTclient should not be set higher than 80% of what the real maximum uploadspeed of your connection is.
Unfortunately, it's rather hard to find out what that real maximum is: even your ISP can't tell you (do not trust their advertised speeds), and online speedtests will only give you an indication, and in many cases they are just plain wrong. Do not rely on uploadspeed-presets that some BTclients offer - you really have to figure it out yourself to get the most out of your connection. Some connections will also vary in speed during busy/calm hours of the day, so you need some experience to narrow it down. The following guide-section (2.3.) will help you with that.
- In general, consider that every actively downloading torrent needs around 20KB/s uploadspeed = 15KB/s for data + 5KB/s for piece-requests, which means your BTclient's uploadspeed needs to be set to 15KB/s uploadspeed to keep the other 5KB/s reserved for sending out enough piece-requests to maintain a good downloadspeed. Note though, that the others also expect you to upload data to them, not just piece-requests, or they will no longer be triggered into sending you data back, so it's still a matter of getting the right balance.
2.3. HowTo determine your real maximum uploadspeed accurately- The best way to get a good idea of what your real maximum uploadspeed is, is by using a (free) tool like NetStat Live (AnalogX.com), or NetStats (SourceForge.net) to monitor the speeds in realtime. The best time to test for your maximum uploadspeed, is when a torrent has finished downloading, but is left open for seeding(=uploading) only, with many peers wanting to download from you. If you then set your uploadspeed to a ridiculously high speed (or to 0=unlimited on some clients), then you will get a very good idea of your maximum uploadspeed if you see it stabilise at a certain average uploadspeed. Do this a couple of times on different torrents, to see if they all go up to around that average speed. Once you know that real maximum uploadspeed, you can set the uploadspeed of your BTclient to 80% of that maximum during downloads to get the best speeds.
- A second way to test speeds, is by doing online speedtests. However, most of them are either inaccurate, or just wrong completely, so you'll have to look around on the web to find as many speedtests as possible, and try to guess by taking the average of all results. Speedtests that are on servers near to your location will be more accurate than those that are "half the world" away from you.
Some speedtest sites: alken (world), TestMySpeed.com, ZDNet SpeedTest, CNet SpeedTest.
- NOTE: the way connectionspeeds are measured, can lead to some confusion: "kilobit per second (kb/s)", "KiloByte per second (KB/s)", "Megabit per second (Mbit/s)". You'll have noticed that kb/s and KB/s are often responsible for mistakes in interpreting speedtest results. Sometimes, even the speedtests mix them up by mistake.
1 Byte = 8 bit, so results in kilobits/second need to be divided by 8 to get the result in KiloBytes/second.
1Mbit/s = 1000 KiloBit/s = 125 KiloByte/s.
2.4. Additional Client Settings & Explanations- Max Uploads (= the number of people that you upload to at the same time).
Remember that every peer you connect to, will expect to download from you, so you have to try to keep as many people happy as possible at any given moment. Keeping them happy means you send them that piece they requested fast enough, or their BTclients will start snubbing you automatically. Try to set "Max Uploads" to such a number, that each peer gets around 4-10KB/s upload from you. Actually, if a peer's client knows that it can get good speeds off you, then it will upload more piece-requests instead of data to you, so it's always better to give many people an average speed, than giving a few people big speeds. The better the pieces are spread, the more sources there are for each piece, so the speeds will increase for everyone in the torrent if you do this.
- Peer/Seed Info
When you are browsing a torrentsite, the Seed/Peer count info next to the torrent will tell you how many people are still sharing the stuff in that torrent. However, this information is not always accurate and it only gets updated periodically (depends on the tracker) so the info is never truly up-to-date. Some clients also show this seed/peer count (getting the info is called 'scraping the tracker') but again, it's not always accurate. The total number of people in a torrent (whether you are connected to them or not), is called the "swarm".
- Torrent-Health Smilies ( Black, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green - The dreaded Yellow Smiley )
Most BTclients have a simple system to show how a torrent is doing. A colour-coded button will change according to the general state of the torrent. Different BTclients have different explanations, so check their manual.
The Yellow smiley indicates that there are no Remote connections yet. Note you will often get a Yellow smiley for a long time when you first connect to a torrent. When you first connect to the tracker, you get an IP-List of the others, so your BTclient tries to initiate a connection to the others (=Local, outgoing connections). The others won't try to initiate a connection to you (=Remote, incoming connection) until they get an updated IP-List from the tracker, with your IP in the list. This may take a long time (=15-30mins) on some busy trackers. If you never get Green smilies on any torrent you try long enough, then you may still have a Network Configuration problem (router or firewall keeping the BTclient's port(s) closed)
- Maximum number of connections (WebBrowsing impossible during BitTorrent?)
On torrents with a large swarm of people, your BTclient might make more connections than what your system is capable of handling, or make so many that there are not enough left for browsing the web at the same time. This is why some BTclients allow you to set the maximum number of connections that will be made for a particular torrent (or as a whole). This is also helpful to prevent one torrent from using all connections if you have more than one torrent active.
The system default is 1000 connections, but that's just a number - try 400 or less if you're having problems.
- Pre-Allocation (Switching to a different BTclient to resume a download)
If your BTclient is set to pre-allocate the files before downloading, then the (empty) files will be created first and then filled in as you download the pieces. If you don't have enough HardDisk space at the time of starting the torrent, then you can switch to a mode that creates the files incrementally as you download pieces of them. The problem with this, is that different BTclients use different methods for keeping track of that, and that means you can't switch BTclients to resume a download if you are using the incremental method.
Only if you use pre-allocation mode can you switch BTclients to resume a download.
- Super-Seeding Mode
Use this only if you are certain that you will be the only seed in the torrent - for example: when you're the one who created the torrent. SuperSeeding mode will allow you to upload more efficiently by only offering peers pieces that you haven't uploaded yet. Note that some BTclients have trouble with this, so it may cause problems.
- HashFails and discarded data
Every piece you download is checked via the Hash code to see whether it is intact or not. If the piece contains errors, then it will be downloaded again. It's normal to see a few Hash-failed pieces in a torrent. If you get many hashfails, then that might indicate a problem. A hashcheck needs quite some memory, so if you don't have enough memory on your system (or when you're using a lot of it for other things, like a game), this might cause a correctly downloaded piece to still fail because the hashcheck didn't have enough memory available. However, it's also possible that there's a shaky connection between you and the person who sent you that piece. Some clients, like Azureus, have a kick&ban option for disconnect people that send you bad data the whole time.
Discarded data is data that was downloaded for some reason, but discarded because you had it already, or just didn't need it.
- Stuck at 99.9%
There are several reasons for getting stuck on 99.9%:
-- Some older versions of certain BTclients had bugs in them that caused this. Make sure your BTclient is up-to-date.
-- After a torrent is created, the files in the torrent cannot be moved or changed. The hashcheck will fail for pieces of the file(s) that were changed. If files that belong to the Operating System are put into a torrent by mistake, then those are very likely to change at some point, so this may cause a torrent to get stuck at a high percentage.
-- Some routers are known to have a bug in their firmware that causes this too. If they have a DMZ function, then turn it off.
-- Forcing a recheck on the pieces (by stopping and restarting the torrent) can help - it may take several tries.
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for that post. Thank you 
i want to try bear stew
hi richmond
ehhh what i missed
HowTo :: Get Good Downloadspeeds, Port/NAT and speedproblems
Jan 23 2008, 03:30 AM
