uTorrent is all the hype now.
Whether you want to download a new software or game of size in GB’s or have a slow Internet speed or less time download everything at once, uTorrent is at your rescue in every scenario.
It offers a free version, powered by Ads, which will pretty finely cater almost every need. Also, tweaking it by adding custom search engines in it will make sure you can do all the search and download work right from uTorrent without having the need to switch to browser.
Well, albeit these minor tweaks can enhance your performance to an extent, download speeds can still suck a lot.
Internet Speed, Not uTorrent is the Real Problem at the Initial Stage
It hurts but, the truth is, your Internet speed sucks in the first place.
Yes, uTorrent can still be optimized for a little better performance, but how far will that co-operate with your weak Internet Speed.
So, before blaming it, you must first checkout your Internet speed and whether you can what you pay for.
And if you’re receiving proper Internet speeds with other downloads and not with uTorrent, then something’s definitely wrong with uTorrent.
Initial Tweaks to Increase uTorrent Download Speed
Note
Tweaking uTorrent for the best possible bandwidth usage and to increase utorrent download speed varies from system to system and highly depends on various factors like OS being used, Internet speed, system resources, etc. So, note down the initial uTorrent settings before you make the changes mentioned below. It’s all about trying and testing things to see what best suits your PC. If something goes wrong and uTorrent starts behaving absurd, just uninstall and install it again.
#1 – Turn off Ads in uTorrent
The free version of uTorrent initially consists advertisement at 2 places; on the top below Menu Bar and on the bottom-left side.
These ads are actually fetched from the Internet which then results in continuous bandwidth leak. So, turning them off will increase uTorrent download speed by a greater margin.
This article shows an easy way to remove ads in uTorrent.
#2 – Configure DNS Server
You’re initially connected to your ISP’s servers by default. (If you’re unaware of what DNS is, this guide might help you.)
They might get a little overloaded at peak hours when too many connections are active and using net i.e. when it’s our of the capacity of the server.
So, for a safer side, you can change that and connect to some of the most portable DNS servers in the world, i.e. Open DNS and Google.
Google DNS Servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Open DNS Servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
#3 – Unblock uTorrent from Firewall
Windows Firewall does the work of protecting your Internet bandwidth and applies a limit to how much of it can be used at an instance.
This isn’t a good setting for a software that is designed to download GB’s of data.
If you lose a few KB’s every second, after an hour or two, that bandwidth loss would sum up to a large number.
So, simply turn off the firewall when you’re using uTorrent. To turn it off, follow the steps below:
- Open Control Panel -> Windows Firewall.
- On the left-hand side, click on the option that says, “Turn Windows Firewall on or off” and turn it off for all the networks.
With this, you’l not notice a big difference in a few seconds, but in the long run, it will download more MB’s than what it would do with Firewall limitations.
Note
While installing uTorrent software on PC, you’re provided with an option named, Add an exception for uTorrent in Windows Firewall. If that was already selected at that stage, then turning off firewall now wouldn’t make any sense as there’s no Firewall rule existing for uTorrent.
#4 – Connection Tweaks
The port through which files are downloaded doesn’t play a great role but still, can make the torrent’s download better than before.
Make the following changes:
- Go to Options (In the menu bar) -> Preference -> Connection.
- Change the random port to 45682.
#5 – Proper Bandwidth Allocation
A non-proper bandwidth allocation is one of the major reasons why uTorrent is not able to grasp all your Internet Speed and leave additional bandwidth get wasted.
To have a proper bandwidth allocation and increase uTorrent Download Speed, make the following changes:
- Go to Options -> Preferences -> Connection.
- Check Apply rate limit to transport overhead.
- Set Maximum Number of Global Connections from 200 to 2329.
- Set Maximum Number of Peers Connected from 50 to 1890.
- Set Number of Upload Slots Per torrent from 4 to 14.
This is for improving low speed issues. When combined with the appropriate upload limit for your connection speed, this will stop overhead from flooding your connection and limiting your download speed.
#6 – Essential BitTorrent Settings
uTorrent allows obfuscation of the incoming and outgoing connections so that your data is encrypted and you’re anonymized.
To change the Outgoing Encryption:
- Go to Options -> Preferences -> BitTorrent.
- Protocol Encryption -> Change Outgoing‘s value to Enabled.
#7 – Proper Queuing
Proper Queuing enables proper allotment of bandwidth resources to all the torrents being downloaded simultaneously. This will ensure that uTorrent’s download speed is increased to it’s best possible stage.
Make the following changes:
- Go to Options -> Preferences -> Queuing.
- Set Maximum Number of Active Torrents to 10.
- Set Maximum Number of Active Downloads to 10.
- Set Seeding Global Minimum Ratio to 0.
#8 – Advanced Settings
These are some advanced settings that will help to increase uTorrent Download Speed and make it run smoother.
- Go to Options -> Preferences -> Advanced. On the top-right there’s a search bar. Search the following things and change their values as recommended in these next steps.
- Change bt.allow_same_ip change to True.
- Change bit.connect_speed value to 130 by using Set Value Option.
- Change dht.rate to 2.
- Change gui.show_nontorrents_nodes to False.
- Change net.max_halfopen to 120.
- Change rss.update_interval to 20.
Which of these tweaks worked for you? Know of any other changes which would result in better bandwidth usage? Let us know in the comments.
